Long haired cats

I have a question about long haired cats. My cat has long hair but it only looks long around his neck and his belly. His hair is smooth and lays on his back. I don't know if there is an answer to this or not but for those of you who have long hair cats, did their hair get longer as they got older?? Is there suck thing as when the hair gets fluffy?? He has hairs all over his body that are about an inch longer than the rest of it, like a real thin layer of longer hair. Just curious on what to expect. TIA

Here are a couple of pics of him....his tail is REALLY bushy now
It doesn't look like it but his hair is about 3-4 inches long


in this pic you can see the longer hairs on his arm I was talking about

This is a pic of mine, quite similar! Mine when he was a kitty had the whispy bits and I say he is longhish haired! His tail is mega bushy too! He had the long bits also, I would guess and say that he might be like mine

[/IMG]



[/IMG],

Only side views I have on compy, sorry so massive pics but don't know how to make smaller

Yeah.. Monster has fur like that.. and all around his body he has white hairs that are a bit longer than the rest of his hair.. I havent figured it out. I would say that it wasnt that long when he was smaller, but i guess that as he grew it grew longer.. idk its hard to explain.. heres a pic of him so you can see..



its all long around his face & belly & his tail is fluffy and it sticks out.. but the hair on his back, which is long too, slicks down.

It depends on his background. There are many longhair breeds that tend to be a "semi-longhair" as they usually only have a ruff and fluffy tail and the body coat is not as long.

Persians or Himalayans are the only ones that have about the same length of hair all over, especially on the body part.

And some breeds shed out half their hair and look shorthair with a fluffy tail for part of the year. If your cat is an adult, that probably is all the hair he will have.

Althekitty--Did you steal my cat?

Leslie

Althekitty.....that is exactly what he looks like!!

I don't know anything about his background. All I know is what his parents look like....they are both strays living in my shed His mother is a shorthair ticked tabby and his father is a shorthair patched tabby. He was the only one with long hair.

He is only 6months so thats why I am wondering if his hair will get longer as he grows.

Recently a DNA test for (some of) the genes for hairlength became available. I saw that there is not one gene, but several variations, including some that are kinda breed-specific (by now they found special genes in Ragdolls, Maine Coons and Norwegian forest cats). So that probably has somthing to do with why some cats have longer "long hair" than other cats. And even why some breeds, i.e. Persians, have longer hair in general than Turkish Angoras or Somali's for example.

Yes, their hair seems to get longer with age. Neutering has an effect on the coat too.

Originally Posted by MarleyAndMe

I don't know anything about his background. All I know is what his parents look like....they are both strays living in my shed

His mother is a shorthair ticked tabby and his father is a shorthair patched tabby. He was the only one with long hair.

Click to expand...

Patched tabbies are supposed to be girls

My kitty is about two now! He does have long whispy bits too. They do look alike don't they? I never quite no how to describe as he's not short haired but not mega long haired either. Our kitties are unique in there own way Thats what I tell my kitty!

Well, maybe he isn't a patched tabby but he is white with orange patches on him. Their litter also produced a orange female tabby.

How does nuetering effect the coat?? Im just curious because I've never heard this.

I wish I had pictures, the difference can be quite striking. From what I've seen they get more of the down hairs, so they get fluffier. The best example I've seen was at a cat show, there was this guy next to us who had two black Norwegian forest cat females of the same age with him, one intact and one neutered. The intact one had a far sleeker coat, the neutered cat looked like an exploded furball

Originally Posted by Mimosa

I wish I had pictures, the difference can be quite striking. From what I've seen they get more of the down hairs, so they get fluffier. The best example I've seen was at a cat show, there was this guy next to us who had two black Norwegian forest cat females of the same age with him, one intact and one neutered. The intact one had a far sleeker coat, the neutered cat looked like an exploded furball

Click to expand...

I kinda know what you mean. Monsters hair was sleeker, and didnt seem as fluffy as it is now that he is neutered. ill find some pics from when he was younger before he was neutered, and ill post it and one that is more recent too, and see if you can tell.

Ok ETA:

He was pretty fluffy when he was tiny...


And here, he doesnt seem as fluffy, and his hair looks short.. he was probably like 5 months old here and he still wasnt neutered.


Now here are a couple of him that are more recent, and you can really see how long his hair is now.