Is it just a mutt? Pic Added!

[friedeggs]

Since there is no written standard on what is being called calico's, I suppose one could call a calico whatever they choose until there is some type of written description on them. Every calico that I have had hatch was from a male that carries autosomal red. The only written description that I know of, for calico, is on cats, though I could be wrong on that, may be some other type of critter that has a calico color, but I don't know of any. I would think the description for that color would also be the color that would be a correct description for a chicken. The color description for a calico cat is as follows and oddly enough, almost all calico cats are female, with the exact opposite in poultry.

Well said Donna and thanks for your input​

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
All the calico cat descriptions I could find required large amounts of white; otherwise the colour was described as tortoise. http://fanciers.com/cat-faqs/tricolors.shtml#diffs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortoiseshell_cat http://www.thecatsite.com/Snips/106/Cat-Coat-Colors-and-Patterns.html http://tica.org/members/publications/ucd.pdf?zoom_highlight=calico#search="calico"

But you are absolutely corrrect, there is no written or agreed upon standard.

 

[Donna McCormick]

Tortie cats that have white are referred to as white torties. "perhaps we should all move to a cat forum here" LOL Sorry folks! I promise I won't bring it up again.
All calico cats are colored differently, as are chickens. I have seen many calico's that have very little white but also have seen some that have mostly white in their pattern. However, as long as the cat shows the colors described, it is a calico.

http://cats.about.com/od/felinegenetics/a/colorpatterns_2.htm

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Well, until someone is serious enough to write a working standard and start keeping records, it is all semantics anyways

FWIW, there are also calico fish and butterflies and a few other creatures.

 

[friedeggs]

sections of color brightly defined
such as a cat with a mottled coat of black, brown, yellow or orange, etc.
~ calico

Suze I googled calico and got the above
Interesting about the fish and butterflies, did not know that, cool.​

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

I googled too, but focused on cat organizations rather than non-affiliated dictionaries or general purpose collections of information. Most of them distinguish between tortoise, tortoise with white and calico as three separate varieties.

I think wikipedia is the source that listed the other kids of animals (I htink there are also a dragonfly and a crab?) If you look at ohter animals, they obviously arrived at their name in a different path than from the cat colouring.

 

[friedeggs]

Tortoiseshell has no white, thats the difference for me.
Well crabs too can be calico?

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

Quote:
The difference between tortoise with white and calico has to do with whether there are distinct colour patches verus the colours being more melded together, with calico having larger patches of individual colours, separated by white.

Yeah, when I clicked on the link to see the crabs, they came up with two different kinds. Both could be considered spotted, though.

 

[M@M@2four]

nevermind...

 

[friedeggs]

Yeah, when I clicked on the link to see the crabs, they came up with two different kinds. Both could be considered spotted, though.

I wonder if they are easier to breed for than poultry. LOL
I wonder if they can be shown.LOL
I wonder if they're a crab forums.
I wonder if agouti exists in them. Would love to have that gene in chickens​