This post is going to be filled with orange tabby cats. As a cat dad of two orange cats I am full of orange tabby cat facts from first hand experiences with them. They are currently in the prime of their life, at 5 years old. With that, their personalities are established. All cat breeds and coat patterns have their individual personalities and traits and that is very much true with my two little orange tabbies. I’m going to talk about the quirks of orange tabby cats, their likes, dislikes and general disposition of them. What cat toys do they like? What food do they like? How do they interact with our family? They are very, very different beings in their little minds, but share general orange tabby stereotypes across the board.
The Journey to Orange Cat Ownership
My life has been filled with cats. From a young age I was raised around them as my mom was, and still is, cat crazy. (All animal crazy really.) My childhood cats were always Siamese cats. Blue point Siamese to be exact. As a toddler they didn’t have much to do with me other than when I was sick, but I learned how to respond and treat them with respect. It created my own love of cats. In early married life my wife and I adopted two cats from a shelter. One was a female Siamese of undetermined age. The other a Tabby Point Siamese male of 1 year old, named Zeus. Yes, I took a while to get to my Orange Cats.
Siamese Cats not Always the Best Cats
These two cats did not get along well. The male was very territorial and wouldn’t let the female cat off the bed. He’d attack her and she’d wail and run back to the bed. We needed to separate them often so she could eat. We tried and tried to stop him from treating her like this, but when we bought our new home we left the female to live with our landlord who loved her. (Basement Suite.) She lived a long happy life there after in a single cat home.
We had Zeus until he was 17 years old. He was a great cat and when he passed, we still had two younger dogs who were not great around cats. It was the longest I’d gone in my life without owning a cat, about 7 years, when we adopted the two Orange Male cats we have now.
My Wife is to Blame for the Orange Tabby Cats
Both my wife and I are animal lovers. We both always loved orange cats. Wanted orange cats. As we were down to one aging dog, the itch to own cats again became strong. She wanted an orange cat. She was going to buy one. I was very concerned. See, Mr. Dog was not good around Zeus. We had issues. Mr. Dog was not good around squirrels, birds, racoons. The last thing I wanted was to bring two cats home, get attached and have dog vs kitten problems. Wife said, “he’ll be fine.” Still Skeptical.
Turns out she was right. She found a cat she wanted, but there was a catch. He was bonded to the runt of the litter and the seller did not want to separate them. So now one cat turned into two cats. Why not? The more the merrier. Five years ago my two best buddies arrived in my home, under the disguise as ‘pets for the girls.’ That’s right my daughters each get a cat to snuggle. Right. Daughters. These are my damn cats.
Orange Tabby Kittens Arrive Home
Here they were. Little bundles of orange goodness. In a little box for the ride home. Surprise for my daughters. The box is opened to oohs and ahhs and snuggles and tears. Little baby cats in the home once again. Scared. New smells. New noises. Little babies. Off they go to their new accommodate area which was our bedroom away from Mr. Dog. (65 lbs 13 year old Belgian Shepherd flock watcher guard dog extraordinaire.)
Orange Kitties Scared At First
Initially, like all cats, fear. They hide. Little dudes instantly under the bed up against the wall, dead center as far from either side as possible. Not to be unexpected but amazing how they instinctively know how to be as unreachable to humans as possible. Clinging to each other for support. So cute.
We put out the food. Blue Buffalo Kitten Formula kibble for when they get the munchies. Water bowls. Litter box. All easily accessible to them. You want to give them space. It’s hard. So cute. Little bundles of orange cuteness.
Ease into the Bonding With Toys
We left them a while. Don’t want to traumatize or force handle them. Come back every 30 minutes, talk to them. Lie on the floor without reaching to just let them see and smell you. After a couple visits, out comes the prey toys. Lasers, fishing poll. (examples below). One of them wants to play, but brother cries if he leaves his side. He then runs back to his brother to keep him safe. Yes, more aww cuteness moments.
Eventually, they both want a crack at the bug toy. Stay under the bed though. Can’t come close to these evil humans yet. Eventually manage to snag one who got too close. Little cuddles, make sure he knows we won’t hurt him. Let him go. More bug toy chasing. Repeat.
One Toy Made Them Come out and Play
After a day or so of chasing the bug toy but still running under the bed. We pulled out the big guns. The Cat’s Meow toy. Full story on it here. They loved this toy as kittens. One of them still loves it however the runt doesn’t. They would play with this thing for hours and it made them become comfortable with us. Eventually, we would be able to touch them at will, and by the next day, they were sleeping on my lap in the bedroom and trying to steal my chips. Food. Yes, food. Watch out orange tabby cat owners, they f*cking love food.
Toys for Orange Tabby Cats Kitten Stage
These toys probably always will be their favorites. Not sure if it’s an imprint on them from young or just their instinctive orange tabby cats nature of hunting prey, but, they are must haves. My two went crazy for the realistic bird of bug wings. Brought out the famous cat noise of, “chirp chirp I see a bird I want him” noise.
Orange Tabby Cats Traits Confirmed
What Traits Do Orange Tabby Cats Have?
2. Strong Prey Drive – Confirmed
3. At times detrimentally brave. – Confirmed
4. A penchant for picking one human in the family as a favorite – confirmed.
5. Human Focused Family Pets
6. Did I mention food?
Orange Tabby Cats Love Food – Confirmed
Yes. There was a reason Garfield became the most famous orange tabby cat of all time by getting fat eating lasagne. These cats are voracious lovers of food. People food in general as well as their own cat food. Ever since mine were babies they would want some. Some of what you had. Some of what the dog had. Then they might look at what they had in their bowl. You need to be very careful with food intake with your orange tabby cats.
Food Tips for Orange Tabby Cats
Buy high quality food for your cats. Feeding them low quality grocery store food will see them gorge unhealthily. They love junk food. Brands like Meow Mix are like McDonald’s for cats. Sorry to both brands but neither has been the brand of choice for healthy lifestyles. Feed your cats small amounts of high quality wet food once in the morning and once at night. We recommend Nom Nom as our wet food of choice for Orange Cats due to their high quality of ingredients. If you wish to read more about Nom Nom and it’s benefits. Check out our review here.
A solid crunchy they do not gorge on throughout the day or night. If you find your cats are eating too much of the crunchy food it is either too low in nutrients for them or you need to cut back the amount or change the brand. Take it from someone who has the epitome of stereotypical orange tabby cats, one of them even loves pasta noodles. Lasagna anyone? Anyone?
We recommend First Mate food for crunchy, as it’s worked well for our two voracious eaters. You can find it at Pet Stores or Amazon.
Orange Tabby Cat Strong Prey Drive
Yes. They want to hunt. It’s good for them to mimic this to keep the weight down as it’s exercise. We chose to make our two indoor cats and they love to watch the bugs, birds and things at the windows. We make sure to play with them with the magical bug wand to keep them active.
The tabby coat pattern is mythical in cats with those markings being said to be highly intelligent. This keeps their minds active and outsmarting prey is part of it. This is largely important with orange tabby cats because of their previous mentioned love of food. It’s really not uncommon to see a big fat chonk orange tabby. This is because they eat when hungry, eat when bored or eat for fun. Keep them active, keep their minds and bodies doing cat things.
Orange Tabby Cat Bravery
I did say this can be detrimental. Fear is a primary defense of life mechanism all living creatures have. Cats should normally be wary of larger animals to keep themselves from becoming the prey. My two do not have this instinct around dogs. Perhaps they are lucky to have been accepted by their protector right away, much to my concern otherwise. When friends or family come by with their dogs, my two have zero concerns. I think they should. I don’t think they should immediately try to be the boss of the dog, but they do.
They also climb to areas they maybe shouldn’t. I have had to get mine down from spots they got themselves into and couldn’t figure out how to get down. A lot of cats will climb like bengal cats, but my Orange Tabby cats are the same. Up in the air all the time.
Orange Tabby Cats Pick Favorites
I was totally skeptical on this rumored behavior before I owned these two goofballs. Absolutely true. Remember when I said my daughters cats? Pfft. Maybe it’s my lifelong love of cats and understanding their body language that made me bond with these two. Perhaps it was just me needing them in my life when they arrived. Whatever it was, these two picked me. I could flood this page with photos of myself buried under cats but I’m camera shy.
Let’s just say when I come home from work they are like dogs. I’ve never seen cats respond to a human in this way before. Chase me from room to room as I take off my coat or shoes. They must get shoulder rides. They must have cuddles. One even as a baby slept on my chest and it is now his happy spot. He will not sit on my lap. It’s my chest, always my chest.
Take it from me if you’re fortunate enough to have orange tabby cats in your life they will pick someone in your family to be ‘their person.’ I’ve never felt so much love from too animals ever before in my life.
Human Focused Family Pets
Keeping in mind they do love me most, that isn’t to say they aren’t great to other members of my family. They tend to hover around me when I’m home, but when I’m not, they are anywhere the people are. They do not like to be separated or seek quiet, alone time much. It does happen just like us as people, but these two are usually always near someone in the family. TV time, homework time, computer time, dinner time. They are there with the family. Great family pets.
