This can occur on the face or throughout the entire body. Because torties are not a specific breed of cat, their overall coloring usually appears brindle.Ī chimera coat describes a tortoiseshell cat that is one color on one side of its body and a different color on the other side. “Dilute” tortoiseshell cats are a lighter gray and orange rather than black and orange. Traditional tortoiseshell cats are a blend of deep orange and black colors. Tortoiseshell coats show up in many different purebred domestic cats, as well as in non-purebred cats. In the rare event that a tortoiseshell cat is a male, he is usually sterile. Tortoiseshell cats are almost exclusively female. By definition, a tortoiseshell cat is a feline with a coat that resembles the mottled or particolored shell of a tortoise. Tortoiseshell is not the name of a breed, but a description of a color pattern that can appear in cats of many different breeds and mixes.
Tortoiseshell cats are almost all female.
