The cells don’t communicate to deactivate the same X chromosome though. While the kitten is still a tiny embryo, one X chromosome in each cell is deactivated to manage the information overload from having two X chromosomes. Something a bit funny goes on when female cats get just one copy of the ginger gene: If they do, it is present in every skin cell and makes them ginger.įemale cats have two X chromosomes, so they could get two copies of the ginger gene, one copy, or no copies.įemale cats with no copies of the ginger gene don’t produce any ginger pigment, and therefore don’t have any ginger in their coat. Male cats only have one X chromosome, so they either have the ginger gene, or they don’t. This is where it gets a bit complicated, but we’ll take it step by step: Genetic Coding For Male Ginger Cats And Female Ginger Cats This is all relevant because the ginger gene is also carried on the X chromosome, and we’ll see next how that affects the ratio of female ginger cats to male ginger cats. The nineteenth pair of chromosomes are known as the sex chromosomes, and they come in two types: X and Y.Ī cat with two X chromosomes is a girl, and a cat with an XY combination of sex chromosomes is a boy. Why in pairs? Because one chromosome of each pair comes from mother, and the other from dad. Can Ginger Cats Be Female? How The Ginger Gene Is InheritedĪll cats’ genetic code is arranged on 38 chromosomes in nineteen pairs. When they contain the ginger gene the brown or black pigment is replaced by ginger pigment and the ginger hairs grow from them instead. When a cat’s skin cells lack the ginger gene they produce brown or black pigment, and grow black or brown hairs. To make a cat’s hair ginger instead, they need to have the gene that codes for ginger pigment. It helps first to think of black or brown pigment as the default pigment in cat hair. Just for ease of understanding in this article though, I’m going to call eumelanin ‘black or brown pigment’ and phenomelanin ‘ginger pigment’. In low quantities, it’s also the pigment which makes cream colored fur. Phenomelanin is the red pigment that gives ginger cats their vibrant orange coats. The two melanins found in cat hair are eumelanin and phenomelanin.Įumelanin is a dark pigment which gives black or brown fur when it is concentrated, and light brown or gray fur when it occurs in small amounts. We often talk about the melanin in our own skin, but did you know the term “melanin” encompasses a whole palette of naturally occurring pigments? How Ginger Cats Get Their ColorĬat fur is colored by melanin in the hairs. In this context, “domestic cat” simply means a non-pedigree cat of mixed ancestry (sweetly known as “moggies” in the United Kingdom). In fact, the cats most likely to have ginger coats are long-haired and short-haired domestic cats. ![]() ![]() Some pedigree cats are ginger, but no breeds are specifically known for it. In fact, ginger coat color is like ginger hair color in humans – an option for many cats! Ginger cats are sometimes mistaken for being a breed of their own, like Siamese or Persian cats. ![]() To answer these questions we need to find out how cat fur gets it color, and how coloring is passed down from parent to kitten. They’re often typecast as either arrogant and lazy, or the swaggering Casanovas of the cat world.īut why do we usually picture ginger cats as boys?Īre all ginger cats male, or can you get female ginger cats too? They crop up everywhere: Garfield, Thomas O’Malley in The Aristocats, Crookshanks in the Harry Potter series.Īnd probably in every street you’ve ever lived on. If there was ever a stereotyped cat, it’s the big ginger tom. In this article we take a look at how coat color is inherited by kittens, and explore the relationship between ginger coat color and gender in cats.
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