Solid or tabby?

Kokomo

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This is Bug, my little feral I got last fall. He is a little over a year old, and still growing. So waiting to see where he ends up. He is currently a little over 13 pounds and I am pretty sure he was the last cat made at the end of the day with the spare parts leftover. He came from a feral cat colony that someone was trying to remove so everyone was trapped and turned into to our local humane society. I am guessing there is a fair bit of inbreeding in his past. He is all love with me, not the smartest cat on the block, but so very gentle. We are still working on him learning other humans are ok, but even when he is terrified he never attacks or is aggresive. I hate how much they took of his ear when they tipped it. He was in the unable to be a pet category, which was clearly the wrong one for him, but poor little guy.

So, my question is is he a solid or a tabby? He has some lighter definition around his eyes, but not a lot. Some clearish striping on his hind legs, but very little on his sides.

On a side note I know he looks a little tubby, but at his vet appt I was told he is at a perfect body condition. He is just build low and wide.

Thanks!

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GoldyCat

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Patterns can be hard to see on longhair kitties, but I can see definite stripes on his sides, especially in the last photo. I would call him a mackerel tabby. Beautiful boy.
 
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Kokomo

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Patterns can be hard to see on longhair kitties, but I can see definite stripes on his sides, especially in the last photo. I would call him a mackerel tabby. Beautiful boy.
Thank you! Not that it really matters but I was curious. And thank you. He is a sweetheart and I love his little face!
 

Willowy

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There's no such thing as solid red in cats. The O allele of the O/o locus is epistatic over the aa genotype. Ticked tabbies may look somewhat solid but that's pretty rare. Also, the pattern is diffused on longhaired cats so that's probably why he doesn't look distinctly tabby. I agree that he's mackerel tabby; you can it pretty clearly on his back leg in that one pic.

He's a fine big floofy boy!
 

missymotus

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He’s solid, lacking the white chin, muzzle and goggles of a tabby

Being red doesn’t mean a cat is genetically agouti, breeders focusing on the O gene do breed clear reds and for other breeds where colour isn’t such a focus DNA tests can be used to see if they’re solid or agouti.
 

Maurey

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Red cats can certainly be solid, they just don’t always look it, if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Stripes certainly aren’t “it”. Just because a red solid cat has masking doesn’t mean its magically got the agouti gene. Masking and agouti are generally phenotypically different, even in randombred cats.

OP, your cat looks solid on my screen from the photos you’ve shared, but a shot of his head in good natural lighting would be helpful, as that’s how you tell.

For reference:

Red solid, mackerel masking ( Sleepy Hollow Now or Never)
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Red mackerel tabby (Tanstaafl Mickey Finn of Dracoonfly). Notice the high contrast around the eyes and muzzle

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Also compare this ticked tabby kitten (Pearlcoon Gizmo) to my red solid masking ticked.

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Willowy

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Y'all better write to the cat genetics pages because that's a direct quote, lol. Yes, red cats can be genetically solid. But they will always have some tabby markings.
He’s solid, lacking the white chin, muzzle and goggles of a tabby
Are we looking at the same pictures? He has very obvious white goggles and chin/whiskerpads from what I can see.
 

Meowmee

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This is Bug, my little feral I got last fall. He is a little over a year old, and still growing. So waiting to see where he ends up. He is currently a little over 13 pounds and I am pretty sure he was the last cat made at the end of the day with the spare parts leftover. He came from a feral cat colony that someone was trying to remove so everyone was trapped and turned into to our local humane society. I am guessing there is a fair bit of inbreeding in his past. He is all love with me, not the smartest cat on the block, but so very gentle. We are still working on him learning other humans are ok, but even when he is terrified he never attacks or is aggresive. I hate how much they took of his ear when they tipped it. He was in the unable to be a pet category, which was clearly the wrong one for him, but poor little guy.

So, my question is is he a solid or a tabby? He has some lighter definition around his eyes, but not a lot. Some clearish striping on his hind legs, but very little on his sides.

On a side note I know he looks a little tubby, but at his vet appt I was told he is at a perfect body condition. He is just build low and wide.

Thanks!

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He is gorgeous as are all the kitties pictured here 😻 I also thought all red cats are agouti/ tabby because it is linked to agouti I read, but the other day I saw some MC on a site that were labeled as solid. I can still see stripes on them though.
I would say he is a red broken mackerel tabby with forest cat ancestry.
My Merlin is a dsh red mackerel tabby tux , but lately his stripes are fading and blending a bit I think. His chin is white but his eye halo is more cream. He also got a severe ear tip which I hate. He was a trn dumped cat and I could not take him in at the time. Plus he did not seem so tame, but after neuter he started to tame himself and became touchable. He still bit me outside, not aggressively, had to be quarantined and I trained him into a housecat, he is a total love bug now and very dog like. Sadly his brother Marlon who was a near twin with white spotting on his face vanished early on before tnr. 😿
Here he is 😀

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Kokomo

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Thank you all! I will try to get some better pictures of his face. He has lighter markings but they are definitely not white white.
 

sivyaleah

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Y'all better write to the cat genetics pages because that's a direct quote, lol. Yes, red cats can be genetically solid. But they will always have some tabby markings.

Are we looking at the same pictures? He has very obvious white goggles and chin/whiskerpads from what I can see.
Same here, there's a white ring around his eyes and on the chin for sure
 
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