# color/sex question



## Leaf (Aug 21, 2007)

I know in cats, almost 99.9% of the calicos and torties are female. I've only seen one male calico in my life, and never a male tortie.

My question is, is it the same with rabbits? The tortie colored ones (calico with no white) always female - and what exactly is a calico in a rabbit?



If not with those colors - is there any general distinction between color/markings and sexes?


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## we3pnuts (Aug 21, 2007)

I don't think there is a connection between calico and female in rabbits. For example, the harliquin rabbit is a breed (female and male) and they have the calico colors. I hope that makes sense?


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## MyBabyBunnies (Aug 21, 2007)

As far as I can tell, no correlation. I've seen just as many tri-colored (the rabbit equivalent of calico)does as I have bucks.


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## Butterfinger (Aug 21, 2007)

I have a broken tortie buck (Tort in splotches with a white background; looks kind of like calico too )... I don't think there's any relation between color and gender in rabbits 
Here's a picture of him, in case I was too vague:







~Diana and Butter


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## pamnock (Aug 21, 2007)

The broken tortoise shell color in rabbits is not a sex linked gene. (I don't know of any sex-linked colors being documented in rabbits.) Torts in rabbits are caused by the "e" recessive non-extension gene carried by both sexes.

In cats, a calico/tort must inherit O & o which is carried only on the X chromosome. Because the cat must have 2 (XX) genes to carry the Oo homozygous combination needed to make calico, the cat can only be a female because XY is male. In rare cases, there have been males with the XXY chromosome mutation, resulting in a calico or tort male.

The dominant white spotting gene works the same in cats and rabbits, giving the "calico" color (broken tort or tri-colored akd broken harlequin).

The calico and tortcats do bear a striking resemblence to harlequin rabbits. The genes have a similar effect on the coats, but the harlequin rabbit is produced by the "ej" gene in the E series and is not sex linked.

Pam


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## Leaf (Aug 21, 2007)

Thank you all! What great information :biggrin2:


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## Ivory (Aug 21, 2007)

I have always wondered this, because in hamsters and other rodents the gene is sex linked.

Thanks for the info!


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## tundrakatiebean (Aug 21, 2007)

Great question, great info, and a great picture of butters!

That's a cool fact I didn't know.


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