Same litter, different types of cats.

Welcome, and I'm so glad we have an you with us on The Cat Site.
I have a really basic, not too technial, question (I think!)
Ritz (female) is a rescue, along with her brother and two sisters. They and the mother cat were dumped in late November 2010, and survived a 20" snow storm. They were roughly four to five months old at the time of rescue. I helped my friend, who rescued them, socialize them.
Ritz and her brother Taz (male) are short haired. Fuzzball I and Fuzzball II (renamed, Ripley and Riley. male/female) are long haired. The mother cat was, I believe, short hair. No idea who/where the sperm donor cat was.
So my question is: assuming there was only one sperm donor, how common is it to have different haired-cats in the same litter?
Perhaps relevant: shortly after this time, and for a 2.5 year period, I TNRd roughly 35 to 40 cats. Maybe one (and only one) was long haired.
Also, is there any co-relation between long haired/short haired cats and how friendly the cat will become?
Ritz and Taz were adoptable in about a month.
Ripley and Riley took much longer, almost six months, before they were ready to be adopted out.
Thanks.

Howdy ho Cat Lovers,

Cats can have different males contributing to a litter!  However, long hair is a fairly common trait in cats, thus, both parents had to at least carry long hair as you need two copies of the mutation - it is autosomal recessive.  Often, a shorthaired cat that carries the long hair mutation, has only one copy, can be a bit more fluffy - but not technically a long hair. There are four known mutations in the same gene that cause long hair in cats.  One mutation occurred in Persia, one in the Nordic regions, and perhaps two in the USA / Europe.  The gene is known as FGFR3 - fibroblast growth factor 3.  The same gene, but different mutations caused long hair in mice and dogs.  Not a big surprise to have both long and short haired kittens in the same litter from feral cats!

ProfLeslieLyons said:

 
Howdy ho Cat Lovers,

Cats can have different males contributing to a litter!  However, long hair is a fairly common trait in cats, thus, both parents had to at least carry long hair as you need two copies of the mutation - it is autosomal recessive.  Often, a shorthaired cat that carries the long hair mutation, has only one copy, can be a bit more fluffy - but not technically a long hair. There are four known mutations in the same gene that cause long hair in cats.  One mutation occurred in Persia, one in the Nordic regions, and perhaps two in the USA / Europe.  The gene is known as FGFR3 - fibroblast growth factor 3.  The same gene, but different mutations caused long hair in mice and dogs.  Not a big surprise to have both long and short haired kittens in the same litter from feral cats!

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Fascinating! I had no idea the mutations for longhair have been mapped and can be associated with specific regions. Are all three (or four) longhair mutations autosomal recessive? 

I live in Israel and we rarely see anything that resembles the Persian look in ferals, however I would say that about 5% of feral cats (and we have many of them unfortunately) have semi-longhair. I always think they must be descendants of Turkish Van cats that the Turks brought with them approximately 400 years ago. Not that I know, of course. 

I wonder if the Turkish Van longhair is the same mutation as the Persian cats' or the Nordic type. Turkey is in the middle, more or less, so could be either, I guess.

Thanks, Dr. Lyons.
Well, Ritz is 'uncommon' in just a different way....
I've lost touch with Ripley/Riley (adopted to the same person, BTW), and I knew NOTHING about cats then, but you raise an interesting point: were Ripley/Riley truly long haired or simply fluffy? They were called Fuzzball I and Fuzzball II for a reason!

 
I live in Israel and we rarely see anything that resembles the Persian look in ferals, however I would say that about 5% of feral cats (and we have many of them unfortunately) have semi-longhair. I always think they must be descendants of Turkish Van cats that the Turks brought with them approximately 400 years ago. Not that I know, of course. 

I wonder if the Turkish Van longhair is the same mutation as the Persian cats' or the Nordic type. Turkey is in the middle, more or less, so could be either, I guess.

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Good question, Anne. How many of those longhair mutations exist? I also have read that The Turkish Angora/Persian is considered as the ancestor of all longhair cats. However it may not be true, because the longhair gene could come from various regions. Am I right?

Howdy ho Cat Lovers,

We have to remember that when the mutations that caused long hair occurred, cats just looked like cats!  Then we made the breeds.  So, Turkish Van, Angora and Persian all have the same long hair mutation - that likely first occurred in Persia!  The mutation spread to different regions of the world, THEN we made our breeds.  So, longhaired cats in Israel should not really look like the Persian breed or Turkish Angora breed of present day - which have changed shape and look over the past 100 years anyhow!  Persians have had the added selection of having all three hair coats long as well.  This is not explained by the four long hair mutations and is yet a mystery.  All the long hair mutations are recessive - but we do not completely know how they act together.  Usually, two different long hair mutations will make a long haired cat - but we have not had an opportunity to examine all combinations!