Male Calico Cat

[Mystikal kitten]

I have a couple of friends who have a male Calico cat. They say they don't need papers for him yet he's worth $2,000+.
I thought if a cat didn't have papers then it's just a domestic cat. Who is right?

 

[jcat]

Calico is a coat color pattern, not a breed, and while males that are calico or tortoiseshell are rare, it's not such a big deal as to make the cat worth that much. A male calico is usually sterile, so they can basically forget about breeding him. My sister has a male dilute tortie, and there's currently one at our shelter.

 

[abyeb]

I’ve never heard of anyone selling a male calico cat. They’re not a breed; it’s just a coat color that is rare in males, a genetic curiosity. You see, for a cat to be a calico (or a tortie) they have to have the O allele (coding for orange) and the o allele (coding for not orange). The O/o alleles sit on the X chromosome. So, for a cat to be Oo, they have to have two X chromosomes, which means female. The only way for a male to be a calico is for them to inherit an extra X-chromosome, making them XXY, the equivalent of Kleinefelter syndrome in humans. So, that’s why male calicos are usually sterile.

 

[Willowy]

I've heard people say that before (that a male calico is worth thousands of dollars), but, well, something is only worth what someone will pay you. And I don't know how many people would actually pay that much. It's just a cool conversation point.