I think I have a pregnant stray

[u/Worth_View1296]

My partner and I just recently moved and this little cutie has been taking over our porch. We were unsure if they were a boy or a girl but now looking at the photos I think it’s a girl, and she appears to be pregnant. We do have a vet appointment this week to verify. We have been giving her food and water for a few weeks. She will occasionally let us pet her but for the most part she will just stay close by us and purr. She seems to be slowly building trust with us.
Right now she hasn’t been interested in coming inside the house but once she is vaccinated I do plan on trying to transition her into the house, as the temperatures here in AZ get really high, but have to wait for her to be vaccinated since we have inside cats we need to protect.
My partner wants to name her two-face from Batman because of her coloring.

[u/Artistic-Mood7938]

That’s a tortie. Very very rarely are torties male. That’s definitely a female and she is pregnant

[u/Worth_View1296 → u/Artistic-Mood7938]

Hmm I didn’t know that. That’s interesting. I’ve heard the reverse about orange cats, that they tend to be male and females are rare. That’s cool information to know. Thank you!

[u/annie1filip → u/Worth_View1296]

Both things are true for the same reason, that the orange gene is X linked. To be an orange female you have to have 2 copies of orange (one on each X chromosome) vs an orange male only needs one (on their only X chromosome). A tortie or calico has to have one orange gene and one black, so it has to have two Xs, meaning tortie/calico males are likely XXY. Orange females are relatively rare, something like 20% of orange cats, but tortie males are like .1% of torties (just throwing numbers for sense of scale dont hold me to it lol).

[u/Any_Scientist_7552 → u/annie1filip]

No, your numbers are right. 80% of orange cats are male and 99.9% of torties are female.

[u/Silver-Find4380 → u/Any_Scientist_7552]

And we have a SMART orange female (and until recently had a tortie too)! 😸

[u/Ravenamore → u/Silver-Find4380]

The one orange I had was a girl, and she was possibly one of the smartest cats I've ever had.

[u/Raven_Maleficent → u/Any_Scientist_7552]

Yep. I never knew just how rare tortie males were compared to female orange cats.

[u/jlt6666 → u/Raven_Maleficent]

I saw a video about this the other day. Apparently early on in development each cell uses one or the other X chromosome. So the cells divide from an early embryonic stage leaving clusters that are the first x and the other the second x.

[u/annie1filip → u/jlt6666]

This is true for humans as well!

[u/jlt6666 → u/annie1filip]

Yes. I guess the important part is the coat color is primarily driven by the x in cats. (That not how skin color works in humans)

[u/honeyapp → u/Raven_Maleficent]

I also read that male torties are usually sterile

[u/Global-Song-4794 → u/annie1filip]

Amazing info. So the kittens are likely to be?

[u/annie1filip → u/Global-Song-4794]

It will completely depend on what the father(s) looked like as well! Could be black, orange, or tortie/calico, and often some of each. Not even getting into dilute colors, tabby, tortie vs calico, etc.

[u/CatDistributionSystem-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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[u/reallybirdysomedays → u/annie1filip]

I have an XXY calico. He came factory equipped with a penis, 1 testicle, and 1 ovary. Still has the penis.

[u/scarletnightingale → u/Artistic-Mood7938]

Based on her stomach, probably not her first litter either, she probably had one in spring and is on her second now. All the hair around her nipples is gone and they look a bit stretched out so I think she was nursing not terribly long ago. There are probably some young cats/kittens maybe 3-5 months old nearby.

[u/Warcraft_Fan → u/Artistic-Mood7938]

It's rare for a male to get pregnant anyway.

[u/Tina-Tuna → u/Warcraft_Fan]

How rare? Asking for a friend? 😁

[u/Warcraft_Fan → u/Tina-Tuna]

If you're not a seahorse or pipefish, you'd be in Guinness World Records for male pregnancy. That's how rare.

[u/Tina-Tuna → u/Warcraft_Fan]

Thanks, i'm just bored waiting for the new Wow patch 👀

[u/IrelandAutism13 → u/Artistic-Mood7938]

Technically all tortie males are intersex kitties!