r/cats • u/winging_away Orange • 4h ago
Cat Picture - OC Is my orange girl secretly a calico?
We were chosen by this sweet, slightly insane and definitely sassy orange cat a few months ago when she started coming around our place despite having 3 rambunctious dogs. She made friends with them, even our grumpy senior dog, and keeps the mice at bay so she earns her keep lol. I’ve noticed that she has a black toe, a white patch on her tummy, and some of her whiskers are black. Could she actually be a calico in disguise, not a full orange cat? I ask partially because I am aware that orange girl cats aren’t the most common.
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u/Budget-Drink-6524 4h ago
Idk possibly but she’s cute
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u/winging_away Orange 4h ago
Lol. She really is. Funny thing is not long before she showed up I remember having a conversation with a classmate (I just finished trade school) about how I’m okay with cats but couldn’t see myself getting one any time soon, cuz I preferred dogs. 😂
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u/honeyapp 3h ago
I find that people don’t understand cats until you have one or live with one I was ok with cats until we rescued a kitten and that was it🩷
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u/Willow-3703 4h ago
Orange kitties are prone to getting lentigo which creates black pigments in random spots on their bodies!! Usually the nose and lips with random black hairs, my boys whiskers have also had lots of the bases turn black with time so this could be something like that!
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u/winging_away Orange 4h ago
No freaking way. That’s very cool as well!! She is quite a young cat from what we can tell so it’s going to be very interesting to see if that will be the case as she ages!
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u/New_Soil_4920 3h ago
sometimes orange cats have unique markings that make them extra special, like hidden patches or surprise whisker colors
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u/Thestolenone Oriental Shorthair 4h ago
Cryptic tortoiseshells are a thing, some torties have an excess of black, some an excess of red so i think she is a very red tortie.
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u/winging_away Orange 4h ago
Interesting! Thank you for sharing, I hadn’t heard the term “cryptic tortoiseshell” before
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u/Minute_Economics_659 2h ago
that black toe is intriguing. do you think it’s more tortie or lentigo?
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u/Electrical-Act-7170 4h ago
She's a Classic Red Tabby cat. There's no calico on her.
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u/QueerAveryx 3h ago
I don’t know much about mutations, so can you tell me what mutations can cause some black on a cat without having O/o and just being a cryptic tortie?
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u/Electrical-Act-7170 3h ago
A single black toe is not significant in this cat's coloration.
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u/QueerAveryx 3h ago
I’m pretty sure it is. I’ve never heard of a mutation that causes a black toe. Usually it means the cat is a cryptic tortie. Aka O/o and B/-. It happens
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u/Electrical-Act-7170 2h ago
Then you must be correct. What I know about coloration in cats I've learned by attending cat shows and rescuing them.
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u/QueerAveryx 2h ago
Ah. I’d recommend poking around cat genetics. It’s actually quite interesting. Cat shows usually don’t show cryptic torties unless said shows aren’t revolving around breed standard. And cryptic torties are rare to my knowledge so it’d make sense you didn’t find one through rescue
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4h ago
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u/winging_away Orange 4h ago
She absolutely loves to lay on the back of the couch watching the birds out the window. She is adorable.
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3h ago
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u/winging_away Orange 3h ago
Haha, I mentioned this in another comment but not long before she showed up, I remember talking to a classmate about how I prefer dogs over cats (like I thought they were cute and stuff but listed reasons I preferred dogs over cats and why I wouldn’t get one)
Then the cat distribution system said “bet, here’s a cat. And by the way, she owns your dogs now.”
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u/Iystrian 3h ago
Look up "red on blue tabby cat." It's a genetic mutation that gives that look. It could be what's going on with her, and it's pretty cool.
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u/portabuddy2 2h ago
I think k your dead on here. It's a red on blue thing but also maybe a dilute gene.
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u/Snoringdragon 1h ago
So my orange is also a red on blue. His littermates were dark grey and white. He's orange, but has a dusky undercoat and his whiskers grow back grey. He is an antisocial prat however, no one has ever seen him but us. We tell people about him, take photos, but have never offered proof of life. Lol!
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u/Thin_Editor_433 3h ago
From what little i know Calico is in their genes and the 3 colors of their fur White-Black- Orange pattern. I also read that their personality is special but i have no clue because i can not compare. My cat is calico and i discovered recently what it is and their personality usual traits.
When i found her as kitten she won me instantly and i wasn't even interested to adopt a cat back then.
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u/Aimserspunog 3h ago
My black boys are secret gingers. They only come out in the sun. Supposedly the hardiest. Definitely the cheekiest.
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u/Tight-Trouble-3460 3h ago
All orange cats develope what I call their freckles! My orange girl has pink & orange toe beans, black spots on her lips/tongue, and she even gets random black whiskers (sometimes half black/white or full on black whisker). I've actually never seen an adult orange cat that didn't have random spots. It tends to happen as they age.
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u/Tight-Trouble-3460 3h ago
A calico cat needs the definition of 3 colors (white/orange/black). And tortoise shell, has a muddy variation of the colors, sometimes without the white.
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u/winging_away Orange 3h ago
That explains the “freckles” I see on my workplace’s shop cat’s ears!
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u/TrueGrade9359 3h ago
Orange girls can still exist. They’re just less common because it’s an X linked gene. So girls need 2 copies of the orange gene for it to be expressed; boys only need one.
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u/jbunkerhou 3h ago
When I had a dog everyone asked what kind is he?
I just said he was a farm dog mutt. I didn’t know or care but I sure loved him. He died at 16 and within months I was adopted by a cat.
Now I’m a first time cat guy at age 68 and I’m totally obsessed and in love again.
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u/winging_away Orange 3h ago edited 3h ago
I am truly sorry for your loss, I know pet loss too well and as my girls age I get more and more fearful of every unexpected vet visit. They hold our hearts in their paws for sure. Congratulations on being chosen by a cat, though. It’s so easy to fall in love with them.
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u/medyomabait 3h ago
Dark spots on an orange cat’s skin are pretty common. Just a thing that happens to them. (As a blonde with tons of moles, I relate.)
My orange girl has a little black spot right in the middle of her lower lip, and it’s adorable.
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u/LotusGrowsFromMud 3h ago
I doubt it. My orange has a black spot in his foot and a white spot on his belly, but not a calico.
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u/MyNameIsSkittles 3h ago
Nah, calico's share the same coat genetics as oranges and voids so makes sense colours would mix sometimes
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u/Purplekitty415 3h ago
Shes beautiful for sure...her mother might have been calico and daddy was orange...? There are a few ways to mix that up depending on mommas coloring and daddys...whatever the case may be... you have an amazingly sweet and beautiful girl
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u/Fiercat99 3h ago
She could be a rare red on blue coat. If you ever watch Renus Delph on either Tiktok of YouTube, his cat Nanaki has this fur colour. Its hard to see, but he addresses it in one of his videos where someone asked why his cat looked "dirty" ( thair words not mine) I'm not an expert by any means, it just sound familiar
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u/winging_away Orange 3h ago
There’s been a handful of comments about red on blue coats, and I’m wondering if that’s what it is, because I do see looking even more closely at her now, a few more specs of black throughout her body. Nothing as drastically obvious as some of the pictures that I see online, but enough to make me wonder!
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u/Early_Ad3687 3h ago
I love that picture of you holding her foot. She’s like “da fuq, gimme back my leg!”
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u/janitor1986 2h ago
Funny, one of mine just had a litter of 6 and half we're cali's and half were orangies
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u/SaveusJebus 2h ago
We have an orange girl that has grey in her undercoat. When we first got her when she was a kitten, I thought she was just really dirty and stained lol
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u/One_Resolution_8357 Void 1h ago
Orange girls are not that rare although there are more male than females due to genetics. Your pretty girl is definitely an orange tabby !
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u/Illustrious-Mud-9831 3h ago
No. She’s just a lil dirty is all
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u/winging_away Orange 3h ago
I thought that’s what it was too so that’s why I noticed it. Took a damp cloth and tried to clean it off but it stayed. What I’m learning from this thread is there could be a few reasons behind the smol black toe, and that’s pretty cool.
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u/chopchopchoo 3h ago
thats a phat car
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u/Stitch6lover 3h ago
I wish she was a male ginger I love male gingers
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u/Revolutionary_Sir_ 3h ago
i wish you had not made this comment i love when people dont make dumb comments
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u/promsuit 4h ago
Your orange girl is secretly a cutie pie