What is the true color of calico cats and does the true calico cat have to be a male?

I was told That a true calico cats colors were black,brown,orange,yellow and white. Trying to find out the true color. What is the true color of calico cats and does the true calico cat have to be a male?
Calico is some variation of the orange gene (either orange or cream) and another non-orange color (generally either black, blue, or tabby) and the white spotting gene. Generally most people consider orange black and white to be a calico, cream, blue and white to be a dilute calico and orange or cream, tabby and white to be a torbie (tortoiseshell tabby) and white. If they lack the white spotting gene then they are considered tortoiseshell instead of calico





No calico are not generally male they are almost exclusively female. Orange is a sex-linked gene carried on the X chromosome so the get a calico a cat has to have one X gene with the orange and one X gene without it. Males are XY so in order to be a calico they have to have a genetic defect that makes them XXY which is while calico males are almost always sterileWhat is the true color of calico cats and does the true calico cat have to be a male?
calico have a base color of white with the other colors mixed in.


tortoise shell have a base color of black with the colors mixed in.





either color is sex based and the majority are female.
a calico cat can be a combination of three colors usually black, orange and white or gray, orange and white...calico cats are female 99% of the time...it is quite a rarity to find a calico male