What is the difference between a Calico and a Tortoiseshell? And what in heck is a Torbie?
Goodness, a lot of questions there. 🙂 The difference between a calico and a tortoiseshell is this: With a calico, there is a significant amount of white, and the two colors are broken up into distinct patches. This has to do with the interaction of white spotting. With a tortoiseshell, the three colors are blended and don’t form distinct patches. A tortoiseshell may have significant portions of white as well, but the remaining colors are blended (this particular pattern is called a tortoiseshell and white). A torbie, or patched tabby, is a tortoiseshell where the tabby pattern is very distinct all over the cat. A calico or tortoiseshell may have distinct tabby pattern on the red or cream patches (has to do with another gene we won’t get into at this juncture), but no patterning on the other color. This isn’t a torbie. A torbie is clearly patterned all over the cat — though never on the white.
