All the Mackeral tabbies are boys, the torties, torbies and calicos are girls (of course) All were de-wormed, vaccinated and checked over. Other than being very hungry and some still have fleas, they are all healthy. The vet just looked at me like I was nuts when I presented him with a carrier full of kittens-
So now Aurora has been removed from the room and is on a much-needed vacation from her mothering and the rest of the kittens are scampering about the bedroom tearing up the joint. God help us all! LOL
I am losing track. Is that 13 kittens tearing around now? OMG! 🙂
No, there are now 16 kittens tearing it up in there:
3 orange (2 girls , 1 boy)
3 calicos
2 torbies
3 torties
4 macks
1 white kitty (girl)
Lord help us all! 🙂
“Tortie” is short for “tortoiseshell”, right? What is a “torbie”, though?
Will send you some more to help out for your huge pile of (adorable) kittens.
Torbie refers to cats or kittens who aren’t quite dark enough to be a tortoiseshell and not light enough to be a calico. Instead of white (for calico) or dark brown or black (for tortoiseshell) the kittens are light brown or golden brown between their patterned coat. They are pretty rare in these parts, so for us to have so many at once is pretty unusual.
Black cats lack the striping gene. If they had the striping gene, they would be your typical black and brown tabby. Torties also lack this gene, hence the typical black and orange patterns, same can be said for calicos. Torbies do have the stripping gene and where there would be black markings as in the tortie, they have black and brown striped patches instead. Same can be said for tabicos which have the striping gene and have patches of black and brown tiger striping as opposed to solid black patches.
falkosmom explained it so much better!
If you want to see the difference
http://www.seregiontica.org/Colors/tortietorbie/tortietorbie.htm