Beyond curious! Anyone care to help me define my cat's appearance?

rachlrainbwdsh · Mar 3, 2015

This is Louie. When I got him, all they could tell me was that he was a tabby. Well, I know that, but I am really curious as to what anyone else can tell me about his appearance. His coat, colouring, guesses as to what breeds he may have in him, anything. Thanks so much!

slinkyavalanche · Mar 4, 2015

Brown mackerel short hair or maybe ticked

2cats4me · Mar 5, 2015

Wow , he is one gorgeous kitty .

rachlrainbwdsh · Mar 5, 2015

Thank you so much!

rachlrainbwdsh · Mar 5, 2015

And as for guessing what breeds he has in him, is that pretty pointless to attempt? I understand that unless they come with papers, it is quite the task and very likely impossible, but I would just love to know..
I have heard of the wisdom panel..

2cats4me · Mar 5, 2015

rachlrainbwdsh said:
And as for guessing what breeds he has in him, is that pretty pointless to attempt? I understand that unless they come with papers, it is quite the task and very likely impossible, but I would just love to know..
I have heard of the wisdom panel..

I would not say it is pointless . There is nothing at all wrong being curious as to what breeds he may have in him but as you say he is not a registered purebred cat so it may be quite difficult to name certain breeds. Mixed breed cats have a little bit of everything ..

If you wanted to do a DNA test just for the fun of it , there is nothing wrong with it .

Willowy · Mar 5, 2015

I don't believe there is a Wisdom test for cats.

The reason being. . .most cats have no breed background and are not even mixed-breed. They're just CATS. Cat breeds make up a tiny percentage of the population, and are developed by breeding individuals from naturally occurring mutations in the regular cat population. Even if there were a breed test, in 97% of cats there just isn't anything to find :dk:.

2cats4me · Mar 5, 2015

Willowy said:
I don't believe there is a Wisdom test for cats.

The reason being. . .most cats have no breed background and are not even mixed-breed. They're just CATS. Cat breeds make up a tiny percentage of the population, and are developed by breeding individuals from naturally occurring mutations in the regular cat population. Even if there were a breed test, in 97% of cats there just isn't anything to find

.

Good to know , thank you .. I guess we learn something new every day ..

rachlrainbwdsh · Mar 5, 2015

Willowy said:
I don't believe there is a Wisdom test for cats.

The reason being. . .most cats have no breed background and are not even mixed-breed. They're just CATS. Cat breeds make up a tiny percentage of the population, and are developed by breeding individuals from naturally occurring mutations in the regular cat population. Even if there were a breed test, in 97% of cats there just isn't anything to find :dk:.

Oh. Alright. Thanks. What do you mean when you say "cat breeds make up a small percentage of the population"? And "regular cat population"? I guess I just don't understand.

di and bob · Mar 5, 2015

Cat breeds are the purebred registered breeds with paper documentation. Like was stated above they evolved from a mutation of the 'cat population' that has no one certain breed or linage of parents with certain genes and known characteristics that will show themselves over and over again. The 'regular cats' are just that, no certain and known characteristics. We can sometimes see these certain characteristics in our own cats, such as 'tufted ears' and flat faces which were selected to incorporate into certain breeds to stay and become part of that breeds looks.The main description of our regular cats is domestic short hair, dsh. or domestic long hair, dlh, and a color like tuxedo for black and white, or your beautiful baby who is a grey tabby, I like what my vet puts down, grey tiger,

rachlrainbwdsh · Mar 5, 2015

Di and Bob said:
Cat breeds are the purebred registered breeds with paper documentation. Like was stated above they evolved from a mutation of the 'cat population' that has no one certain breed or linage of parents with certain genes and known characteristics that will show themselves over and over again. The 'regular cats' are just that, no certain and known characteristics. We can sometimes see these certain characteristics in our own cats, such as 'tufted ears' and flat faces which were selected to incorporate into certain breeds to stay and become part of that breeds looks.The main description of our regular cats is domestic short hair, dsh. or domestic long hair, dlh, and a color like tuxedo for black and white, or your beautiful baby who is a grey tabby, I like what my vet puts down, grey tiger,

Okay, I think I'm understanding better now. Thank you for taking the time to explain. And thank you, I appreciate the compliment. So he would be considered grey and not brown? Grey tiger does have a neat ring to it (:

2cats4me · Mar 5, 2015

rachlrainbwdsh said:
Oh. Alright. Thanks. What do you mean when you say "cat breeds make up a small percentage of the population"? And "regular cat population"? I guess I just don't understand.

I was confused as well . I guess cat breeds are a lot different than dog breeds ..

rachlrainbwdsh · Mar 5, 2015

2Cats4Me said:
I was confused as well . I guess cat breeds are a lot different than dog breeds ..

Super different apparently. I just don't understand how. I mean, with a "mutt" dog, you can still usually narrow it down to 2 or 3 breeds, but I guess it just isn't like that with cats. Confusing! Lol.

Willowy · Mar 5, 2015

Breeds are human inventions. And cats have mostly bred without any human intervention. Even with pet cats, the most common story is "my female cat got out and came back pregnant". Whereas with dogs, their heat periods are more predictable and they're given less freedom in this country and most developed countries, so humans usually choose their dog's mate. And dogs are sometimes needed for specific purposes (hunting, herding, pulling sleds, etc.) and when cats are needed it's just for mousing, which pretty much any able-bodied cat can do----looks, structure, and color/pattern don't matter too much. If you want to compare domestic cats to any kind of dog, it would be similar to the free-breeding street dogs of the middle east, rural parts of Africa, the Mediterranean, etc.

GemsGem · Mar 5, 2015

rachlrainbwdsh said:
Super different apparently. I just don't understand how. I mean, with a "mutt" dog, you can still usually narrow it down to 2 or 3 breeds, but I guess it just isn't like that with cats. Confusing! Lol.

Dog have had much more human control over their breeding than cats. Dogs right from when we domesticated them we bred them straight into breeds for hunting, tracking, fighting etc... So much so that even all mutt dogs now have pedigree breeds behind them.

Cats are completely different, they have not had this same human control over their breeding. Most of the cat population have just mostly random bred on their own with other cats in the same local area, with very little human influence. We call these cats domestic's ( The domestic cat population )

From the domestic cat population we created pedigree breeds. We picked certain cats for a look or trait and bred them with other silmlar cats to create breeds. So pedigree breeds of cats are fairly new compared the general domestic cat.

Domestic cats were here long before pedigree breeds existed. This is why a domestic cat is generally not a mixture of different pedigree breeds.

2cats4me · Mar 5, 2015

Willowy said:
Breeds are human inventions. And cats have mostly bred without any human intervention. Even with pet cats, the most common story is "my female cat got out and came back pregnant". Whereas with dogs, their heat periods are more predictable and they're given less freedom in this country and most developed countries, so humans usually choose their dog's mate. And dogs are sometimes needed for specific purposes (hunting, herding, pulling sleds, etc.) and when cats are needed it's just for mousing, which pretty much any able-bodied cat can do----looks, structure, and color/pattern don't matter too much. If you want to compare domestic cats to any kind of dog, it would be similar to the free-breeding street dogs of the middle east, rural parts of Africa, the Mediterranean, etc.

GemsGem said:
Dog have had much more human control over their breeding than cats. Dogs right from when we domesticated them we bred them straight into breeds for hunting, tracking, fighting etc... So much so that even all mutt dogs now have pedigree breeds behind them.

Cats are completely different, they have not had this same human control over their breeding. Most of the cat population have just mostly random bred on their own with other cats in the same local area, with very little human influence. We call these cats domestic's ( The domestic cat population )

From the domestic cat population we created pedigree breeds. We picked certain cats for a look or trait and bred them with other silmlar cats to create breeds. So pedigree breeds of cats are fairly new compared the general domestic cat.

Domestic cats were here long before pedigree breeds existed. This is why a domestic cat is generally not a mixture of different pedigree breeds.

Thank you for detailed explanations . It all makes sense now ..

Beyond curious! Anyone care to help me define my cat's appearance?

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