Tortie is short for tortoiseshell. Yes, the name comes from the tortoiseshell turtle. Torties combine two solid colors – red and black – and a majority of torties are female. Why female? In cats the red and black colors are on the X chromosome. Since females are XX and males are XY, it is usually only females that have both red and black.

The primary color on most torties is black. The amount of red can vary from just a few toes to lots of obvious red. It is rare but some torties have more red than black. They used to be called “reverse torties”.

Torbie is short for tortoiseshell-tabby. When you add tabby stripes a tortie becomes a torbie. They are also called patched tabbies since they are a tabby with patches of red or cream. Adding stripes also tends to make the red harder to see. Most torbies will have some red on their feet, even if you don’t see it anywhere else.

Many people find the difference between torties and torbies rather confusing. Even on a solid color cat, you can often see stripes on reds and creams. The only way to be sure if you have a tortie or torbie is to ignore any stripes showing in the red or cream areas – just look to see if the black color is solid or has stripes!

Torties and torbies are very interesting! They tend to have what the cat fancy calls “Tortie-tude”. More than any other color, these girls have an “opinion” on everything. They will tell you exactly what that opinion is! At the same time, they can be one of the sweetest cats you will ever own.

Every tortie has its own unique color pattern. Torties have been called Mother Nature’s idea of abstract art.