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Stormsong Manor said:
Mystery is solved. I did a DNA test on him and here are his results: 35% potato 20% Long Boi 15% Fraggle 20% laser beam 10% non-Earth elements
And 100% good kitty! |
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Oooo cat breeds and genetics are my shit (next to nutrition which I'm equally invested in) I'll find something I've written before to someone who asked the same question about their cat. Interestingly, cat DNA tests cannot say a cat is part such and such, or that a cat is a mix of so and so breeds. It'll show they're a western domestic, with shared ancestors of such and such breeds. They show genetic similarity, not breed ancestry. DNA/genetic tests in cats are much more to show their color genes and inheritable conditions. Only important to breeders really. Pretty much, if you're asking what breed your cat is, I could guarantee 99.9% of the time they're a western domestic.
There's only a few traits that are indistinguishable from other cats. For example: Wide set, large ears paired with slim elongated body and head would indicate that cat is almost guaranteed to be a close descendant of an oriental breed cat. Maybe Siamese. A 'smooshed/flat' brachycephalic face would indicate that cat is a descendant of a Persian/exotic shorthair. Or rosettes/a glitter coat (translucent fur) would indicate that cat is a descendant of a bengal.
Essentially those are the only traits that can be linked to a breed of cat. things like bob tails, curled ears, curly coats are also quite breed-specific traits in cats. However can appear randomly in western domestic cats too, and alone aren't an indication of breed. Western domestics can carry a variety of interesting patterns, colors and genetic variants. It's how we've ended up with the cats we have today. People find a cat or two with a characteristic that they want to specialize in, spend decades, and for some even centuries to 'perfect', pull out, and enhance those traits. So because cats, unlike dogs who have been domesticated with those traits in mind. To put it as a sort of example, cats essentially domesticated themselves, people had them around and over a few thousand years they integrated to our households and became quite useful for pest control. So say someone 150-200 years ago, found your gorgeous cat and loved her looks and temperament. So they then bred her to cats with similar traits and now a hundred odd years later it's become a standard breed, but genetically is no different from other cats, just has a fancy paper and hundreds of years specifically breeding for those traits. It doesn't mean that another cat can't have similar characteristics, but not even be that breed. And the few example cat breeds I had before are a little different from that. If it be that they have hundreds of years of selective breeding that they truly are completely different and have traits you physically cannot get in a cat not a descendant of them, or a hybrid breed like bengals. Dogs on the other hand were intentionally bred directly from wolves, and have been for a multiple thousands of years more than cats. When it came to breeding dogs, it was functionality before looks. It led to much deeper genetic diversity between the 'breeds' and have further become what they are today. |
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Moderator
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Having worked at a vets office 99% of cats we had come in we're rescues/ferals which are labeled as "domestic" short, medium and long hair followed by color which was ambiguous if someone writing the information didn't know the difference between calicos, dilutes, brown, grey etc so a lot of cats are mislabeled anyways. We did have 2 breeders come in regularly though and those cats were gorgeous! One was a Norwegian forest cat and the other was a ragdoll <3 My cat was labeled as half Maine Coon which is possible since he's 16 lbs and not overweight but I'd just label as a domestic long hair brown tabby. |
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Warming, with Sleet and Heavy Icing
