They will have darker gray spots and stripes that sit on top of a lighter-colored coat. Silver tabby cats come in varying shades of silver and gray. Silver Tabby Image Credit: Apisit Hrpp, Shutterstock The most popular orange tabby of modern society is the lasagna-loving Garfield from comics and cartoons. Interestingly, all red or orange cats will have the tabby coat type because the gene that carries the tabby pattern also carries that coloration. The orange tabby can vary from different shades of light orange to red. Because this pattern so closely resembles a fish skeleton, it was given the name mackerel. They have a solid dark brown to black stripe along their spine with stripes that branch off that stripe. The mackerel tabby is sometimes referred to as the Tiger Cat. The swirls on a classic tabby resemble a marble cake and are typically very large and unique. The classic tabby will have distinct stripes on their head and face with swirls of dark coloration on the lighter base color that covers the body. Just because a cat is a calico though, does not mean it is also a tabby. This type can also have random tabby stripes on the body as well. If a cat has the three colors of orange, white and black, making it calico and has the distinctive вЂњMвЂќ marking on their forehead, they are considered the calico tabby. Calico Tabby Image Credit: Ben Kerckx, PixabayД¬alico is another coat pattern that is commonly mistaken for a cat breed. This may be the most common tabby coat type that comes to mind. Their stripes can vary in color from brown to black with tan, cream, and white mixed in typically near the underside with occasional white patches on the chest and paws. Recognized Tabby Cat Color Variations Brown Tabby Image Credit: Thewonderalice, UnsplashД«rown tabby cats have solid brown fur on their paws and ears. ItвЂ™s not uncommon to see at least one tabby cat in a multi-cat home. Tabby cats are among the most popular non-breed domestic cats in the United States. The gluttonous, lasagna fiend became a household name and made his way from comics to television and movies. Created by Jim Davis, Garfield gained popularity when he hit comics in 1978 and has grown continuously ever since. The Broadway musical Cats has Munkustrap, the silver tabby, and we all know of the famous orange tabby cat, Garfield from the newspaper comics. A Victorian Era painter named Horatio Henry Couldery used tabby cats as his inspiration for many famous paintings. In the Egyptian вЂњBook of the Dead,вЂќ the sun god, Ra, looks to have a tabby cat as company.

From the Middle Ages, the Victorian Era, and all the way into modern-day society, you can find the tabby cat etched in history throughout the timeline. Tabby cats have been popular throughout history. Image Credit: Anna_Zaitzeva, Shutterstock How Tabby Cats Gained Popularity Scientists have been conducting studies to track the geographic location of domesticated felines throughout history, including tabby coat types.

There is artwork from Ancient Egyptian times that resemble what looks like a tabby cat with the Egyptian Sun God, Ra. Tabby cats are found in art all throughout human history. They likely get their pattern from their wild counterparts that use the tabby pattern as camouflage to hide and stalk their prey. It can be difficult to track down a solid factual history of a specific coat type, but scientists have been using DNA analysis to do so. Research has been conducted and found that the tabby coat type likely emerged in the Middle Ages but did not become popular until the 18 th century. The Earliest Records of Tabby Cats in History The tabby coat is recognized as a breed standard coat type in over two dozen cat breeds. The tabby coat pattern has the very distinct вЂњMвЂќ shaped marking on the forehead and can come in a variety of coat colors with similar-looking patterns that resemble stripes, swirls, dashes, and dots. Interestingly, a tabby cat is not a breed of cat, but a coat type that is found in almost all genetic lines of domesticated cats. When thinking of house cats, the term вЂњtabby catвЂќ will undoubtedly cross your mind.

Tabby kittens