• @entropicdrift
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    6327 days ago

    That’s a female cat. Calico cats are exclusively female, barring cats with extra chromosomes which are extremely rare.

    • @Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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      27 days ago

      That’s probably a female cat.

      Fixed it for you.

      Somewhat related: here’s a pic of my calico Emily looking like she’s drunkenly threatening to punch me

      • @entropicdrift
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        1327 days ago

        I stated the exception to the rule in my own comment, I’m just not gonna hedge my bets when the odds are 99.967% in my favor.

        Thanks for the adorable photo!

        • @Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
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          1627 days ago

          Edited my original comment to reflect your getting it right the second time 😁

          You’re welcome for the pic, here’s one of her Tortie (also almost always female since it’s the same gene) sister Charlotte ALSO napping in wicker. They really enjoy wicker 😁🥰

    • Gormadt
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      1627 days ago

      Extremely rare doesn’t mean impossible

      They’re mostly female but not all female

      • @entropicdrift
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        27 days ago

        I didn’t say it was impossible.

        That said, if somebody gave me the option to bet on a calico cat being female, I would always take that bet because I’d only be wrong about one in three thousand times (0.03333…% of the time) if the cat was randomly selected, whereas other coat colors it’d be 50-50.

          • @entropicdrift
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            227 days ago

            Ah, you’re right. It’d be 0.03333333…%

            I’ll edit

        • zewm
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          226 days ago

          But you did say exclusively which implies that it would be only female. Which is just inaccurate.

          • @entropicdrift
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            125 days ago

            The word “barring” in the context of my comment means “with the exception of”

          • @entropicdrift
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            427 days ago

            What do you think the word “barring” means? My original comment noted the sole exceptional case.

    • @EtherWhack@lemmy.world
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      427 days ago

      Are you sure that isn’t just a birman that was born with a simple congenital deformity of that part of its face?

      • @entropicdrift
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        27 days ago

        My understanding is that the X chromosome carries the gene for red cat fur. Female calicos have one X with the red fur gene and one without. If a cat only has X chromosomes that carry the red fur gene, they’ll be an red-furred cat, which is why the only male calicos are XXY. An XY male cat with the red fur gene on their X chromosome just comes out red.

        I don’t see how some separate “simple congenital deformity” other than an extra X could account for red fur.

        I could be wrong, I’m not a cat scientist, I just grew up knowing hundreds of cats.

        • @EtherWhack@lemmy.world
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          227 days ago

          I’m not sure myself. I just recognized the coat (other than the crest on the face) being close to a birman and was thinking either a mix or a defect.