Both large spot and small spot patterns can be seen in the Australian Mist, Bengal, Egyptian Mau, Maine Coon, and Ocicat breeds. Sometimes, the stripes of a classic tabby’s pattern may be broken into larger spots. Spotted tabby has a gene that breaks up the mackerel tabby pattern so that the stripes appear as spots. Some stripes or bars can often be seen on the lower legs, face and belly and sometimes at the end of the cat’s tail. These break up the tabby pattern into a “salt-and-pepper” look. Ticked tabby has a grizzly color of fur of dark and light bands or bars. Classic tabbies are the most common type of tabby in much of the United Kingdom and the Middle East, among other places, but they are a far second in number to mackerel tabbies in most parts of the world. Classic tabbies have dark stripes on their legs, tail, and cheeks. There is also a light colored “butterfly” pattern on the shoulders and three thin stripes running along its spine. The body is marked with a whirled or swirled pattern (often called a “bullseye”) on the cat’s sides. Classic tabbies have the ‘M’ pattern on their foreheads too.
Mackerel tabbies are also called ‘fishbone tabbies’, probably doubly named after the mackerel fish.Ĭlassic tabby also known as blotched or marbled has a pattern usually in the colors of dark brown, ochre, and black – but sometimes grey. An ‘M’ shape appears on the forehead along with dark lines across the cat’s cheeks to the corners of its eyes. A mackerel tabby has narrow stripes that run in parallel down its sides. The legs and tail have dark bars as do the cat’s cheeks.
Mackerel tabby is by far the most common tabby pattern. The four known distinct patterns, each having a sound genetic explanation, are the mackerel, classic, ticked and spotted tabby patterns. Tabbies may be brown, grey, orange, or calico, including dilute versions of these colors. Tabby cat has an average lifespan of 15 years. It is a recognized colour variety in purebred cats and is frequently seen in cats of mixed ancestry. One of the most common coat colours, the tabby pattern dates back to domestic cats in ancient Egypt. “Tabby” is not a breed of cat but a coat type seen in almost all genetic lines of domestic cats. Tabby cat or simply tabby is the name for domestic cats with fur coats of stripes, dots, lines or swirling patterns and a distinctive ‘M’ shaped marking on their forehead.