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Originally Posted by pitbulliest
I was under the impression that "calico" is a color style, and "tortoiseshell" is a breed....like American Tortoiseshell"...???
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I don't think 'American Tortoiseshell' is a registered breed but I assume it would be possible to have a breed of tortoiseshell or calico cats, which could be called whatever someone wanted to register them as.
calico and tortoiseshell are both colour patterns, but they are more prevelent in certain breeds and relatively existant in others such as siamese and burmese and ocicat, although it can still show up.
And then there are differences in how different breeds and cats express the calio pattern. Such as Turkish Vans who are pure white with orange on the head.
Of course, that is all due to what genetics the breeds have been slelected and bred for. So I would expect there to be many more calico patterened cats belonging to breed standards that do not select against the spotting genes.
Male calico can be born who are fertile, but they are (as far as I know) only chimeras (genetically two different animals) so they would not breed true.