Any insights on the background of these kittens?

[thull08]

A friend of mine had a stray cat wander into her yard, and have kittens. Mom is a black cat with a bobtail, and she thinks the dad is another stray she saw a couple times- brown tabby. Mom had 5 kittens- all 5 with bobtails! 2 came out super fluffy, and one of the brown tabbies has some very unusual stripes. Is this just luck she had unusual striking kittens or are they possibly mixed breeds? Curious on everyones thoughts! last photo is of the suspected dad stray. He also has some interesting markings.

 

[lutece]

They are adorable! The kittens appear to be domestic shorthairs and longhairs. Most cats are not any particular breed. Kinked or bobbed tails tend to be dominant mutations in the domestic cat. The bobbed tails on the mom and her kittens may be due to a mutation shared by some breed such as American Bobtail, or they may have a different tail mutation.

The brown tabby kitten's markings are called classic tabby (also known as blotched tabby). The suspected dad in the picture has a "broken classic" pattern, where you can see the trace of a classic tabby bullseye broken into spots on his sides. This is probably an indication that he has both classic tabby and spotted tabby genes. In the first picture, it looks like one of the blue tabbies also has a broken classic pattern. If this brown tabby fellow is the father of the kittens, we can guess that he carries the recessive genes for dilute (blue) and long hair, but does not carry the recessive gene for solid (non-tabby).

The classic tabby pattern is one of the oldest known mutations in the domestic cat, and is widespread in the domestic cat gene pool. Here is an interesting video that discusses cat domestication and the spread of the classic tabby mutation throughout the ancient world.

Cat domestication: From farms to sofas - Nature Ecology & Evolution

Years before they conquered the Internet, cats colonized our sofas. But they haven’t spent the last ten thousand years just snoozing. A new study reveals that tamed cats swept through Eurasia and Africa carried by early farmers, ancient mariners and even Vikings. The researchers analysed DNA...

www.nature.com

 

[Jemima Lucca]

Are any of the kittens a “rumpy”? In other words. No tail, just a rump? Or do the kittens all have small little kinked tails? Can you get a good picture of the mom? I had a Japanese bobtail for 16 years named Cotton because her tail was like a rabbit tail. It’s an interesting fact that all the tailbone of a regular cat is in the j-bobtail! I know this isn’t the greatest pi

 

[thull08]

They are adorable! The kittens appear to be domestic shorthairs and longhairs. Most cats are not any particular breed. Kinked or bobbed tails tend to be dominant mutations in the domestic cat. The bobbed tails on the mom and her kittens may be due to a mutation shared by some breed such as American Bobtail, or they may have a different tail mutation.

The brown tabby kitten's markings are called classic tabby (also known as blotched tabby). The suspected dad in the picture has a "broken classic" pattern, where you can see the trace of a classic tabby bullseye broken into spots on his sides. This is probably an indication that he has both classic tabby and spotted tabby genes. In the first picture, it looks like one of the blue tabbies also has a broken classic pattern. If this brown tabby fellow is the father of the kittens, we can guess that he carries the recessive genes for dilute (blue) and long hair, but does not carry the recessive gene for solid (non-tabby).

The classic tabby pattern is one of the oldest known mutations in the domestic cat, and is widespread in the domestic cat gene pool. Here is an interesting video that discusses cat domestication and the spread of the classic tabby mutation throughout the ancient world.

http://[URL]https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-017-0202

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thank you for all the information!! Recessive genes are fascinating!

 

[thull08]

Are any of the kittens a “rumpy”? In other words. No tail, just a rump? Or do the kittens all have small little kinked tails? Can you get a good picture of the mom? I had a Japanese bobtail for 16 years named Cotton because her tail was like a rabbit tail. It’s an interesting fact that all the tailbone of a regular cat is in the j-bobtail! I know this isn’t the greatest piView attachment 314087

One of the kittens has no tail at all, the other 4 have tiny little stumpy tails. Here is mom cat, who looks a lot like yours! She also has kind of a rabbit like tail!

 

[Jemima Lucca]

Well rumpys are typically Manx. So I’m guessing they could have Manx as part of their breed.

 

[lutece]

Well rumpys are typically Manx. So I’m guessing they could have Manx as part of their breed.

Although the Manx mutation is one possibility, naturally bobtailed cats occur all over the world and there are many different mutations that have been found to cause short tails. New bobtail mutations, unrelated to any breed, can also spontaneously occur in a population of cats.

 

[She's a witch]

Are any of the kittens a “rumpy”? In other words. No tail, just a rump? Or do the kittens all have small little kinked tails? Can you get a good picture of the mom? I had a Japanese bobtail for 16 years named Cotton because her tail was like a rabbit tail. It’s an interesting fact that all the tailbone of a regular cat is in the j-bobtail! I know this isn’t the greatest piView attachment 314087

Jemima Lucca is this solid black cat with white whiskers? I’ve seen only few such cats and I was always wondering if that’s uncommon thing. Maybe lutece could explain if there is any genetic magic behind it? I also knew a black cat with one long white whisker but when she lost it, it grew back black.. that was so disappointing

 

[Jemima Lucca]

Yes Cotton has white whiskers. I wish I had a better picture I could post. She was small as cats go. Very sweet personality; laid back and intuitive. I miss her terribly...

 

[lutece]

Jemima Lucca is this solid black cat with white whiskers? I’ve seen only few such cats and I was always wondering if that’s uncommon thing. Maybe lutece could explain if there is any genetic magic behind it? I also knew a black cat with one long white whisker but when she lost it, it grew back black.. that was so disappointing

Many cats do have white whiskers, even if the rest of the cat is not white. I'm not aware of genetic studies relating to whisker color specifically, however.