#agouti

[odddogs]

OH FUCK YEAH GRANDPA, this guys is a parrothead if i've ever seen one

[felinefractious]

Monkey Cat Sheldon Cooper

🐱 Abyssinian

📸 Catchy Images [Feles Sublimis]

🎨 Ruddy [Abyssinian Colours]

[renumuro]

[amber-tortoiseshell]

I'm really confused about the solid amber cats- are they really not considered to be tabbies despite having tabby markings? I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around that. Would you mind expanding upon that topic?

There are two possible uses of the word "tabby" (and I think both are equally valid and useful and have their places).

One is what you use: when a cat is striped. That's it. In this meaning "solid" ambers are tabbies, yes. This is what people mean when they say "all orange cats are tabbies". This is useful in everyday talk, but can get messy, think of smoke ghost tabbies or ticked tabbies.

The other is what i use on this blog: tabby is when a cat's agouti genotype is 'A_', solid is when it's 'aa'. Unfortunately this means both (genetically!) tabby and solid cats can have bafflingly not tabby- or solid-looking phenotypes and that can lead to confusion.

It's intuitive for black: a black tabby is striped, a solid black is solid. This is why the a allele is called "solid" - in reality it doesn't make the cat patternless per se, it increases the production of the black pigment in the "background" of the tabby pattern.

The only difference between the genetics of these colors is the agouti gene.

For red, genetically solid cats often look identical to genetically tabbies.

Kitten and adult photo of a cat born to a solid black and a solid tortie. He's 100% genetically solid red.

Solid tortoiseshells can show this difference very well:

The black parts of this cat reveal it's genetically solid - but still have stripes on the red patches.

Amber is somewhere in the middle between red and black: solid cats aren't completely black, but still blacker than tabbies.

This is probably a direct consequence of how orange cats doesn't produce any black pigments whatsoever, while ambers do have some, just less than blacks, so being genetically solid has less effect on them.

Another photo of the tabby and solid amber cats from my previous post

In summary:

[all-mammal-creechur]

Coiban Agouti Dasyprocta coibae

It is endemic to the island of Coiba (Panama). This rodent is poorly studied and little is known concerning its habitats and ecology. It is found in forested regions, which are mainly deciduous

img source

[snototter]

A Central American agouti (Dasyprocta punctata) wades through a river in Manuel Antonio National Park Puntarenas Province, Quepos, Costa Rica

by Gary Stephenson

[silvergoldsea]

Welcome to... THE PETT

Introducing you all to Doctors Jack Rabbot and Michael Robunnyvitch who work at the Pettsburgh Trauma Medical Center (PTMC) saving the lives of regional lagomorphs and rodentia. Other professionals at PTMC include:

Trinity Springharentos

Dana Dassievans

Mel Cottontail

Dennis Woodrataker

Frank Lemmingdon

Cassiebara McKay

Samira Marmothan

Kiara Alfaragouti

John Shenchilla

Victoria Jerboadi

[leapsandsqueaks]

Meet Elide! 💖

Elide (Uh-leed) is a sweet, but timid, beautiful agouti girl. She was found in the driveway of her foster family's home. She is looking for a warm, quiet home where she can learn to trust her human companions and figure out the manners of a house bun. 🐾

Learn more about Elide here!