Generally speaking, there are 4 main types of tabby cats. Now that you know a little more about how tabby cat genetics can determine their stripes and patterns, it’s time to dive into each pattern in more detail. The ticked tabby cat has the most broken-down pattern of them all. Of the modifiers, the ticked tabby cat has the most dominant one. The combination of those genes determines which pattern variation is seen in the tabby coat.Īnything beyond the mackerel and classic tabby patterns is considered to be affected by a modifier. There are two genes at play here a dominant and a recessive gene. Red (dark red spots/stripes on lighter fur).Brown (dark spots/stripes and stripes on lighter fur).Below is a list of common tabby pattern colors. This is why it’s possible to see tabby patterns in various colors. The agouti alleles control the amount of black pigment seen in the cat’s coat.

If a cat were to have two a/a genes, then the coat would result in a solid one not featuring the tabby pattern at all. The agouti gene is commonly written as A/a, where the capital A represents the dominant gene, and the lowercase represents the recessive gene. It contains two alleles that are responsible for the different forms of the gene. Ultimately, the agouti gene dictates whether the pattern is visible or not. The ticked gene also has this effect, masking other tabby patterns that might be present on the cat. It’s a dominant gene, so it can break through the base mackerel pattern. For example, the Mc gene is responsible for the spotted tabby pattern. In addition, there are two modifiers that affect the type of tabby coat the cat has.ĭepending on which gene the cat has will determine which kind of pattern is seen. For this pattern to show, the cat has to have two mc recessive genes. The classic tabby (referred to as mackerel) is the base gene. There are 3 distinct genes that are responsible for most tabby patterns. How Tabby Cat Genes Affect Stripe Patterns

Grey ticked tabby