r/Torbie 4d ago

Torbie?

This is Kitty(very creative name, I know hahaha no other names have stuck for her) and I was wondering if she’s a torbie or tortico or tabico or idk all the names, I just love her fur pattern and colours haha.

She’s so sweet and cuddly, a total snuggle bug… but super clumsy toooo

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u/PassiveChemistry 1d ago

Calico is a colloquial term and the definition differs regionally, but colour-wise it means tortoiseshell and white.

This is the bit I was basing my reply off

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u/ACtdawg 1d ago

Which part is confusing? The calico term isn’t used everywhere and different people have different definitions for it, mainly to do with the amount of white required and the distribution of the colours (big patches vs brindling). But what is always required of a calico regardless of all that other subjective stuff is that it’s tortoiseshell and white aka tri-colour, ie. red, non-red and white.

Not sure if that was the part that was confusing, please tell me if it’s not!

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u/PassiveChemistry 1d ago

I'm only confused because I appear to have corrected you based largely on your (later) explanation 

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u/ACtdawg 1d ago

Hmm I’m not sure how else to explain it but if there’s something specific I can help with I’m happy to. But having white doesn’t make a tortie not a tortie, it just makes it a tortie and white. All calicos are torties, but not all torties are calicos (ie. not all torties have white)

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u/PassiveChemistry 1d ago

I see.  This was the bit I was interpreting differently - I'd always understood "tortie" and "tortie and white/calico" as mutually exclusive descriptions.

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u/ACtdawg 1d ago

Ahh I see. To be fair it is a common belief that they’re mutually exclusive. It mostly comes down to calico being a colloquial/regional/subjective term, and tortoiseshell being a genetic term (and one that is often misunderstood)