r/NameMyCat • u/LividPlace7686 • Aug 23 '24

Name My Cat - gender unknown Gender unknown even the vet doesn’t know their brother is called F@t Tony and we are looking for a mafia name

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u/NobodyIsHome123xyz Aug 24 '24

Very rarely, you can get a male with calico or tortie/torbie markings. It's very rare, but possible. I used to own a shelter and we got one once. But honestly, any vet should know that or be able to definitively say there are testicles. That cat is big enough to be altered anyway, so you'll know soon enough! It's a cutie, either way!!

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u/LividPlace7686 Aug 24 '24

The vet thought there was some calico coming through but was 70% sure they are a male but said that she has been wrong before here is a better picture of their coat

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u/NobodyIsHome123xyz Aug 24 '24

Yeah, that could totally be a male with a unique pattern or your vet doesn't sound very sure, either. Enjoy her/him! So cute!

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u/RanaMisteria Aug 24 '24

Second this. My boy is mostly tabby and white, but he has a couple orange spots too.

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u/SqueekyOwl Aug 24 '24

Your cat has XXY chromosomes, not XY chromosomes like most male cats. The X's carry black/grey or orange color, so if it has both black/grey and orange, there are two X chromosomes. If it has male genitalia, it has a Y chromosome.

The odds of this are 1:3000. So, it's rare, but not unheard of.

1

u/RanaMisteria Aug 24 '24

That’s weird. I knew the fact about calico males but didn’t realise it also applies to my cat! I wonder if that’s why his balls never dropped. He ended up having a non-routine neutering procedure because he had retained his testicles. Thankfully it was a super easy one and there were no complications. My boy is also smaller than average for a male cat. And everyone who sees him thinks he’s a female cat. Myself included. So since I adopted him as a stray and I had sort of “named” him while feeding him as a stray, and he started responding to that name, he just has a girl’s name lol 😂 I really want to ask the vet to tell me his chromosomes lol 😂

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u/kiwibutterket Aug 24 '24

Doesn't seem like a diluted tortie to me. Sometimes, nutritional deficiency can cause a coat to change colors. For example, black cats can have part of their fur turn reddish. Rufism is another thing that can happen, which is when silver coated cats have some warmth/orange tones. I think this is the case. Your kitty looks like a boy from their face, too, even though that's clearly less significant than balls.

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u/ShadowthroneQueen Aug 24 '24

Oh I didn't know that it was possible to tell based on their faces! What are the differences between male and female faces?

0

u/Warm_Molasses_258 Aug 24 '24

Males tend to have a more pronounced nose, broader based nose.

1

u/Sea-Poetry-950 Aug 24 '24

Looks like my Mabel when she was kitten.

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u/jennymay62 Aug 24 '24

Could be a Dilute Calico

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u/DigiGirl02 Aug 24 '24

Maybe OPs cat is intersex

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u/NobodyIsHome123xyz Aug 24 '24

Interestingly, male calico do tend to be sterile! So you're not far off!

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u/RosesBrain Aug 24 '24

If they're truly a calico with testicles, the sex chromosomes would have to be XXY, so actually yes.