Tabby Cat Personality

Tabby British Shorthair cat sleeping on grey cat litter
in his cage at a cat show - Photo by Michael

There is no such thing as a tabby cat personality. There really can't be. The tabby cat is not a breed of cat  - see Tabby Cat Breed. The tabby cat is a cat with a tabby coat and this coat type is found on a large number of different cat breeds and is the most common type of coat for random bred cats (mixed breed cats).

The tabby cat coat is everywhere. The tabby coat is found on a large percentage of wildcats too. In fact nearly all the wildcats have tabby coats. If there are 500 million domestic cats in the world, about 300 million would be tabby cats!

It is absurd to think that these 300 million cats all have the same or similar personality and also odd to think that the type of cat coat also dictates the cat's character. Also if there was such as thing as a tabby cat personality the wildcats would have the same character as the domestic cats.

People also think that calico cats have the same personality. Calico cats are also not a cat breed. "Calico" is the American name given to cats with a totoiseshell and white coat. I don't think that the calico coat affects the personality.

It is possible that people search for tabby cat personality thinking that the "tabby cat" is a cat breed - it is not. It is a very ubiquitous cat coat, no more, no less. It is worth pointing out that the difference is personality between the cat breeds is quite small. Most are in the middle ground. There is a difference between the most static (e.g. Persian) and the most active (e.g Bengal) but most are in the middle.

If you would like to read more about the tabby cat coat and see a wide range of photographs of different types of tabby cat, please go to this page: CAT COATS TABBY.

Even if there was such as thing as tabby cat personality, the character of individual cats would have a greater impact on behavior. Individual cats have quite a wide range of personalities.




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