Interesting Facts About Orange Cats

Mallory Crusta of Cats.com shared several interesting facts about orange cats, noting that while all orange cats are tabbies, they are not necessarily of the same breed.

So we’ve established that they’re all tabbies, but tabby is not a specific breed. You can see this type of coat pattern and color in a wide variety of breeds. You can see Maine Coons who are orange tabbies. You can see Persian cats who are orange tabbies. It shows up in a wide variety of different breeds in general.

Crusta explained why orange cats are predominantly male (80%), why the males are bigger than other cats, and the females are smaller.

The gene for coat color is carried on the X chromosome, so male cats need only inherit one copy while female cats need two. Only about 20% of orange tabby cats are female. …The males are larger than males of other colors and the females are smaller than females of other colors which means that there’s more of a gap between the body size of males and females when they are orange.

Orange Tabbies

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.