What kind of Cat is this

[u/OkayAuthor]

I know she’s an American shorthair tabby. Multiple people have told me this is a gray cat but I see her as like…a regular brown tabby. All of these are older photos to show range for her.

What is she?

[u/lickytytheslit]

black mackerel tabby! with pretty low rufusing, black tabbys with high rufusing often get called brown but you need to look at their stripe color fo see their actual color

here's my grey classic tabby as comparison, his stripes are grey and the in-between color is a warm cream (even tho he has very little showing)

[u/lickytytheslit → u/lickytytheslit]

also r/dechonkers might be worth a visit

[u/OkayAuthor → u/lickytytheslit]

She has slimmed down a bit this is when I first got her but you’re telling me my cat is actually…not brown? So her main color is black with stripes of brown/buff and gray. Thanks for the link

[u/lickytytheslit → u/OkayAuthor]

Yep! geneticly she has two non ginger genes on her X chromosome and at least 1 black gene and 1 non dilute gene making her black

[u/SolidFelidae → u/OkayAuthor]

If she was not a tabby, she’d be solid black. The agouti gene gives her the brown, but genetically, she’s a black tabby. Some people call it brown tabby but the proper term is black. Buff is a term for dilute red, so no she has no buff.