# Calico Kittens



## jetcity (Sep 14, 2004)

Hi All - I'm looking into getting a calico kitten from a friend. I am curious though - there are 3 kittens in the litter. Is this possible? Not sure of the parents, but I always thought that typically these is one calico in a litter.


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## Sol (Feb 20, 2003)

The colour of the kittens have nothing to do with how many they are. The colour depends on the genetics.


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## Padunk (Oct 20, 2003)

Sol's right, but now that you mention it, my Elly was the only calico in her litter. 

take care,


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## spacemonkey (Aug 12, 2004)

I guess if your speaking of genetics statistically, then it is not as common to have more than one calico in a litter, but it does happen.


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## Manda-chan (Aug 30, 2004)

*Yep.. 2 can be in a litter.*

The litter my two cats came from had 2 calicos. It was a rather odd litter though, 2 grey males, one long hair and one short. And two pastel calicos (grey orange and white). The mother was grey and white. No idea what the father looked like. So calicos are just a mutation in the gene, so you can have more than one to a litter. 


Amanda


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## catgirl83 (Jul 29, 2004)

While we're on the topic, is it true all calicos are girls (except for RARE instances?)


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## emrldsky (Aug 31, 2004)

Here's a really informative site that goes into the genetics of calico cats.

http://schneider.ewald.bei.t-online.de/ ... coeng.html

I haven't read through it in depthly, but I'm sure that might help answer some questions.


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## Sol (Feb 20, 2003)

Wow, that's a quite "technical" and theoretic link :wink: 

In short you can say that all calicos and torties are female for one simple reason: To become a calico or female you need to be an xx (gender chromosomes) and males are normally xy.

There are exceptions though:

1. The male have abnormal gender chromoses, xxy instead of just xy.

2. The male is genetically red but develops spots of dark pigement which makes him look like a tortie, but genetically he's red.

Tortie/calico-males are almost always sterile.


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