Cat stuff.... 😻

[Reynard]

The male cat has shown up on camera today near our front door, first sighting in 11 days. Good to see he’s ok but odd that he’s wandering around during the day. Possibly hungry so will get food out asap.

EDIT: Trail camera shows that he found the alternative food location that his sister uses overnight so won’t have left hungry.

View attachment 815129

That's not a male...

That's a tortoiseshell female. And she's been spayed, probably via trap-neuter-release, because she's been ear-tipped.

 

[lenfield]

+1. The gene for ginger and non-ginger is carried on the X chromosome.

 

[Regular.Cyclist]

That's not a male...

That's a tortoiseshell female. And she's been spayed, probably via trap-neuter-release, because she's been ear-tipped.

I can only go with what the cat protection lady who dropped off both cats told us as she’s got a lot closer to them than we have when they were initially trapped. Whilst calico is very heavily dominant in females it’s not impossible to see it in males.

Yes, both cats are TNR and have their left ear clipped.

 

[DCLane]

Introducing our new kitten Greta, adopted from the RSPCA yesterday. She's about 5 months old and is starting to settle in with us:

 

[Reynard]

I can only go with what the cat protection lady who dropped off both cats told us as she’s got a lot closer to them than we have when they were initially trapped. Whilst calico is very heavily dominant in females it’s not impossible to see it in males.

Yes, both cats are TNR and have their left ear clipped.

Tortie males are vanishingly rare - they are usually genetic chimeras or have an extra chromosome. And tend to be infertile.

This cat will be a female. They don't tend to ear tip TNR males because it's easy enough to see whether they've still got their trouble puffs or not.

 

[Reynard]

Introducing our new kitten Greta, adopted from the RSPCA yesterday. She's about 5 months old and is starting to settle in with us:

View attachment 815430

Ooooh, she's lovely

 

[Regular.Cyclist]

Tortie males are vanishingly rare - they are usually genetic chimeras or have an extra chromosome. And tend to be infertile.

This cat will be a female. They don't tend to ear tip TNR males because it's easy enough to see whether they've still got their trouble puffs or not.

Thanks but I will take details of the sex of the cat from someone who has actually handled it. Figures put it at 1 in 3000 being male. Given there are an estimated 11.2 million cats in the UK there are likely to be approximately 3,700 male tortoiseshell cats. Not exactly vanishingly rare.

Cat Protection Scotland tell me that they remove the ear tip on both male and female cats when neutered.