Tabbies

Genetically, ticking is a tabby pattern, but visually it looks very different.

Each individual hair has several bands of colour which affects the apparent colour of the cat. Some colours are linked to the cat's sex (important to breeders/exhibitors).

Black	(Experimental colour) The black fur has a distinct "shimmer" due to barely visible ticking, similar effect in Chausie breed has silver-tipped fur.
Blue	Blue-grey; the dilute of black
Brown	Equivalent to black (more commonly called Usual or Tawny)
Chestnut/Chocolate	Medium-dark brown.
Cream	True (sex-linked) cream, dilute of sex-linked red
Ebony	Foreign equivalent to black
Fawn (Beige)	non sex-linked cream (dilute sorrel)
Golden	Any colour ticking on a golden undercoat
Ivory	warm beige ticking on ivory (Singapura)
Lavender (Lilac)	Warm blue-brown, pinkish frosty grey (dove grey), dilute of Chocolate
Manilla	black/dark ticking on sandy-golden (Celonese/Ceylon Cat)
Red	Rich ginger red (sex-linked red)
Ruddy	Equivalent to black/brown, also called Usual, Brown, Tawny
Sable	Burmese dark brown (genetically black)
Seal	Siamese dark brown (genetically black)
Silver	Any colour ticking on a silver undercoat
Sorrel	Equivalent to cinnamon, non sex-linked red.
Taupe	Caramel dilution of lilac/lavender
Tawny	Abyssinian/Somali: Equivalent to black/brown, also called Usual, Brown, Ruddy; it is also the ticked sandy/golden colour found in a some wild/domestic hybrid breeds
Usual	Equivalent to black/brown, also called Ruddy, Brown, Tawny
White	Suqutranese (white Somali-type): pure white, translucent silver-white bands on hair visible in good light as sparkling effect

Because agouti is a type of tabby, those colours can combine with the tortoiseshell markings to give ticked tortoiseshells. Some of these can be difficult to distinguish because ticking obscures the colours. The ticked colours and ticked tortie colours can be patched with white to give ticked bicolours, but this is presently only seen in non-pedigree cats.

Examples: Ticked Tortoiseshell - areas of usual (black) and Red (sex-linked) ticking; Blue Ticked Tortoiseshell - ticked blue-cream; Chocolate Ticked Tortoiseshell.

SILVER AND GOLDEN TICKED TABBIES

Ticking can occur on a silver or gold undercoat in permutations equivalent to silver tabbies and golden tabbies. Silver Abyssinians and Silver Somalis are popular in Britain but rare in the US. The Alaskan Snow Cat has the Silver Abyssinian coat pattern.

For example:

Silver (Silver Usual/ Silver Ruddy) - usual (black) ticking on silver background

Golden (Golden Usual/Golden Ruddy) - usual (black) ticking on a golden background.

Sorrel Silver - sorrel ticking on silver background

Blue Silver - blue ticking on silver background

Chocolate Silver - chocolate ticking on silver background.

Ruddy Silver Ticked Tortie - ruddy Ticked Tortoiseshell on a silver background,

Blue Silver Ticked Tortoiseshell - blue Ticked Tortoiseshell (Blue-Cream Ticked) on silver backgrounds

Chocolate Silver Ticked Tortoiseshell - chocolate tortoiseshell on silver background.