"Crinkled" Fur

Hello Everyone,

Sorry if this is the wrong area, please move it if it is.

I was wondering about the fur texture on one of my kittens. It's crinkly looking, even his whiskers are crinkled and kinked instead of smooth. The best way I can think of to describe it is similar to the look of a dog with wire hair. Except his fur is exceptionally soft and puffy. Holding him is like holding a living plush animal.

I just wondered if there was a name for this and if his fur will become smoother as he gets older? When he was born, he had these beautiful white guard hairs on his paws, but they've either dropped out or darkend to black as he's gotten older, so I wondered if his coat texture would do the same

He's a "pure-bred" moggie, mom is a dsh with a very short and glossy coat. Dad is who knows! (mom was a stray we took in).

Thanks for your help!

Julia

What does he look like color wise? Otis's hair is just like this too. His tail poofs at the end too here's a pic




When your kitty is bent over eating or drinking does it look like he's got a mohawk down his spine? You might want to try reading up on American Wirehaired cats. Usually though I think AMWH have coarse hair?

The American Wirehair is the only cat I know of that has "course/wirehair" like on terriers. It was a spontaneous mutation, so it sounds like that is what happened. I'd look up a few AW breeders and see what they have to say.

Thanks, I've looked up the breed, and his whiskers really seem to fit. I looked him over again just a bit ago and they're very bumpy. I'll try to get a good picture, they're so cute!
His coat def. isn't coarse, but it's very dense. He isn't as poofy as the cats that were shown on the cfa page.
I'll have to check with our friends who adopted two of the kittens who also had the same coat type to see if they have kinked whiskers as well.
They were funny looking as kittens, they had almost curls or waves in their fur. I think it was that their undercoat and guard hairs ran in bands.
Liz, Otis' tail is amazing! It looks so fun to pet. Are his whiskers kinked as well? Tubby (my kitten in question) does seem to have a mowhawk sometimes, though I often think it's just him puffing up while playing.

Julia

The coarseness (sp) with Otis is what throws me off thinking that he's not AW. His sister on the other hand has really coarse fur but it lays completly flat. His whiskers are kinked but he tends to get too close to light bulbs from time to time so it's hard to tell if it's natural. I thought Otis's mowhawk was him poofing up at first too except that when he poofs up, he really poofs! It's cute because when we come home from school and work he's waiting at the door with his big ol' poofy tail

There was a cat at the last show in the household pets section that also had a fur mutation. The judge had quite a bit to say about it too. He was saying how these sort of mutations are what bring about new breeds when they happen multiple times. I can't remember what else he said but it was interesting to see. The Devon Rex has a flat wavy coat and they are SOO soft. Very cute .

My Cornish Rex is an example of a fur mutation. Without an outercoat his undercoat is very wavy. C-Rexes whiskers are usually broken off because they are kinky and break very easily. They are shown this way it is completely normal. Here is a picture of my Zander. I hope you can see how wavy his coat is which feels like crushed velvet and his lack of whiskers.

Tricia Conley

Thanks for the photo Peachy.
Tubby's undercoat is wavey, but not at much as Zanders. He looks so soft!
I don't think his guard hairs are kinked, though it's hard to tell because he won't stay still! They're much longer than his undercoat, which gives him this dark fuzzy halo all over.
He's got such a great profile as well. He always looks like a sleepy lion.
Solarity, did the judge mention what could cause these mutations? Inbreeding, environmental effects, or just the right combination of two cats? I'll have to watch his tail to see if he ends up like your Otis, Liz! that would be great!

Julia

Just the right combination of cats. The gene could be recessive and if carried by both parents it could show in a kitten. However, mutations can be spontaneous. This trait being a little more common (unusual but not uncommon to have happen) I would guess its a recessive gene vs. a spontaneous mutation. Spontaneous mutations might have more to bear on environmental factors or a strange kidn of deformity. Thats really how many of todays breeds came into being was to breed for the deformity, until it bred true (persians, munchkins, scottish folds, american curl, etc).