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Spraying is more common in male and female cats who have not been neutered or spayed. It can be one of the first signs of sexual maturity, which occurs when a kitten is around six months old.
However, the orange cats were missing a stretch of DNA that could be involved in regulating how much protein the cell produced. And, after scanning a database of 188 cat genomes.
The same study also shows that your male cat is approximately 75% more likely to spray than your female cat. Beyond just the physical act of spraying, urine marking is a way of communication ...
Roughly 75% of ginger cats are male. [14] Male cats with the gene for orange can be either X°Y ginger or X-Y black or non-ginger tabby. Females with the gene have three possibilities: X-X- black or non-ginger tabby, X°X° ginger, and X-X° tortoiseshell, thus male cats cannot be tortoiseshell unless they have two X chromosomes. [14]
The orange mutant gene is found only on the X, or female, chromosome. As with humans, female cats have paired sex chromosomes, XX, and male cats have XY sex chromosomes. The female cat, therefore, can have the orange mutant gene on one X chromosome and the gene for a black coat on the other. The piebald gene is on a different chromosome.
Male cats, like males of other therian mammals, are heterogametic (XY). [19] The single X chromosome does not undergo X-inactivation, ergo coat color is determined by which O-gene allele is present. Accordingly, the cat's coat will be either entirely orange or melanistic (respectively X O Y or X o Y).
Female black tortoiseshell and white cat. Tortoiseshells have patches of orange fur (pheomelanin based) and black or brown (eumelanin based) fur, caused by X-inactivation. Because this requires two X chromosomes, the vast majority of tortoiseshells are female, with approximately 1 in 3,000 being male. [20]
Related: Cat Welcomes Home Family's New Orange Kitten Like It's Her Own. Lest you think Calcifer was not feeling all the attention, the cat looked positively thrilled with his mama's kind words.