Mackerel, Spotted, or Classic tabby pattern?

GoldyCat · Jul 11, 2013

I'm fostering 5 kittens for the shelter where I volunteer, 4 tabbies and 1 tortie. They'll be old enough to put on the adoption list soon, and I'm trying to figure out how to describe them. My initial impression was that the 4 were all mackerel tabbies, but they aren't quite the typical mackerel pattern. They all have a little bullseye on their sides. It's almost a rosette rather than the swirl you see in the classic tabby pattern.

It doesn't show up as well in photos as in real life. The clearest picture I've gotten is the little red boy in this one.

Bullseye.jpg

GoldyCat
Jul 11, 2013

Here's the little brown tabby boy trying to blend in with the leopard print blanket.

LeopardPrint.jpg

GoldyCat
Jul 11, 2013

Is there someone who has more experience reading tabby patterns? I don't think you could call this a classic tabby, but what about spotted?

lyrajean · Jul 12, 2013

IMO, I would say that "tabby" is enough description for shelter kittens. What type of tabby is a concern only where purebred breeding cats are involved.

They are cute little lovelies!

GoldyCat · Jul 12, 2013

I know most people adopting from a shelter won't know or care about the specific tabby pattern. It was more curiosity on my part.

Plus, if any of the kittens are still at the shelter in a couple of months I might take them to a show, in which case I would need to be very specific. When I first started showing I listed one of my HHPs as a brown patched tabby. A judge told me I needed to say brown patched mackerel tabby because tabby without a qualifier is assumed to be classic. Fortunately in the HHP category changing the color from one show to another doesn't affect the points already earned.

vball91 · Jul 12, 2013

I can't really see the bull's-eye, and take this with a grain of salt because I have little experience with this, but it looks like a broken mackerel pattern to me.

GoldyCat · Jul 20, 2013

A friend came by last weekend to pick up one of my cats for a show that I couldn't get to. This is someone who has been showing cats for 20+ years. The first thing out of her mouth was, "What an interesting pattern!" Umm, yeah, thanks. I already got that part. :lol3:

It's crazy how their patterns keep changing. One little girl kept getting lighter and lost most of the stripes on her back. I thought it was just because she was showing more ticking, but it turns out she's actually a Brown Patched Tabby. I assume the red patches will become more prominent as she matures.

Tippy1.jpg

GoldyCat
Jul 19, 2013

Brown Tabby girl in front of the tortie

Ladybug.jpg

GoldyCat
Jun 29, 2013

Red Tabby boy. I still can't decide if he's spotted or broken mackerel.

SpeedySpots1.jpg

GoldyCat
Jul 20, 2013

Red Tabby boy and Brown Tabby boy. The Brown Tabby is the one with the "interesting" pattern.

SpeedyBooBooPattern.jpg

GoldyCat
Jul 20, 2013

And a picture of the Tortie girl just because she's so cute.

Bunny2.jpg

GoldyCat
Jul 19, 2013

maewkaew · Jul 20, 2013

Lovely kittens!

I don't think the patterns are broken up enough that I would call them spotted.

flintmccullough · Jul 20, 2013

They-are-mackerel-tabbies,the-stripes-are-vertical,such-as-you-would-see,on-a-fish-bones,hence-mackerel-tabby,LOL.

ps_2010_10_28___18_03_51.jpg

flintmccullough
Jul 20, 2013

Another-red-classic-tabby-with-white

R001-021.JPG

flintmccullough
Jul 20, 2013

Both-are-my-boys.

GoldyCat · Jul 20, 2013

I am familiar with the terminology for the officially recognized colors and patterns, at least in CFA. My current show cats include a Blue Smoke & White, a Brown Patched MacTabby, and a Ticked Tabby (Abyssinian). Cats who are no longer showing are another Brown Patched MacTabby, a Black Smoke & White, and two Red Mackerel Tabbies. My Red Classic Tabby boy was adopted out before I started showing, but I think he would have done very well as an HHP show cat.

ClassicTabby2.jpg

GoldyCat
Jul 20, 2013

My question about the current foster kittens was because they don't seem to fit the strict definition of mackerel. As I said, they've been changing as they grow, some more dramatically than others. At this point I'm leaning toward a broken mackerel pattern for the two brown tabbies (one boy, one girl). The red boy is kind of a toss-up between broken mackerel and spotted, could go either way. The other little girl is definitely a patched tabby. The patches do not have to be well defined, they're more often mixed in with the mackerel pattern.

This is a picture of my brown patched mackerel tabby, next to her mother who is a red mackerel tabby.

MomDaughterTabbies.jpg

GoldyCat
Jul 20, 2013

The patched tabby kitten is much lighter overall, but I don't know if it's because she's still so young that the color hasn't developed or if she's a dilute. If she's dilute she would be a blue patched tabby instead of brown, and the patches would be cream instead of red. She does still have faint markings on her side, kind of hard to tell if it's going to end up as a broken mackerel or spotted pattern. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how she grows up.

The red boy is quite a bit lighter than my two red kitties, but I don't know if he's light enough to be considered a cream (dilute) color. Again, we'll have to watch as he matures.

abymummy · Aug 26, 2013

Do we still need colors for them?

nekochan · Aug 26, 2013

I just saw this post, the patched tabby reminds me of my previous rescued torbie kittens: http://www.chicagocanine.com/photos/kittens/tiger.jpg

There were several torbies (aka patched tabbies) in that litter, including some ticked and some mackerel.

The red tabby does look like he maybe has a swirl pattern going on. I would say maybe he is a spotted tabby but with the spots being made from a classic pattern rather than a mackerel pattern (hope that made sense.) As in, instead of spots in vertical rows, the spots are swirled like a classic tabby.

If he didn't have the swirl I would probably say it was broken mackerel pattern, but with the "bullseye" type swirls, it makes me think maybe he's a spotted tabby with classic tabby patterning of the spots.

I found a picture showing what the spotted "modifier" will result in when combined with the genes for classic tabby:

http://www.messybeast.com/images/pattern-modifier.jpg

This is the article it came from:
http://www.messybeast.com/spotted-cats.html

The is some interesting info on tabbies there, too.

If you can't see the image I linked to, go to the article and the image is right above the section titled "Freckled Cats".

GoldyCat · Aug 27, 2013

Abymummy said:
Do we still need colors for them?

I think we've got the colors figured out.
Brown tabby boy; brown tabby girl; brown (or blue?) patched tabby girl; red tabby boy; tortoiseshell girl.
The tabby patterns are still changing.

I took the kittens back to the shelter before I went on vacation. They've been spayed/neutered and are available for adoption now. I plan to take my camera when I go to the shelter tomorrow and get some updated pictures of them.

GoldyCat · Aug 28, 2013

We ended up going with just "tabby" for the shelter description. It was too confusing trying to assign tabby patterns.
Here are the kittens today.

Speedy Gonzales, red tabby boy. It's gotten lighter, but you can still see his spotted pattern.