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Tortoiseshell describes a coat coloring found almost exclusively in female cats. Cats of this color are mottled, with patches of orange or cream and chocolate, black or blue. They are sometimes called torties. A cat with this coloring, but also with the tabby pattern, is a torbie.

"Tortoiseshell" is typically reserved for cats with brindled coats with relatively small or no white markings.

Those that are largely white with red and brown patches (rather than a brindled aspect) are described as tortoiseshell-and-white (in the United Kingdom) or calico (in Canada and the United States). Tortoiseshells and calicos are not specific breeds of cat, though part tortoiseshell, part calico cats are known as "tortico" cats[citation needed] and may display a tortoiseshell pattern on the back and tail and a calico pattern on the belly.[citation needed] The tortoiseshell markings appear in many different breeds as well as in non-purebred domestic cats.[1] This pattern is especially preferred in the Japanese Bobtail breed.[2]
Contents
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    * 1 Patterns
    * 2 Genetics
    * 3 Folklore
    * 4 Tortitude
    * 5 See also
    * 6 Gallery
    * 7 References
    * 8 External links

[edit] Patterns
Question book-new.svg This section does not cite any references or sources. (May 2009)

Tortoiseshell cats have coats with patches of red, brown or black, chocolate, cream, or cinnamon. The size of the patches can vary from a fine speckled pattern to large areas of color. Typically, the more white a cat has, the more solid the patches of color. Dilution genes may modify the coloring, lightening the fur to a mix of cream and blue, lilac or fawn. The markings on tortoiseshell cats are usually asymmetrical. Occasionally tabby patterns of eumelanistic and pheomelanistic colors are also seen (these are often then called "tortie-tabby", "torbie" or, with white, "caliby"). Tortoiseshell also can be expressed in the point pattern.
A domestic shorthair tortie-tabby cat.

Frequently there will be a "split face" pattern with black on one side of the face and orange on the other, with the dividing line running down the bridge of the nose.

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