The British Shorthair Cats of precious colours in South Africa
BRIGEM
Cattery
What is a tabby cat?
Tabby is a coat pattern and not a breed, it consists of four patterns: mackerel, spotted, classic and ticked. The background hair consists of light and dark bands, intermingled with dark lines, spots or swirls layered on top.
We breed British Shorthair kittens of the following Tabby patterns:
1)Classic tabby
Also known as blotched or marbled, the classic tabby coat pattern consists of dark whorls on a lighter background. The ideal classic tabby will have a bullseye or oyster mark on each flank. The classic tabby is recessive to the mackerel tabby. When viewed from above, the shoulders of a classic tabby have the appearance of a butterfly, and the classic is sometimes referred to as a butterfly tabby
2)Mackerel tabby
Also known as striped, the mackerel tabby pattern is the dominant wild-type which consists of well-defined, evenly spaced thin vertical stripes on the sides of the body which extend from the shoulder to the tail, and a paler ground colour.
3)Spotted tabby
The spotted coat is a variant of the mackerel tabby however a modifier gene breaks the characteristic mackerel stripes up into spots.
4) Ticked
The final and most exotic looking cat hair pattern is ticked or agouti. This is when the cat guard hair is made up of alternating bands of colour. This causes your cat’s coat to have an overall shimmery effect, purrfect for camouflage!
What colour is a Tabby cat?
The tabby coat occurs in many colours, primarily silver, brown and red (ginger/yellow). But a dilution can change those primary colours into lighter forms. For example:
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Black dilutes to blue (grey)
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Chocolate dilutes to lilac
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Cinnamon dilutes to fawn
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Orange dilutes to cream
Cat Hair Patterns
Not only can your cat’s coat be different colours and patterns, their cat hair shaft itself can also have distinct patterns that can change the way they look!
Shading patterns
Another thing to consider when we’re talking cat colors? Shading, which is characterized by color at the tips of the hair with a pure white undercoat. Three types of shaded cats include:
chinchillas(tipped), shaded and smoke, each distinguished by the extent of the shading on individual hairs.
In chinchillas(tipped), only the very tip of the guard hair, or outer coat, is colored. With the shaded pattern, a quarter of the guard hair farthest from the cat’s body exhibits the color. In the smoke pattern, half of the guard hair farthest from the cat’s body displays the color. When a smoke-patterned cat is still, the coat pattern may appear solid, but when the cat is moving or you pet him, you can see the white undercoat.
Why Tabby Cats Have an “M” on Their Forehead
One thing that all tabbies have in common is a marking on their foreheads that looks like the letter M. Tabbies also look like they’re wearing eyeliner with pencil thin lines outlining their beautiful eyes.
There is one of legends which explain the reason for the M)))
M For Mary
One of the well-known stories related to the “M” on a tabby’s forehead goes back to the Christian story of Mary and the birth of Jesus. Born in a manger, baby Jesus was stricken with cold, and there were no blankets to keep him warm. His mother did everything she could, including cradling him in her arms and convincing the barn animals to move closer with their body heat. Despite her efforts, her newborn continued to cry and shiver with cold.
As the story goes, when Mary was at her most desperate, a friendly tabby cat came into the barn and curled up next to the baby. The cat’s body warmed baby Jesus and its purring lulled him to sleep. To express her gratitude, Mary then stroked the cat’s forehead and left behind her own initial to forever mark tabby cats for their kindness and comfort.