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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteTo identify a tabby pattern, look first at your cat’s sides: narrow parallel stripes point to mackerel, broad swirls to classic, separate spots to spotted, and a fine speckled or mottled coat to ticked. Patched tabby describes tabby markings combined with patches of another color. It is a useful fifth category for owners, though it is not one of the four principal patterns in The International Cat Association’s overview.
The five tabby markings at a glance
| Marking | What to look for | Where the pattern appears |
|---|---|---|
| Mackerel | Narrow, fairly parallel stripes | Across the sides, often with bars on the legs and rings on the tail |
| Classic | Broad swirls, blotches, or a marbled appearance | Across the body, with a distinctive shoulder and back design |
| Spotted | Separate darker spots that do not join into broken stripes | Most visibly on the sides; spots may also appear on shoulders, flanks, legs, and feet |
| Ticked | Fine mottling or speckling, often without large body stripes or spots | Across individual hairs, which have bands of color; the face, legs, or tail may retain tabby markings |
| Patched | Tabby markings alongside patches of another color | Color patches occur with tabby patterning; tortoiseshell-tabby cats are also called torbies |
TICA’s overview names mackerel, classic, spotted, and ticked as the four principal patterns. Patched tabby is a helpful owner-facing description of tabby patterning combined with color patches, rather than a fifth base pattern in that list. See TICA’s plain-language color guide and its article on tabby characteristics.
How to tell which tabby pattern your cat has
- Start with the sides. Look for lines, broad swirls, separate spots, or an even fine-speckled effect. The body usually gives the clearest clue.
- Check the hair if the body looks mottled. In a ticked coat, color bands on individual hairs create the overall effect; the pattern may not form obvious stripes or spots across the torso.
- Look at the face, legs, and tail. These areas can show extra tabby markings even when the body pattern is faint. Many tabbies have an M-shaped forehead marking, but it does not by itself identify the body pattern.
- Separate pattern from color. Brown, red, blue, cream, and silver describe colors. Mackerel, classic, spotted, and ticked describe how markings are arranged or appear on the coat.
- Allow for an uncertain result. White fur can cover the markings needed to classify the underlying pattern. TICA’s guidance allows a cat whose pattern cannot be determined because of white areas to be described simply as a tabby with white.
Tabby markings are often easier to distinguish on shorthaired cats than on longhaired cats, according to TICA. The breed association’s overview of cat coloration also explains the distinction between pattern and color.
How the four principal patterns differ
Mackerel: narrow stripes
Mackerel tabbies have relatively narrow lines running down the sides. TICA’s formal description compares the lines to fish ribs: “The sides of the mackerel tabby should be evenly barred with vertical unbroken lines of marking color similar to the rib bones of a fish, hence the name.” The legs may be barred and the tail ringed.
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Classic: broad swirls and blotches
A classic tabby has broad body markings that form swirls, blotches, or a marbled effect rather than the mackerel’s narrow, parallel lines. TICA’s formal description emphasizes a patterned belly and a distinctive design across the shoulders and back.
Spotted: distinct marks, not broken stripes
Look for separate darker spots, especially on the sides. Their size and shape can vary. In TICA’s formal description, spots are “most prominent on the sides of the body, but often seen on the shoulders, flanks, legs and feet.” They should remain distinct rather than run together into a broken mackerel pattern.
Ticked: bands on individual hairs
With a ticked pattern, the color is distributed along individual hairs in bands. That produces a finely mottled or speckled look, often without large stripes or spots on the body. Tabby markings may still be visible on the face, legs, or tail.
Where patched tabby fits
Patched tabby describes a coat that combines tabby markings with patches of another color. It is different from the four principal patterns because it describes a color combination alongside the pattern, not a separate arrangement of stripes, swirls, spots, or bands on individual hairs. TICA calls tortoiseshell-tabby cats torbies.
When a tabby pattern is hard to classify
- White covers the markings: If too little of the pattern is visible to identify it, “tabby with white” is a reasonable description under TICA’s guidance.
- Long fur softens the pattern: The markings may be harder to see than on a shorthaired coat.
- The coat shows more than one clue: Check the sides first, then use the face, legs, tail, and visible hair bands to make sense of an ambiguous body pattern.
The category names are visual descriptions, not a measure of how common a pattern is. TICA’s cited descriptions provide no prevalence figures or frequency ranking for the five categories.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.TICA’s formal descriptions
The quoted mackerel and spotted wording above comes from TICA’s Uniform Color Descriptions, Version A, dated October 16, 2025. The document gives formal pattern descriptions; the practical fifth category, patched tabby, is presented here separately to distinguish color patching from the four principal patterns.
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