bobtail cat question

My cat has a tail. She just had her first litter of kittens and three of them are bobtail. Does this mean the father had to have been a bobtail? Or could it be a generic disorder as i think it may have been her own brother that got her pregnant.

Hi Stax,

Half of my cats have bobbed or bent tails and half of them have long, straight tails. I think if the kittens have short tails it means that the parents carry the bob-tail gene but this doesn't always show up. The parents could both have long tails but carry the gene anyway. You get long and short tailed kittens in the same litter.

Thanks Norachan
She had 5 kittens and only one has a regular tail and the other one has a kind of shorter tail that's bent on the end. Do you think they're rare. Maybe i could sell a kitten?

It might be rare where you are. I live in Japan and bob-tail cats are very common here. Quite a few of the ferals I feed have a tail that's hooked at the end, it looks like a question mark when they walk around with their tails in the air.

I don't know about selling a kitten but if it helps you find a good home for them that would be great.

What are your plans for the kittens? Do you have homes lined up for any of them?

They are so cute i want to keep ALL of them! but of course we will find good homes for them.

It's hard to give them up, isn't it? I know just how you feel.

I'm looking forward to seeing some pictures of them.

Oh, look at all those little pink toes! They're adorable.

That's a very pretty Mama Cat too.

 

Thank you! They are very cute. I made a box for her and she had her kittens in the box. All of a sudden today she has moved 3 of them under the couch in the other room she has not yet come back for the other 2 kittens. I thought she was very comfortable in the box/bed i made for her. I changed the towels for her daily and kept her food nearby. Does she not feel safe enough?

Mother cats move their kittens around quite a lot. It's their instinct, it lessens the chance of the nest being found by predators because the smell of the kittens doesn't get as strong as it would if they stayed in the same place. It also means there is less chance of them getting fleas.

Did she come back for the other kittens yet? If the last two are still on their own you should move them to the new nest before they get too cold.

She never came back for the others so i put them with her under the couch. Later she went outside for a little while and when she came back inside she went straight to the box looking for the kittens. I think she forgot where she moved them. I finally put her under the couch to remind her where they were!

Bless her, those new momma hormones must be making her forgetful. 

I have a manx her father was(white) longtailed and her mom was a (orange tabby)tailess manx..but only (a gray longhair but the parents were shorthaired and a tortieshell shothair who was completly tailess)two of her siblings were bobtailed the other three were tailed and then there's sage,shorthaired stumpy tailed dilute Torbie lynx point...and she's pregnant and possibly about to pop with a gray toms kits he has a slightly bent ear (his name is Bentear) and sage has wierd polydactyl feet...so yep my bobtail who randomly jumps at everything and meows loudly...and will jump on your shoulder if you don't pet her.Bentear however will jump into a moving vehicle loves water,his mom literally walked through fire ...and he doesn't seem to fear anything.
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Oh how cute! You mentioned Sage has "polydacyl" feet, what does that mean?

stax said:

Oh how cute! You mentioned Sage has "polydacyl" feet, what does that mean?

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When a cat has polydactyl paws, it means that they have an extra toe (which makes some cats look like they have mittens on).  Most polydactyl cats have one or two extra toes on each foot, with the extra toes appearing on the thumb side of the foot. The normal rear paw has four toes. Polydactylism is a common trait among cats. 

Can I please ask that we keep threads with questions for Prof. Lyons on topic? I know she's very busy and as cute as these pictures and stories are, I myself find it hard to find the actual genetic-related questions here @stax  I'll be moving this thread to another forum. If you're still interested in asking Professor Lyons about the kittens, please do start another thread about it. Thank you! 

OK, thank you :-)