Shelter paperwork only said Tortoiseshell but a friend told me her hair is too long to be, any thoughts?

  • RegalPotoo@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    Tortoiseshell is a colouration, not a breed - you get long hair tortoiseshell cats, same way you get long hair tabbys.

    Fun fact: due to the way the genetics works out, male tortoiseshell cats are incredibly rare - less than 1 in 100,000 iirc

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      and the male cats that are torties are… how shall we say, a bit extra?

      (generally. the male torties or calicos have XXY chromosomes. though it’s also possible they’re a genetic chimera.)

    • smokebuddy [he/him]@lemmy.todayOP
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      4 months ago

      Awesome, I did some looking into it but never saw any discussion of hair length. I was reading about the lore of them and wanted to ask before getting any deeper

  • LittleTarsier@lemmy.ca
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    4 months ago

    Likely your cat is a Tortoiseshell (colouration) Domestic Medium Hair (breed). Often people just refer to colouration and not to the breed, like how people call cats “Tabbys”. Tabby is a colour pattern, not a breed. Most common breeds are Domestic Short Hair, Domestic Medium Hair and Domestic Long Hair. Of course there are many other breeds but most shelter cats are just Domestic X’s.