If both contribute an X, then the kitten is a female (XX), if the father contributes a Y, then the kitten is born male (XY). Mother cats can only pass along the X chromosome to their kittens, but the father cat can contribute an X or a Y. So, how does that all come to be? Well, female cats carry the XX sex chromosomes while males carry the XY sex chromosomes.
However, occasionally a litter of tortoiseshell or calico cats can produce a male and these male cats will often be chimera cats. Most tortoiseshell and calico cats are female and while they can look like a chimera, most are not. Most of these cats are not chimera cats, but there are a few who will be and it all comes down to gender. They’re not the same as a tortoiseshell catĬhimera cats often get mistaken for tortoiseshell or calico cats and here’s where things start to get slightly tricky. This usually results in one amber or green colored eye and one blue colored eye, although just like the color of chimera cats themselves, this can differ. Some chimera cats will be born with the most beautifully mismatched eyes, a phenomenon known as heterochromia which is the result of the two sets of DNA that these cats carry. (Image credit: Venus the Two Face Cat/Facebook) Some chimera cats will have different colored eyes Some chimera cats will be born with slight color differentiations that are barely noticeable, others with mild color differences that give them a mottled look, and some with dramatic differences that give them their striking split-faces. The way that this mixed DNA will present will differ from feline to feline.
Early on in their mothers womb, a pair of embryos fused together giving the chimera cat two sets of DNA - their own and that of another embryo. Chimera cats have two sets of DNAĪ chimera cat is one cat that started out as two, so you can think of these felines as being their own identical twin. If you’ve ever looked closely at a chimera cat, you’ll notice that the line that separates the two colors from one another is often uncannily straight and these sharply divided colors can make it look like mother nature took two different cats and glued them together. These two colors are usually orange and black, but varying shades of brown are possible too. In simple terms, a chimera cat is one who is born with a certain color on one part of their face and/or body and a different color on the rest of their face and/or body. While you may not have heard of the term ‘chimera cat’, if you’re as big a lover of the feline fur babies of this world as we are, then it’s likely you may have come across a chimera cat before without realizing it.
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