I purchased a Persian today and was wondering...

Is she really a Persian. She isn't registered but I was told she was a Persian and she looks like one, a flat face, big golden eyes, round head. But her coat is very thin. Not fluffy and thick like most Persian's I have seen. Is this normal? If not, what could be causeing it? Her coat is long, but there isn't very mucn of it. Her tail isn't fluffy either.

I'd appreciate any input. Thanks very much.

I think that the first question is where you purchased her? I've seen badly mis-labeled cats at pet stores before, even though they claim that the cats are *registered*. Like Himalayans being sold as Siamese and things like that.

Did you get your cat from a breeder?

If she's not registered you can't really know exactly what she is.

By defination a pedigreed cat is a cat with a pedigree, i.e you have a piece of paper where all the ancestors are written down and you can trace it back several generations.

That doesn't mean she couldn't be genetically a purebred persian. However odds are that she's a pet quality one because serious breeders who show and are dedicated to improving the breed will register all their kittens.

She sounds like a beautiful cat though, do you have any pictures you could share?

She could be a Persian or a Persian mix. Some coats are more close laying then fluffy. Usually the whites and blues tend to have a fluffier/thicker coat and the blacks a more slick/closer laying coat.

I'm wondering too - where did you get her from?

Originally Posted by caitscats

Is she really a Persian. She isn't registered but I was told she was a Persian and she looks like one, a flat face, big golden eyes, round head. But her coat is very thin. Not fluffy and thick like most Persian's I have seen. Is this normal? If not, what could be causeing it? Her coat is long, but there isn't very mucn of it. Her tail isn't fluffy either.

I'd appreciate any input. Thanks very much.

Click to expand...

Can you post a photo?

Yeah, without the paper you can never know for sure. Just like if a person was an orphan or adopted, even though they could *look* like a lot of things they wouldn't really know what their heritage was.

It's also kind of like how many people own dogs that are generally a "mutt" but have a predominant element that makes some sort of history more obvious, like the head shape and temperament of a retriever but a different body type, or different fur type/color, etc. Many owners will say that their dog "has some [breed] in it."

Ultimately, without a pedigree that's what you get to do as well. Your cat is "mostly Persian." What's interesting, though, is that the extremely foreshortened faces don't happen in the wild -- they're only around because of breeders. So if your cat has such a face, but isn't pedigreed, it's likely that the person you got it from (or the person they got it from) got an actual persian, bred it to a cat without permission, and sold them as "persians" without any sort of certification. And, of course, people buy them and are happy with their cat and then wonder why they were charged so much money despite not getting any paperwork...

Still, a lovely cat is a lovely cat One thing that I wonder is how old is the cat? Kittens have a generally thinner coat than adult cats; I was surprised how thin our new kitten's coat was, when we saw him at 8 weeks. Especially compared to his mom.

do you have a pic of your new baby??

I also have the same situation.. mom is a persian.. but dad is we don't know.. she went out of the house.. and then boom.. she's pregnant..

she looks like her mom.. i mean same color.. face is flat but has big ears and furr is long but not fluffy... oh well... she's just 3 weeks old.. uhm, do you think she'll get a long fluffy hair too?

Unless dad was a longhair or carrying the LH gene - your kitten will be shorthair. Shorthair is dominate over longhair.

We want pictures!!

I'm thinking "pet-quality Persian", myself. After all, aren't those Persian characteristics--the flat face, the round eyes, the long coat--mostly recessive traits?