This was my most popular post ever. When I wrote it in 2013, I could find no evidence that coat color affects behavior. Since then, after the many comments and other tidbits of information I have heard, I am starting to lean toward the possibility that it may be true. I will have to dig into the research and rewrite this.
I want to first thank Janet Blue from The Cat on my Head blog for honoring Bad Cat Chris with The WordPress Family Award. It is the third time Chris was honored recently and I am very happy to be part of such a wonderful family of pet bloggers.
Chris and Tigger
Today I want to talk about ginger cats. I refer to Chris, and cats like him, as gold cats but Ginger seems to be the most popular term. They are also refered to as orange, buff and probably a few others. The common belief is that ginger cats have a good temperament and are more friendly and outgoing than the average cat. Indeed, Chris is a very friendly cat and our other ginger cat, Tigger, was also very friendly.
I first heard of this belief back in 2006 when Rose and I started our short jaunt into the world of…
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Bad Cat Chris 
We never had ginger cat, I can’t compare with the colours we have had. Very interesting idea, never heard before that the colour might tell about behavior. Our black and white Kosmo is really friendly with humans, but wants to be the only cat in the house, I suppose.
Our black and white princess love people but did not like much all the other cats.
Well, you also know what they say about torties and their tortitude… so there could be something involved with coloring. But like you mentioned, most gingers are male — and most torties are female.
It is a complicated issue. I’m not an expert in genetics but it could be that the genes that control fur color are on the same chromosome as genes that control certain types of behavior.
From what I’ve gathered (totally non-scientifically), the ginger boys tend to be friendlier and the ginger girls tend to be a little, um, “spicier,” kind of like torties are. Maybe it’s the red fur?
Spicy huh? I’ll have to remember that.
We’ve always heard that orange cats are friendlier…but Wally isn’t anymore friendly than Ernie. Though they’re both friendlier than Zoey…but she’s a torbie. Enough said.
Who is friendlier to strangers?
I got two boy cats because I’ve always heard “neutered” boy cats are friendlier. However, I have met some very, very, very friendly female cats (spayed) that outdo any male cats I’ve even been acquainted with … and then there are the hissy biatches of course!
As far as color, I have no opinion. I like to adopt / have black cats because I read they are the least adopted color animal. And you know, black goes with everything … maybe one day I’ll get a ginger. But for now, it’s grey — never met many grey cats at all, and my big fat black guy!
Nice post! 🙂
I’ve had two black cats and both are/were very sweet but shy. I had a grey cat, Vinny, that was very friendly. If a stranger came in the house and stood in one place for more than two minutes, Vinny would lie on their feet.
My grey cat ALWAYS lies on my husband’s feet! It’s cute and we can’t figure out the behavior.
That’s funny that both of our grey cats behaved that way.
Interesting …