Are tabby cats male?
No. People ask, “are tabby cats male?”. They should ask “are red tabby cats male?”. To which the answer is: there are more male red tabby cats than female tabbies.
Photo copyright Helmi Flick. “Singleton Peeking”. Brown tabby-and-white Maine Coon kitten.
To an informed cat owner or someone who knows cats the question in the title sounds a bit silly. But we must be sympathetic towards, and understanding of, people who really don’t know much about domestic cats.
It seems likely that some people are confusing red (or orange) tabbies with tabby cats in general.
Tabby cats in general are of both genders, equally. It is just red tabbies that are more likely to be males due the genetics behind the red coat. You can read about that here. Tabby cats can be purebred, pedigree cats and random bred cats. It is the most common coat for random bred cats.
Tabby cat coats come in a whole range of types of patterns and colours. You can read about that in some detail here. Red tabbies have a personality type, it is said: leadership qualities!
Hope this clarifies things.
Are tabby cats male? to Home Page
Another astute observation (that red tabby males have leadership qualities) that I’ve made too. I had one who was extraordinarily and delightfully that way. Danny. He was the benevolent leader of 13 other cats I had in my charge at the time. A natural peace-keeper. I also called him my second in command, and he wasn’t a jerk about it either. He was also quite the character and it’s nice to know that if I were to get another red tabby male, that he’d likely have these qualities to a good extent. It kind of takes the perceived “special-ness” away from the individual though, attributing it all to genetics. All loved and respected him. He passed away in May 2010 after desperate attempts to save him from cancer.
I have always fancied having a red tabby male as a companion. They are one of my favourite cats.
Is it that completely red tabbies are males, but red tabbies with white on the mouth/chest can be females?