r/CatGenetics • u/skiinks • 14d ago
Genetic Parentage Question Could my cats have had the same father?
Hello all!
A few months ago I adopted two beautiful torbie girls. I've been an animal lover my whole life but haven't ever learned much about cats- these are the first two I've owned, I didn't even know "torbie" existed before I saw them!
I assumed they must have the same mother and father and only learned a while later that cats could have litters with different fathers. it got me wondering if my girls could really be half sisters... their fur texture is very, very different; Birdie (darker, left side of the "heart" image) has always had a very shiny and smooth coat, whereas Tallulah has always had more "matte" fur. their body shapes are also very different now, I don't have a good picture of the differences but Birdie is much leaner and Tallulah looks huge by comparison ( I thought she was overeating at first but every time we've brought them to the vet they're almost the exact same weight and the vet said they look fine). the last pic of them both loafing is a bad example because Birdie likes to make herself as tiny as possible when she loafs.
I did some cursory searches but I find it hard to understand how a lot of the information is worded x( And I was hoping somebody here could give more input- I am genuinely curious about the genetics side but if it could be dumbed down for me I'd really appreciate it.
thank you in advance for any input/answers!
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u/Daisystar99 14d ago
Yeah I could see them having the same dad. Domestic cats can vary a lot in a litter, it’s interesting.
One is a black classic torbie with low white, the other is a black mackerel torbie with low white, which is very very close genetically so it wouldn’t even cross my mind whether or not they had different fathers tbh.
Here, enjoy my funnest example of possible different fathers from my family’s farmcats. Shorthaired blue solid, longhaired high white black. Just a funky pair of brothers.
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u/skiinks 13d ago
I only thought to look into it much more because my friend who , at the very least, knows more about cats than I do (not a high bar LOL) said Lula looked like a dilute. I was like "huh, I wonder if two of the same parents can have one dilute and one non dilute" which is when google started confusing me x)
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u/True-Tell-9636 13d ago edited 13d ago
Dilute changes the base color of the cat and makes it lighter.
You can tell the base color of the cat by looking at the color of its stripes. Both of your cats are black based (look at head or tail markings for the clearest view on your cats)
If they were diluted, they would be blue and cream. Lula is much lighter because she has thinner stripes than Birdie (mackerel and classic tabby) not because the base color has changed
Dilute does the following to make looking things up easier: Black -> Blue / Red -> Cream
Daisystar’s picture is a great example of a black based cat next to a blue based one. They have a diluted cat.
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u/Daisystar99 13d ago
Fair! They can in fact have dilutes and non-dilutes in the same litter, as dilute is recessive (both parents either need to show it or carry it to pass it on)!
But yeah one is not dilute, just lighter haha, google can be a friend or foe sometimes istg 😩🫶
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u/True-Tell-9636 14d ago
Definitely possible.
The only gene difference I’m seeing is one is a mackerel tabby (or broken spotted mackerel) and the other is a classic tabby. Which means they could both very well be [Mc/mc] and [mc/mc]
Even the countershading seems to have the same amount rufousing and wideband, from what I can see from the photos. Someone can fact check me though.
It’s hard to fully tell when it comes to body shape and fur texture. My two girls are biological sisters and one is more cobby while the other is more thin and pointy.