Tips for Warrior Cats fans

Or you know.. anyone interested in creating a feline OC of some sort.

Tri colored (calico) felines are nearly always female.  Males do exist, but are often sterile.  Only about 1 in 3000 male calico cats can actually breed.  This is because of the fact that the X chromosome in the cat actually determines its colour (and females have 2 X chromosomes).

Also, if you're DYING to make a cat OC with heterochromia, at least do some mild research.  In felnes, it mainly affects white cats, but CAN still happen to other coloured cats as long as they have the gene.  All felines are born with blue eyes and as they develop, their eye colour changes.  This condition is actually quite often see in some specific breeds.   Oriental shorthair, sphynx, and persian being the three I remember.  There are more though.  Also, about 60 or so percent of felines with heterochromia are deaf.  Also, in felines with heterochromia, one eye is often blue, while the other eye is properly coloured.

For overall eye colour, it is dependent on the pedigree of the feline, as well as the breed.  Some cats (like siamese) when pedigreed will have very minimal eye colour choices you can make.  Russian blues generally have green eyes.  etc etc.  A quick little guide to eyes can be found here.  www.messybeast.com/eye-colours…  It's from 2009 but it's a great resource.

Furthermore, a female cat can copulate with over 4 males within a period of time.  Which means that since there are multiple eggs, a female cat can give birth to kittens in the same litter born to multiple fathers.  So yea.

Average litter size can be anywhere from 3 to 5 kittens.  Up to 6 is not unheard of ,though.  Fewer than 3 is also possible.  And in rare cases there can be even more, up to 10.  Though it seems that in very large litters, quite a few of the kittens will not survive.  Litter size also varies from breed to breed and also on the age of the female.  Older females often give birth to much smaller litters than younger ones.  It also depends on the pedigree of the cat.  Inbreeding can cause smaller litter sizes.

Hell.  You interested in a good guide to pelts and the like?  Here you go www.messybeast.com/colours-con…
Looking into giving your character some sort of grotesque or genetic deformity?  www.messybeast.com/freak-cats.…
That site is literally great for anything you might want to know.

You know, in case you were interested in making a viable feline character that isn't neon in some way, shape or form.

I'm not a biologist or vet or anything like that, so my knowledge base might be a little off, but it's better than flying blind yeh?  Basically, do the research before making any sort of animal OC based in a realistic universe.

Additional info in the comments.  comments.deviantart.com/1/4342…