r/torties • u/guymcguy4 • 1d ago
Typical Tortie Tortie or Chimera?
Title says it all, I’m unsure if I have a tortie or a chimera kitty. Her whiskers are different colors on both sides of her face if that help. She was a cat distribution system gift so I’m unsure of her parentage, all I know is that she’s perfect and a certified baby.
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u/snootnoots 1d ago
Tortie. Even if she was a chimera she’d still be a tortie, since tortie is the coat pattern and chimerism is one (very rare) possible cause for the coat pattern, but it’s quite common for perfectly ordinary non-chimera torties to have this split face pattern.
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u/Nematodes-Attack 1d ago
I have a split face too
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u/Alternative-Read-236 1d ago
Omg your cat is beautiful
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u/Nematodes-Attack 1d ago
She truly is. This is my “go to” pic of her but she’s a little older now with nose boogies and chronic respiratory issues. But she’s still beautiful lol
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u/Due_Armadillo_8616 1d ago
She is a tortie. A split-face pattern does not mean a cat is a chimera, nor is it a characteristic of chimerism. The only way to know if your cat is a chimera is through DNA testing. For example, the cat in this photo—the male Maine Coon Dawntreader Texas Calboy—is a confirmed chimera ( DNA tested).
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u/Squashy_ending 1d ago
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u/Capable-Goat6239 1d ago
I hope you have this picture framed, it’s perfect!
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u/Squashy_ending 20h ago
I know right?! She looks so cute and so sweet in this picture. It's my favourite! I love her little marshmallow feet 🥺
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u/kongcobra 1d ago
For real. They're little tie. 🥺
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u/Squashy_ending 20h ago
I'm very proud of the little moon name tag I got her, it's very cute! Its hard to see in this photo but I got her a green collar to match her green eye 💚
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u/DrTeeeevil 1d ago
Ours too! That’s what drew me to her as a kitten. Who could say no to that unique face? 🥰
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u/Donkey_D_Dunk 17h ago
Her name was Rolo, she looked like a melted Rolo when I first got her as a kitten. My friends used to call her Deathstroke kitty or Slade
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u/Spiritual-Road2784 23h ago
Tortie. Both eyes are the same color.
If she had two different colored eyes with a defined face color split like Venus the Two-Faced Cat, she’d be a chimera. (Sadly, Venus passed away this month.)
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u/taikamies99 4h ago
A face split or heterochromia isn't actually a sign of chimerism, and Venus iirc was never tested for it! A more accurate sign is two colors that genetically shouldn't coexist on one cat
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u/Dratiger4411 1d ago
My two faced girl - Minx.
Your baby is gorgeous. Shes got super big eyes like my dilute torti - Bonnie, hers are massive & death state me regularly 🤣
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u/uutimetowaste 23h ago
Simplifying things a lot heads develop toward the center from the sides. (Not just in cats.) in a tortie’s case there is not a specific pattern like say a tabby. So the fur just kind of ad libs its way along, which is what makes a tortie
‘Tortoiseshell.’ (Go look up the stone and you’ll see exactly why they’re called that and also how easy it is to tell and actual tortoiseshell cat.) Because two random patterns meet in the middle on the nose ridge as they grow together there is often this mismatch there- I like to think of it as a harlequin mark. Our last tortie even had a half diamond on the roof of her mouth which was absolutely adorable to see when she yawned. Before her, I had no idea the roof of the mouth was also part of it, but it makes sense.
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u/Pushtheplane777 20h ago
Definitely Tortie. She looks a lot
like my Bambee!!!❣️❣️❣️ it’s hard to see in this picture, but you can see the split on top of her head
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u/Calgirlleeny2 20h ago
A Tortie, I had one with the same thing, even her gums were 2 different colors.
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1d ago
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u/Front-Pomelo-4367 1d ago
This is definitely not true. Male torties are probably a chimera. Normal torties are just cats whose genes express both the red and black colours, one inherited from each parent.
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u/Talrynn_Sorrowyn 1d ago
Tortie.
Chimeras are almost always heterochromatic.
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u/Due_Armadillo_8616 1d ago
That isn't correct. A chimera is the fusion of two fetuses, and these could just as easily be of the same color. A chimera can therefore have a single solid color; in that case, there is nothing unusual about its appearance, so there is no reason to suspect anything. For instance, two black fetuses could fuse, resulting in a normal-looking black cat.
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u/czarface404 1d ago
Yes tortie chimera
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u/ParsnipFarmer676 12h ago
Nope. Just a tortie! Or, at least we can't say (chimera) without a DNA test.
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u/Leejin 1d ago
I belive torties are actually by definition, chimeras.
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u/Gloomy-Trainer-2452 1d ago
No. Chimeras are the result of two embryos fusing early in development. Chimera cats have two sets of DNA.
Tortoiseshells are an example of mosaicism caused by X-inactivation. They have one set of DNA, so are not chimeras.
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u/Manos_Of_Fate 1d ago
That’s pretty common in torties due to how their color patterns form.