Where Do Tabby Cats Originate From

The english term tabby originates from the translation of the french phrase striped silk taffeta the root of which is tabis meaning a rich watered silk this can be further traced to the middle french atabis 14th century which stemmed from the arabic term attabiya.

Where do tabby cats originate from. The word tabby is thought to come from a type of striped fabric from baghdad the atabi. And this wild feature is a curiosity since the origin of every cat is tabby or tabby color. Youll be interested to learn the term tabby comes from a middle eastern silk called atabi. Three separate mutations of the taqpep gene in the domestic cat and another mutation in the same gene in the king cheetah can cause the tabby pattern to go from striped to splotchy and in the.

If you travel the world youll find tabby cats everywhere you look from the tiny strays which evolved to the singapura breed to the stray cats on cypress the canals of venice and the streets of rome to pedigreed cats which found their origins in many countries. Eventually they arrived in the new world with the pilgrims. At first the name tabi was given but over time this evolved to tabby. The tabby gene is more dominate than any other coat color gene.

Tabby cats are often mistakenly thought of as being a particular breed of cat but it is the coat pattern that is known as tabby todays house cats originated from the african wild cat which has similar markings to those we see on tabby cats an effective form of camouflage. As the pattern is so common in the wild many medieval cats were likely tabbies. Soon after this striped fabric arrived in the uk many cat owners noticed a similarity to the markings of what were known as tiger cats. Orange tabby cats have a place in history while the origins of the word tabby are steeped in mystery one possibility is from the arabic word attabiya referring to attabiy a place in baghdad known for making silk with a striped pattern.

All cats are originally tabby the african wild cat is the direct ancestor of domestic cats and its fur is a variety of brindle cats.