High White Torbie?

[sabian]

This is my late Maine Coon Tama that passed in Feb. of this year. I got him from a breeder and had papers so I'm sure he was Maine Coon but, my question is! I was told by a local breeder that has been showing and breeding for 25 yrs that HE was a High White Torbie. I know Torbie is a color reserved for females. He told me there was a 1 in 10 million chance of a male having Torbie and that he had only seen one other in his 25 yrs of showing and breeding. So I'm just curious on what you guys think or know about this?

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

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sabian - Male tri-colours appear, on average, once in three thousand births, not, "once in ten million." They are invariably sterile.

Are There Male Calico Cats?
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[abyeb]

What a stunning boy!

As 1CatOverTheLine said, the chances for a male torbie are not 1 in 1000000, but 1 in 3000. You see, for a cat to be a tortie, calico, or torbie, they have to carry the gene O, coding for orange, and o, coding for not orange. The O/o alleles sit on the X-chromosome. Therefore, for a cat to have both O and o, they must have two X chromosomes, which means female. The only way a male cat can be a tortie, torbie, or calico is if the cat inherits XXY (the feline equivalent of the human kleinefelter syndrome), which would make them sterile.

 

[Willowy]

What they said^^^

But also, I don't see anything in the pictures that would make me say, yes, he was a tortie/torbie. There are those peachy patches around his cheeks but that may be normal shading. Since you saw him in person, would you say that he had both red and dark coloring?

He was definitely a beautiful boy!

 

[sabian]

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sabian - Male tri-colours appear, on average, once in three thousand births, not, "once in ten million." They are invariably sterile.

Are There Male Calico Cats?
.

@ 1CatOverTheLine - Thanks for the link! I kinda of wondered about that when he told me that's why I posted. Just out of curiosity. I did see in the comments on the link one women said she worked at a vet for 16 years and never seen a male calico. I worked with a guy that was a good bit older than me and before I got Tama he had said that male cats never have 3 colors. I remember telling him after I got Tama that I guess that blows his theory out of the water...lol...Didn't realize then how rare it was!

 

[sabian]

@ abyeb - Yeah he was a pretty boy. I still miss him a lot. He was just one of those one of kind, maybe even once in a lifetime pets, that was just the total package. Everybody at the vet loved him and we just had a tight bond. Manny's great and I love working with him and seeing him come out of his shell. Seems he was abused at some point. He's been a great distraction too, but I still miss my Tama. Thanks for the reply as always!

 

[sabian]

@ Willowy - Yeah he had red and dark coloring. I can see what your saying though. The one pic of him on the table he was about 2 yrs old. The other 3 he was around 13 and his coat was not fully grown out after being shaved. The one in front of the entertainment center his coat was close to full. His smoke and silver lightened up as he got old and the torbie that was always there seemed to stand out more. When he was younger it wasn't nearly as noticeable. I would call it more of a rust or red mud color. I always said it look like he had mud on him. Manny, my cat I have now is basically the same color as Tama was has some shading that I think you may be talking about. It almost looks like torbie but it's definitely not like Tama's was. I wish I had some better pics of Tama that focused in more on the torbie but I really don't. Most of his pics when he was older he was shaved or coat was growing out and the younger pics it just doesn't stand out. I posting one more of him close up when he was young, about 2 yrs. Maybe it will help in seeing the torbie a little better.