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Long or short haired--way to tell?

post #1 of 18
5/13/09 at 6:40pm
Thread Starter 
At 3 and half weeks is there a way to actually tell long or short haired kittens?

Leslie
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post #2 of 18
5/13/09 at 7:24pm
Yes. At birth there are also signs of whether they are long or short. It depends on the breed obviousely though. When Persians are born they have a complete different coat to an exotic.
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post #3 of 18
5/13/09 at 10:57pm
There may be another telling sign. shorthairs tend to be a little livlier then their longhair siblings...

This retold once by a persian-exotic breeder, who often had mixed litters. Kittens first from nest were usually the exotics (=shorthair persian), their persian siblings = (longhair persian) were usualy slower.
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post #4 of 18
5/14/09 at 5:18am
Quote:
Originally Posted by StefanZ View Post
There may be another telling sign. shorthairs tend to be a little livlier then their longhair siblings...

This retold once by a persian-exotic breeder, who often had mixed litters. Kittens first from nest were usually the exotics (=shorthair persian), their persian siblings = (longhair persian) were usualy slower.
My Nana experienced with Persians/Exotics (she's been breeding them for 45+ years) and she thinks that the fluffies are slower too, but in my experience with them (13+ breeding years, 17 showing) the Persians have never been slow.
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post #5 of 18
5/14/09 at 6:54am
Thread Starter 
Any other ways to tell? I'd really like a longer haired cat and I'm choosing a kitten--Hubby and I have two favorite's and then third we both like as well.

I was wanting to choose our kitten first so that I could start posting them on craigslist and such but wanted to let people know only four were available--well maybe three as the neighbors may take one.

Leslie
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post #6 of 18
5/14/09 at 7:38am
No idea, but I would post pics, and ask Sam. She's pretty good at telling whether the kitties will be long hair or short
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post #7 of 18
5/14/09 at 9:32am
Someone said that shorthairs open eyes earlier then longhairs, but then someone had a shorthair that took over 10 days to open eyes (SH usually opens at 5-7 days)...so that went that theory on how to tell.

With mixed breeds, its probably best to wait for a few months. I've been fooled too many times on that with mixes.
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post #8 of 18
5/14/09 at 9:56am
In my case (British Longhair kitten from British Shorthair parents) the kitten with longhair had very different texture than his shorthaired littermates. It was much softer and fluffier, finer, I can't decide a word for it but it definitely felt different than the others which made us doubt his hair lenght in the first place (as he was supposed to be a shorthair).
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post #9 of 18
5/14/09 at 10:25am
Quote:
Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45 View Post
Someone said that shorthairs open eyes earlier then longhairs, but then someone had a shorthair that took over 10 days to open eyes (SH usually opens at 5-7 days)...so that went that theory on how to tell.
My shorthaired babies all opened their eyes between 8 and 11 days. I actually thought that was early because I had heard 2 weeks was normal for opening eyes.
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post #10 of 18
5/14/09 at 10:36am
Most of my rexes opened at 5-6 days. I don't have a lot of experience with mixed breed kittens - only pedigrees.
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post #11 of 18
5/14/09 at 12:43pm
Do you have any pictures to post? Maybe we could all take a guess
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post #12 of 18
5/14/09 at 2:01pm
I've had Persians open their eyes at birth - but I find there is no difference between the 2 in opening their eyes.

Persians have 'Christmas' tree tales - little triangle fluffy tales, Persians have 'Ratty tales'

Persians have a triangular tip to their ears and Exotics have little round ears.

Persians have a close lying silky, wavey coat and Exotics have thick coats.

This is my experience with PER/EXO, I can't really comment on mixed breeds.
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post #13 of 18
5/14/09 at 4:54pm
Thread Starter 
These are the 5 kittens in question--3 weeks old exactly in these photos and video. Can anyone help? I think blue/white long hair cream/short, fever coat/short--other two not sure.

Leslie





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post #14 of 18
5/15/09 at 6:01am
Hmm, at this age it's pretty hard to tell, but since Mom is shorthair, and Dad was probably a stray that they'll probably be short hair- but who knows?
When I had kittens and some were long, others short they didn't start showing until about 5-6 weeks of age...
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post #15 of 18
5/15/09 at 10:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack31 View Post
These are the 5 kittens in question--3 weeks old exactly in these photos and video. Can anyone help? I think blue/white long hair cream/short, fever coat/short--other two not sure.

Leslie
I can't help with your question but......I really the bottom left one...is that blue/white?

Gorgeous box o' sweetness
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post #16 of 18
5/15/09 at 1:13pm
In my experience (from fostering....never had a cat give birth )
Long hair kittens open their eyes later, and like someone else said the fur always feels softer and more fine.
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post #17 of 18
5/22/09 at 8:52am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack31 View Post
The dark blue one at the bottom of this photo looks LH to me and the rest look SH, I'll probably be wrong though
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post #18 of 18
5/22/09 at 8:59am
Thread Starter 
Thanks--the blue one will be the one that stays with me and he's definitely a LH. There are two I'm unsure of now, they seem in between here are 4 week pictures of the two:

torbie:


and tortie:


Leslie
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