Could My Cat Be Considered A Chimera?

[Galilea96]

My kitty is a calico but her face is divided like a chimera cat. What do you guys think?

 

[StefanZ]

Nay, some symmetry in color distribution is common.

 

[abyeb]

She’s beautiful! The divided face color is a cool variety of tortie cats, and doesn’t automatically indicate that a cat is a chimera. Chimera cats are quite rare.

CAT CHIMERAS (MALE AND FEMALE)

 

[dmt18]

Oh my gosh your kitty is so beautiful!! And that link to chimera cats -- I had never heard of such a thing! They are incredible!

 

[dmt18]

But you guys -- look at the picture of her cat's whole body. There are orange tabby stripes, are you sure she's not a chimera?

 

[Willowy]

All orange patches on a tortie/calico will be striped. The orange gene doesn't go with the solid gene, so all orange on any cat will be tabby striped.

There are chimeras nobody knows about until/unless some medical test comes back weird. So it's always possible for a cat to be a chimera, but there's nothing about her coloring/pattern that is obviously chimeric.

 

[dmt18]

All orange patches on a tortie/calico will be striped. The orange gene doesn't go with the solid gene, so all orange on any cat will be tabby striped.

There are chimeras nobody knows about until/unless some medical test comes back weird. So it's always possible for a cat to be a chimera, but there's nothing about her coloring/pattern that is obviously chimeric.

Wow this is fascinating. Thank you for explaining! Kitty is gorgeous either way.