Is There Any Calico Cat Breed?

The answer is no. There is no calico cat breed. Calico is a coat pattern: three distinct patches of white, black (or blue), and orange (or cream), with white being the most prominent color.

The calico coat pattern can occur in different breeds of cats as well as in cats of mixed breed.

Calico cats come in both short hair and long hair versions.

Dilute calico

Among calicos you will find "dilute calicos". Diluted means attenuated or faded; therefore, these cats have a coat of softer colors. A dilute calico also has a tricolor pattern, with white being the main color. But instead of orange and black patches, a dilute calico has blue and cream (tabby) patches.

The picture to the right shows a traditional calico. And below (to the right), you will see a picture of a dilute calico.

List of breeds with calico versions

The calico pattern (both non-diluted and diluted versions) occur in the following cat breeds:

• American Bobtail

• American Curl

  

• American Longhair

• American Shorthair

• American Wirehair

• British Shorthair

• Cornish Rex

• Devon Rex

• Exotic

• Japanese Bobtail

• Maine Coon

• Manx

• Norwegian Forest

• Persian

• Scottish Fold

• Selkirk Rex

• Turkish Angora

This is not a complete list, but as you can see many cat breeds can have the tricolor pattern. And as I had mentioned above, non-purebred cats can also show the calico markings. So if you are looking for a calico cat to adopt, you have options to choose from.

For additional information on cat coloring and patterns, please visit cfainc.org where you will find a color chart for different cat breeds.

And for more information about calico cats, please visit the following pages:

• All about calico cats.

• Calico cat pictures.

• More pictures of calicos.

• Names for calico kitties.

• Calico cat gifts.

• Dilute calico gift ideas.