A Reverse Tuxedo Cat? Let's Check This Out!

We've all seen a tuxedo cat and some of us have been lucky enough to live with one. But what's all this about a "reverse tuxedo"?

Now, let's start with the fact that a tuxedo cat is NOT a specific breed, but simply a cat with black and white fur pattern across its body that resembles, well, a tuxedo.

In fact, years ago, my cat had a litter of kittens that included two tabbies, one jet-black and one tuxedo I later named Simon. So, the potential of a kitten being born with these markings, is pretty random and was certainly unplanned.

But let's get back to that reverse tuxedo. Naturally, it means the feline's coat will be black and white, but in this instance the coloring is flipped. Meaning that instead of a mostly black coat with white confined to the paws, chest, chin, and belly, the reverse tuxedo cat is primarily white, with black markings across the spine, ears, and sometimes across the face, like a mask..

Here is the surprising part: your cat's black-and-white coat comes from one gene family, not two fighting for territory. That gene, the white-spotting gene known as KIT, tells pigment-producing cells how far to travel across a kitten's skin before birth, and how far those cells get decides how much of the coat ends up colored versus white. Okay, I'm intrigued.

When those cells travel across most of the cat's body, the result is a mostly black cat with only a handful of white spots, AKA the standard tuxedo. However, when the cells stall earlier, color crowds into a smaller zone, typically the head, ears, tail, and a band running down the back, with white coloring claiming the rest. The black is then found only where the cells first reached.

Now, science doesn't consider this type of phenomenon particularly rare, however cats with bicolor coats are in fact ranked on a scale and scored from one through ten. One means the cat is fully colored while a score of 10 indicates the coat is almost entirely white.

Here's where it gets interesting. Remember that gene we talked about earlier? The coloring of a cat's coat comes down to which copies of the gene they inherited. Two strong copies push the coat toward heavy white, sometimes leaving a cat that looks almost entirely white. One strong and one weak copy lands in the middle, with a moderate amount of white. Two weak copies, in contrast, give solid color or barely any white at all.

A standard tuxedo cat carries low-grade white spotting, generally close to 25 percent white in stratregic locations across their body. At the far end sit van-patterned cats, which are mostly white, generally more than 75 percent, with color around the ears and tail broken apart by white. That pattern takes its name from the Turkish Van breed, named after Lake Van. Between the two extremes lie harlequin coats, sometimes called cow, moo, or magpie cats, which are largely white with bigger colored patches and often a colored mask over the head.

A reverse tuxedo sits toward the high-white end, its black gathered into patches and a facial mask rather than spread across a solid jacket. And searches for any type of distinctive reverse tuxedo personality turn up plenty of opinion and very little science.

The closest available research is a 2016 UC Davis-led study published in the Journal of Applied Animal Welfare Science, which set out to test whether coat color tracked with aggression in cats. It found that coat pattern was not a reliable predictor of aggression once other factors were accounted for. In short, pet parents call reverse tuxedo cats bold, expressive, or dramatic because that is what shines through on camera, not because the coat writes their character.

A related search phrase, "reverse siamese cat," points to a completely different gene. Classic Siamese color comes from a heat-sensitive kind of albinism rather than white spotting. In these cats, the enzyme that makes pigment does its job only on the body's cooler surfaces, so the face, ears, paws, and tail deepen into points while the warmer torso stays pale.

That is a separate mechanism entirely from the white-spotting gene behind tuxedo and reverse tuxedo cats. Grouping the two together is a common mistake; nevertheless, the underlying genetics share nothing.

For now, enjoy the dramatic coloring, snap the photos, and appreciate one very handsome coat for exactly what it is.