Even so, technically not a breed, ginger cats are so famous for their recognizable coloration with shades of orange, red, and gold. With their imposing appearance and unique personalities, gingers are some of the most admired cats around.

Since 2014 ginger cats have their own special day, the Ginger Cat Appreciation Day, which falls on the 1st of September each year.

Facts About Ginger Cats

It\’s not possible to make generalizations about their personalities. However, ginger cats, except for their orange coloration, they\’re all tabbies, but not all tabbies are ginger. Here we\’ve gathered for you some facts about ginger cats that will surprise you.

Life Expectancy

Ginger cats can live up to 15 to 20 years. However, there are a lot of factors that can have an impact on the lifespan of a ginger cat, including genetics, activity, and diet.

Most Ginger Cats Are Male

When it comes to the color of their coat, cats inherit a combination of genes from their parents Ginger cats get their orange color from a pigment called pheomelanin, which is also responsible for the red hair in humans. Female cats have two X chromosomes while male cats have one X and one Y chromosome. Pheomelanin is carried on the X chromosome.

Kittens receive 2 copies of each gene from their parents which can be either dominant or recessive. The ginger gene is dominant, which means that a kitten needs to inherit only one to display ginger coloration. The full or partial ginger coloration depends on how many copies of the ginger gene the kitten inherits. Male kittens need only inherit the dominant “O” ginger gene from their mother to be fully orange while female kittens need to inherit it from both mother and father.

Because females inherit two X chromosomes, there is a higher number of possible genetic combinations and this is why male ginger cats outnumber their females. As a result, only about 20% of ginger cats are female. By comparison, about 80% of ginger cats are male.

Cat Breeds

The biggest example of a ginger(tabby pattern) cat is the tiger himself. The tabby pattern is common among big cats, especially among the closest ancestors of the domestic house cat. As such, tabby patterning can be found in a wide variety of domestic cat breeds including:

• American Shorthair,
• Persian,
• Abyssinian,
• Maine Coon
• American Bobtail, among others.

Ginger Cats Type Of Coats

Ginger cats have 5 different types of coats. Those are: spotted, patched, ticked, mackerel, and swirled.

• The swirling pattern is one of the most recognizable ginger cats. They have a bulls-eye pattern on the sides of their bodies, like a marble cake. The American Shorthair often exhibits this pattern.
• The mackerel tabby has series of narrow stripes that run down the sides. These stripes branch out from a ban of color that runs along the cats spine (like a fish skeleton). This is where the name came from.
• Τhe spotted tabby is covered in spots of varying size and shape. You can easily see this pattern in the American Bobtail breed.
• Ticked orange tabbies don’t typically show visible stripes or spots on their bodies, except sometimes faintly on the tail and legs. their coat is made up of agouti hairs which exhibit bands of pigmentation. The Abyssinian cat breed is a prime example of this coat type.
• The patched tabby is known as the bi-color tabby, as they exhibit areas of tabby pattern as well as areas of solid color or another pattern.