Tabby
Tabby is not a breed.
It is a coat pattern — the agouti banding of individual hairs, plus a pattern of stripes, blotches, spots or ticking, and the M-shaped marking on the forehead that every tabby carries.
There are four recognised tabby patterns: mackerel, with narrow vertical stripes; classic, with wide blotches and a swirled bullseye on the flank; spotted; and ticked, in which the banding shows but the body pattern is largely absent, as in the Abyssinian. Tabby is the ancestral wild-type pattern of the domestic cat, which is why it turns up everywhere, in ordinary cats and pedigree breeds alike. Every cat is genetically a tabby; in solid-coloured cats the pattern is simply masked.
- What it is
- A coat pattern, found across breeds and in ordinary cats
- Patterns
- Mackerel, classic, spotted and ticked
- Size
- Depends entirely on the cat, not the pattern
- Lifespan
- 12–20 years for an ordinary cat
- Marking
- The M on the forehead is present in all tabbies
- Health
- Nothing is inherited with the pattern
Related: Abyssinian · Maine coon
3 tabby photos, newest first
Living with a tabby
Nothing about a tabby's care follows from being a tabby. The pattern predicts no size, no temperament and no health condition, and claims that tabbies are friendlier or bolder than other cats have no basis — they are simply the most common pattern, so most people's cats are tabbies.
Care depends on the cat underneath: a tabby Maine Coon, a tabby Abyssinian and a tabby shelter kitten need three different things.
For an ordinary tabby, that means neutering, vaccination, microchipping, dental attention and annual checks becoming twice yearly past ten.
One genuine footnote: in a solid-coloured cat you can often see faint ghost tabby markings in strong light, particularly in kittens. That is the underlying pattern showing through, and it is normal.
Judge the individual animal, as with any cat of unknown ancestry.
General guidance, not veterinary advice. Individual cats vary, and anything about a specific animal is a question for a vet who has seen it.
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