Patterns in the Domesticated Cat – The Parti-Color and Bi-Color Patterns

Patterns in the Domesticated Cat – The Parti-Color and Bi-Color Patterns

July 28, 2026

Pat Jacobberger, CFA Judge Emeritus

A tortoiseshell Selkirk Rex – shorthair division. This is the classic tortoiseshell pattern: a black cat with bits of red softly intermingled throughout the body. **Remember:** tortoiseshell is a pattern, not a breed.

Tortoiseshell and calico patterned cats have been depicted in artwork for thousands of years in multiple cultures. These patterns, and the colors associated with them, are related to the sex-linked red gene – a gene that resides on the X chromosome. These patterns require two copies of the red gene, so most cats with these patterns are female because they have two X chromosomes. Since male cats have only one X chromosome (the other being the Y chromosome), male tortoiseshells and male calicos are very rare and usually unable to reproduce.

The archetypal tortoiseshell patterned cat is a female cat which is black, or any genetically black color, such as chocolate, cinnamon, blue (genetic dilution of black), or lilac (genetic dilution of chocolate), with random patches of red or cream (genetic dilution of red). The patches are random in size, shape, density, and intensity. Therefore, in some tortoiseshell cats there may be a lot of red or cream and in some, just a smidgen. The tortoiseshell genetically- related black and dilute colors are shown in the Parti-Color Division of the Persian breed.

A calico-patterned Persian. A cat with the calico pattern ideally is a white cat with large, distinct patches of black and red (or their dilute variant). A calico may also have either chocolate or its diluete, lilac, in place of the black. The red (or cream, if dilute) areas may have tabby markings as the red coloration in all colors/patterns will often have those markings. **Remember:** Calico is a pattern, not a breed.

White spotting or bi-color patterns (sometimes referred to as pie-balding), can occur with any of the patterns discussed thus far as well as with the pointed pattern. As seen on the illustration below, the expression of white spotting can be as little as just a spot or two to as much as a nearly white cat (1 and 10 are solid-colored cats on the opposite ends of the continuum; 2 and 3 are abdominal views).

When the bi-colored cat is almost completely white with the color and/or pattern confined mostly to the head and tail, the pattern is termed “bi-color van” (see numbers 6, 7, 8 and 9 on the illustration below).

*Progressive spotting patterns from solid color to no color at all. (click for larger image)*

The van pattern is named for the Turkish Van. The breed developed near the Van river in Turkey. It has color only on its tail, its head, and may have a spot of color on its body. Additionally, the white area on its face creates an inverted V or a blaze.

The most common bi-color cats are solid and white and tabby and white. The calico cat is also a bi-color patterned cat. The typical calico patterned cat is a white female cat with solid areas of black, or any genetically black color, such as chocolate, cinnamon, blue, or lilac balanced with solid areas of red or cream.

There is only one breed of pedigreed cat that is bred exclusively in the bi-colored pattern, and that is the Turkish Van. In this breed, color, and pattern are only present on the head and the tail (see number 9 on the illustration).

The parti-color and bi-color patterns can be found among several pedigreed breeds, both shorthaired and longhaired: Persian, Japanese Bobtail, American Shorthair, and Exotics to name just a few. That said, calico and tortoiseshell patterned cats and tabby and white patterned cats are common, yet sought after, in the non-pedigreed cat.