However, these popular breeds can have calico as a pattern: There is no breed where calico is the only allowed pattern, so there's no 'calico breed' out there. People sometimes ask which cat breeds are calicos. Which cat breeds can have calico as an allowed pattern? You can find the calico coloring in many breeds of cats, from long to short-haired, and even in some other species. So, yes, our calico cats are, in fact, named after a pattern of fabric!Ĭalico is a type of coloration on the cats' coats - not a breed.

Records show that it began to be used as a descriptive term for cats sometime in the 1880s. Originally, calico was used to describe horses. Some people called it Kalko, as a variation of the word 'Calicut.' It wasn't long before a pattern of white combined with other patches of color became known as a 'calico.' The material unique to Calicut was mainly white but with a certain colorful pattern with patches of orange-red and black. The word was also used to denote a fabric that was manufactured in that city. Calicut was the name of a seaport in India. According to linguists, the word originated in the mid-16th century as a version of the word calicut. Their pattern is comprised of pure white along with gray tabby instead of black and, of course, red tabby. Some calicos go in for the tabby even more. If that happens to be around Kitty's forehead, you should be able to spot the famous tabby M shape. Since one of the coat colors in calicos is red, you can usually see some tabby in a real calico. Red, however, almost always shows the tabby pattern very clearly. Black is relatively good at hiding tabby patterns too, although - given the right light - you may see an underlying tabby pattern even in a black cat. White is the only color that truly flushed out the tabby, to the point of no markings showing. Every now and again, the tabby markings show up through them. Over thousands of years of domestication, new mutations popped up with cat colors and patterns that can mask the original tabby. The tabby pattern helps these large feline predators hide in the shadows as they ambush their prey. Leopards are spotted tabbies, and lions are, in fact, agouti tabbies. We can still see tabbies in the wild today. The tabby pattern is almost certainly the original coat pattern that the first domesticated cats had. You may have heard that all cats are actually tabbies. How does the tabby pattern come into play?

That's why they're often bundled up as tri-color cats, even though technically, the coat only shows black and orange. So, tortoiseshell cats - fondly known as torties - are actually calicos with no white showing. In some cats, the white disappears altogether, leaving a tightly-knit mix of red and black which is known as the tortoiseshell pattern. On the other hand, as the area of the white coat decreases, the red and black begin to have a more 'mixed' look as the patches decrease in size. The more white there is in the coat, the larger and more differentiated the color patches. The tri-colored coat of calico cats features a predominately white base with large patches of two other colors.

Cream, which is also known as diluted redĪ calico cat with a pattern of white, blue, and cream is often referred to as a 'dilute calico.' We'll talk more about dilute calicos in a minute and also discuss how tabby plays into the entire mix.

Variations of the red element in a calico include:

Blue (slate gray) which is also known as diluted black.

Variations of the black element in a calico include:

Since there are always three colors in a calico coat, they're also known as tri-color cats. The classic calico has white, black and orange/red. Ready to get your calico fix? Here we go!Ī calico cat has three colors in her coat, one of them being white. Read through to become a true calico expert!

The difference (and similarities) between calicos and tortoiseshell cats.

In this mega-guide, we're going to cover.

If you're interested in calico cats, you've come to the right place. People all over the world share their lives with these unique tri-colored felines, and many become avid fans of Calicos. Calico cats have captivated cat lovers for millennia.

Tortoiseshell and calico cats