Why do domestic cats have thinner fur between the ear flaps and the eyes?

The Live Science website asks a similar question but I think the way I have asked the question is more accurate. They ask "why do cats have bald spots in front of their ears?" Well, firstly, these are not bald spots. The hair is thinner between the top of the eyes and the flaps. Secondly, although Live Science claim that small wild cats have the same anatomical characteristics, I don't think they do. On this page you will see a headshot of a serval which is a medium-sized wild cat compared with a headshot of a black domestic cat.

This is typical of the black domestic cat but there are variations:

Black domestic cat showing thinning hair from above the eyes to the base of the ear flap where skin is genuinely bald. The photograph is from Wikipedia and therefore published it under licence.

This is a serval:

Serval headshot showing continuous fur above the eyes and up to the flaps. This photograph, it is believed, as in the public domain.

You will see that the serval's fur between the eyes and the that is pretty solid and it doesn't seem to be thinning to me. Another point worth making is this: every time we discuss this topic we invariably show an image of a black domestic cat. This is because there is greater contrast between the white skin underneath the black fur making the thinning coat more obvious.

Also the fur there tends to stand on end. It is vertical which makes the skin underneath more visible.

Another point worth making is this: I don't think all domestic cats have the same level of thinning fur at this point on their face. It varies which is understandable because domestic cats do very.

But it has to be said that often times we see this characteristic so what causes it? The frustrating answer is that we don't know. I think one reason is that the hair strands tend to sit more vertically at that point which makes the skin below easier to see which could add to the impression that there is partial bolding at that point.

Live Science suggests that the thinning fur at that point is to help with hearing because the sound waves bounce off the head between the eyes and ears before entering near ear canal and impinging upon the eardrum. So this thinning fur maybe to do with improving hearing. That's the best guess so far.

It might have nothing whatsoever to do with hearing, however. It might just be a domestic cat trait because of their domestication. Fur is present to keep the cat warm and to protect them. Arguably, both of these benefits are not strictly required by a well cared for domestic cat. Perhaps, then, it is an evolutionary trait during the 10,000 years of domestication. That is another big guess.

It may be nothing to do with evolution. It could be a problem with thinning coats generally due to their lifestyle and/or diet which might not be entirely appropriate but which is not clear to humans. Perhaps the domestic cat is losing fur and this process is not visible in most areas of the coat because the fur is denser elsewhere than in the area between the top of the eye and ear flaps.

So perhaps this so-called bald patch is a symptom of a generalised inadequate domestic cat caregiving and its variation is because in some homes caregiving a superior than in other homes. We need another study on this to do some tests to get to the bottom of it.

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P.S. please forgive the occasional typo. These articles are written at breakneck speed using Dragon Dictate. I have to prepare them in around 20 mins.

Are bicolor cats rare, friendly, hypoallergenic?

Tuxedo cats are bicolor cats. This is my darling deceased female. Image: MikeB

Bicolor cats are cats with a coat of two (as in 'bi') colors: white and another colour such as black or ginger. And the 'other colour' can have tabby markings. 

They can be moggies (random-bred cats) or purebred, pedigree cats. It does not matter which. They are common and therefore not rare. Neither are they hypoallergenic but they are friendly if they've been socialised properly and treated well.

No domestic cat is hypoallergenic as the Fel D1 allergen is produced by all domestic cats. Purina LiveClear works pretty well to make a cat acceptable to a person allergic to cats.

'Hypoallergenic' means not producing an allergic reaction in people. About 10% of people are allergic to cats.

The white fur in bicolor cats is caused by the presence of the piebald aka white spotting gene, which affects the migration of pigment producing cells (melanocytes) in the skin during the development of the embryo. 

Where there are no melanocytes there is no melanin in the hair strands. White fur does not contain pigment namely melanin.

It is white because the light from sun or room light passes through it. White light is a mixture of all the colours of the rainbow.

Melanin is a brown/black. If it is diluted, black becomes blue grey and red becomes cream and so on.

The experts rate bicolor cats from 1 to 10 depending on the amount of white fur. Level 1 is black and no white fur while level 10 is all-white. The cat in the picture is about level 4.

If you have a question, ask in a comment and I'll be pleased to respond. I always check comments as I get so few! :)

Level 9 bicolor Cornish Rex. Image in the public domain.

Stunning-looking calico cat but is she real?

 Here she is but is she real? We'll never know. The problem is that there are some very talented photo-editors around nowadays. Although I sense that in this instance the cat is real except that the eyes have been 'doctored' to look more interesting than they really are. I mean the colours are stunning. You just don't get odd-eyes that colour normally. 

As you no doubt know, we do see odd-eye colour in domestic cats with one of the eyes being gold or yellow and the other blue (no melanin pigmentation) but I have a feeling that the colour of these eyes have been enhanced through photo shopping. I don't know. I am forced to guess which is a weakness with current photography.

Almost all the great photographs you see nowadays are photoshopped either subtly or quite extensively. Photography is more like painting nowadays than recording what is in front of the lens. There's nothing inherently wrong with it unless you want to know what the reality is.

Stunning-looking cat but is she real? She is a calico and therefore female.

We also see quite a lot of cats on the Internet with "split-face" colouration. In this instance it would be due to the white-spotting gene or another name for this gene is the piebald gene. This causes a lack of pigmentation in certain areas of the fur and sometimes it's effect produces a sharp line down the middle of the face.

We can tell that this is a calico cat because there is white fur (fur without pigmentation), red or ginger fur and black fur (tricolour). The calico cat is a tortoiseshell-and-white cat. The phrase "calico cat" comes from America. Some people don't like it! They prefer the original description.

And as you also no doubt know, nearly all calico cats are female because that is the way the genetics work. The genes are sex-linked. And in the rare cases that there are male calico cats they are feminised males, somewhere between male and female without being hermaphrodites. They are sterile and they don't show any real interest in meeting with females (asexual).

Father and daughter 'wear' the same 'mask'

My reading of the genetics behind this father and daughter cat looking as they do (very cute and very rare) is that they have the white spotting gene or piebald gene in their genetic makeup and it has caused this highly unusual Zorro mask to develop. I guess it is just by chance that the white spotting gene had this effect upon the way the pattern developed. I don't think that there is any special genetic mutation going on here.

Screenshot.

The white spotting gene normally simply results in a standard bicolour cat. These two are bicolour cats but the markings are remarkable. Normally the markings are just black-and-white blobs or a white background with markings being created by darker coloured fur. An example of a bicolour cat is the Harlequin. I have a page on bicolor cats. Please click on the link below.

Solid and white cat coats.

Cat develops a dead straight blonde fur line on her black fur overnight. Why?

This is the question on Reddit.com: Binx has (overnight) developed a dead straight line of blonde on her back. Any ideas?

Black cat with blonde stripe on her back which developed rapidly. Image: u/FyldeCoast on Reddit.com

There is obviously no certainty that I am correct. It is a kind of guess based on little to go on. If you have a better idea please comment. It would be great if you did 😃.

RELATED: 2 examples of feline vitiligo (leukoderma).

This is my answer

It looks like it could be vitiligo. It is harmless. Antibodies attack the melanocytes (pigment producing cells in the skin in the hair follicle bulb). The melanocytes are destroyed and no longer produce melanin, a dark pigment producing black fur. This leads to fur without pigment in a localised area. The hair strands in that are just keratin and therefore semi-transparent having the appearance of being off-white. The white area may expand. Sometimes cats with vitiligo turn from black to white! Studies indicate that changes in the immune system are responsible for the condition and that both underlying genetics and environmental triggers are involved. Now you'll tell me some bleach dripped onto her back 😊.

'Agouti'. What does it mean?

You see the word "agouti" use quite a lot by the cat fancy and on cat websites. What does it mean? It's a reference to a type of coat which we know very well, a tabby coat. Specifically, it refers to the genetics of a tabby coat. Agouti is the name given to a coat in which each individual hair strand is pigmented with bands of black, brown and yellow.

The most typical agouti pattern is seen in the ticked tabby coat of the Abyssinian cat; an "all-agouti" cat. The classic tabby cat that we see has blotches of dark areas and so we have, in the words of Robinson's Genetics, a tabby pattern which "consists of two coexisting systems of pigmentation or, more likely, a background of agouti, with a superimposed system of stronger black pigmentation."

The background of agouti as they state are areas in which the hair fibres are banded or ticked with alternating black or yellow pigmentation as mentioned.

Superimposed on this are areas in which almost all-black hairs predominate in which the yellow band is reduced to the very base of the hairs.

If you look closely at a tabby cat at each individual hair strand, and if you follow the black areas i.e. the markings, you can see that the top of the hair strand is black whereas going down the hair strand towards the skin you can see light yellow.

My tabby cat. He has a spotted tabby coat. Very wild cat looking.

It is the way these particular hairs are placed on the coat which provides the markings that we see which in addition to the blotch tabby mentioned, there is the spotted tabby and the striped or mackerel tabby.

The cat's genetics dictate the location of these hair strands that provide the markings.

The agouti coat is the original wild-type colouration by which I mean it is the coat of the wild cat ancestor of the domestic cat and other wild cat species.

Fertile Crescent confirmed as place of origin of domestic cat MU study finds

This is a new study that may interest some people. It basically confirms earlier studies and/or hardens up the theory that wildcat domestication first occurred in the Fertile Crescent, up to 12,000 years ago,  and they were transported to other parts of the world by their owners. Domestic cats might still be described as 'semi-domesticated' because of their ability to switch to a wildcat-like behaviour when allowed to roam outside the home except for the fact that they are socialised to humans.

Similarity in appearance is still evident after 10,000 years. Image: MikeB

Below is a summary of the study from a report from the University of Missouri. The scientist, Leslie A. Lyons, a feline geneticist and Gilbreath-McLorn endowed professor of comparative medicine in the MU College of Veterinary Medicine, was the study leader and author.

Domestic cats are thought to have originated from the wildcat species, Felis silvestris, which still exists today. The domestication of cats is believed to have begun when humans settled in the Fertile Crescent, the region surrounding the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the Middle East. Cats were attracted to the settlements because of the presence of rodents, which were a source of food for the cats.

Fertile Crescent location where wildcat domestication first occurred. Image: MikeB based on one in the public domain as assessed.

The new study at the University of Missouri used DNA analysis to examine the genetic makeup of cats from the Fertile Crescent area and other parts of the world. The researchers found that the genetic makeup of the cats in the Fertile Crescent was similar to that of wildcats, suggesting that the domestication of cats likely began in this region. The researchers also found that as humans migrated to other parts of the world, they likely took their cats with them, resulting in the spread of domesticated cats to other parts of the world.

Another map of the Fertile Crescent. Image in public domain.

Domestic cats, like many other domesticated animals, have evolved to live and thrive in close association with humans. However, unlike other domesticated animals such as dogs, the domestication of cats has not resulted in significant changes to their natural behaviors. Cats are known to be skilled hunters and are able to take care of themselves in the wild, making them "semi-domesticated" animals.

The study at the University of Missouri used genetic analysis to provide evidence for the theory that cats were first domesticated in the Fertile Crescent region of the Middle East and were later transported by humans to other parts of the world. The researchers found that the genetic makeup of cats in the Fertile Crescent was similar to that of wildcats, suggesting that the domestication of cats likely began in this region. As humans migrated to other parts of the world, they likely brought their cats with them, resulting in the spread of domesticated cats to other parts of the world.

Cat coats: solid-and-white - bicolor cats

Cat Coats Solid and White - Bicolor - photo copyright fofurasfelinas

This is another posting on cat coats. This time I discuss the impact of the white spotting gene on "solid" colored cats other than Tuxedo cats, which I have already discussed on this page. Tuxedo cats are very common and specific in their coat pattern so I've dealt with them separately. Both are bicolor cats meaning a cat coat of two colours, white and another solid colour.

Bicolour development - white spotting gene. Image: Sarah Hartwell.

The particular effect that the white spotting gene has on any one cat dictates the spread of white fur on the cat (or put it another way it restricts the spread of color). The cat fancy has given names to the patterns caused by this gene, which by the way is also called the piebald gene. It is considered a "semi-dominant" gene.

Bicolour faces white spotting gene. Image in public domain.

White spotted cats are one of the most common cats. The white spotting gene (represented by the letter "S" in the science of genetics) can change the appearance of any colored cat including tabby cats or tortoiseshell cats or a combination of the two (torbie). [See cat coats tortie and white]. When it affects a tortoiseshell cat, the cat is called a calico cat in the States.

Bicolours. The chart is by Sarah Hartwell of messybeast. Many thanks.

RELATED PAGE: White spotting gene charts.

A fine example of a cat with a solid and white coat is the Turkish Van (high grade spotting - see below). This has, of course, the "Van" pattern. Van is a town in the South east of Turkey, where the Turkish Van originally came from (including adjacent regions).

Another example of a well-known cat breed with a "solid and white coat" is the Japanese Bobtail. The Japanese Bobtail has a Bicolor pattern in both "solid and white" and calico (which is tortoiseshell and white mentioned above).

Bicolor cat photo by tanakawho (this photographer is well known - see more of his work here plus the work of 2 other fine photographers). Picture reproduced here under a creative commons license.

I discuss, in brief, the workings of the piebald gene on the Tuxedo cat page as well as here. The effects of the piebald gene can be seen to varying degrees. The amount of white dictates whether the pattern is a grade 9 (almost total white with the colored fur limited to a few spots). This is called high grade spotting.

At the other end of the spectrum at grade 1 there is a very small amount of white. This is called low grade spotting. When the cat is low grade the genotype (genetic makeup in relation to the cat's coat) is normally heterozygous represented by the letters "Ss". Conversely when the coat is high grade (lots of white) a spotted cat is generally homozygous "SS".

Black and white bicolor Scottish Fold kitten from Russia (Siberia). Photo (excellent):  Анатолий Кузнецов.

The presence of the piebald gene results in white fur by causing special embryonic cells to behave in a defective manner. These cells are called "Melanoblasts" and they become the cells of the cats body that produce the granules of pigmentation that are embedded in the individual hairs. During the embryonic stage these cells migrate from the spine area. They fail to migrate properly and fully causing parts of the body to be without color. The wide variability of the effect of this gene is due, at least in part, to the presence of other unidentified genes called "polygenes".

The great Dr. Desmond Morris discusses bi-colour cats in his book Cat World. He tells us that such patterns are most common in non-pedigree cats. But of course, you will see this coat type in pedigree cats as well. It depends on the breed standard is to whether they are allowed or not. In the early days of the cat fancy the bi-colour cat was less likely to be accepted because they felt that they made a pure-bred animal look like a moggy.

This was prejudice against the coat but it was more likely to be accepted if there was some sort of distinguishing factors about the bicolour coat such as an attractive symmetry or the distribution of the colour was interesting.

In the early days of the cat fancy the black-and-white coat was referred to as a 'magpie cat'. And sometimes the bicolour cat is called a parti-colored cat. You will see "parti-colored" spelled in different ways. Apparently bicolour cats only attained championship status within the show cat fraternity in 1966.

You will see bicolour cats in longhaired and shorthaired cats and in many cat breeds such as the American Shorthair, British Shorthair, Devon Rex, Cornish Rex, Japanese bobtail, Maine Coon, Manx and Persians. These are just examples. There are others.

Here are some photographs of the solid and white coat pattern:

Cream and white - photo:
copyright Helmi Flick

Cat Coats Solid and White - Turkish Van - Photograph copyright Lazy_Lightning


Cat Coats Solid and White - Black and White Van pattern with a lot of white (grade 8 perhaps) - photograph copyright Helmi Flick.


Black with white (more than a Tuxedo). Photograph copyright Helmi Flick.

Cat Coats Solid and White - This is another black-and-white cat (hairless cat). This demonstrates how the white spotting gene affects the skin color as well. Perhaps more accurately it is the almost invisible downy hair strands near the skin which are pigmented.

RELATED: Picture of calico Sphynx cat.

Perhaps a more accurate description for this cat, a Sphynx Cat (or Sphynx-like cat) would be Black and Pink! Photograph copyright Helmi Flick.

Cat Coats Solid and White - Sources:

• Beth Hicks
• Messybeast - Sarah Hartwell

From Cat Coats Solid and White to Cat Facts

Melanism in cats - full discussion

The cat above is a "grizzled" Chausie in cat fancy language or a cat with melanism in more scientific language. She is a silver tipped black Chausie. The cat's name is "Shekinah" and she was raised on Tammy Isaac's Willowind Cattery in South Texas. The photo is copyright protected. The photographer is Helmi Flick.

This post is about melanism in cats. The same principles apply for any form of melanism. Melanism refers to the black pigmentation of melanin.  This pigmentation colors hair, iris of the eye and skin. The pigmentation in the hair, however, is more a very dark, inky, rich bluish/brownish grey as the black coat pattern is still visible as a ghost pattern. Cats that carry the gene mutation that causes melanism are called "melanistic cats". Melanism is caused by a dominant autosomal allele². The same source says that it is caused by an "autosomal recessive gene"⁶. This is conflicting information and shows that science is unsure of the genetic mechanisms involved. The conflict may be due to the fact that a different gene is involved in different cat species.

The opposite effect is albinism, when hair, iris and skin lacks pigmentation altogether.

Melanism may be linked to an added resistance to disease. The following wild cats can be melanistic:

Scottish Wild cat
Indian (Temmincks) Golden Cat
African Golden Cat
Jungle cat (dominant gene melanism, silver tipped)
Jaguar (dominant gene melanism)
Leopard ("black panther")
Cheetah
Caracal
Serval
Lynx
Bobcat
Jaguarundi
Geoffroy's cat
Clouded leopard
Ocelot
Pampas cat (Cincinnati zoo)
Oncilla
Kodkod

Source: messybeast.com

Wild cats

Another phrase that is frequently used specifically for large wildcats is "black panther". Black panthers are melanistic cats. The specific wild cats that this phrase relates to is the jaguar and the leopard (see also: black leopard pictures). These are very similar looking wildcats but they live on different continents. Amongst the wild cats, melanism is most common in jaguars. At one time (incorrectly) black jaguars were considered a separate wild cat species. As mentioned, the pattern is ghosted (see image below). It can rarely refer to the cougar (mountain lion or puma) too. Melanistic pumas are localised or very rare¹. A visitor to PoC claims to have seen a 40 lb black cat in Arizona. And please see: I encountered a seven foot long oily black mountain lion...

Melanistic jaguar showing ghost pattern - photo: by ahisgett

However, there are many other wild cats that are melanistic. Melanism seems to be common in some species of wild cat and less common in others. In addition to the jaguar and leopard mentioned above, the serval, kodkod, jungle cat, Geoffroy's cat and oncilla can be melanistic while it is a rare condition or localised in the Bobcat, clouded leopard (in Borneo only) and cheetah. Apparently melanistic Geoffroy's cats are common. Partially black and melanistic African golden cats have been observed³. As to the Bobcat there were reports of 10 black bobcats in southern Florida⁴. As to the cheetah there is a record of one being sighted in Zambia and one in Kenya⁵. Melanistic servals are found in the Abedare Mountains of Kenya as are also black leopards. Black leopards are also found in the foothills of the Ruwenzoris, the Ethiopian highlands, Congo and South Africa⁶.

Melanistic jungle cat (felis chaus) - Photo by Joachim S. Müller

Domestic Cats

There are some good examples of melanism in domestic cats on PoC. The best is probably the F4 Savannah cat that I photographed at A1 Savannahs called "Midnight".

F4 Savannah cat "Midnight" with melanism - Photo Michael 

Another is the F1 Safari cat (a wildcat hybrid). And heading this post is a black Chausie another wildcat hybrid domestic cat.

Genetics

Information about the genetics behind melanism in cats is very sketchy. I can say this with some confidence because Robinson's Genetics, the premier book on cat genetics, barely refers to it.

Sarah Hartwell on messybeast.com writes:

"Melanism is due to changes in the "agouti" gene which controls blackness (due to bands of colour along the hair shaft). Cats with normal agouti genes have ticked or banded hairs. Cats with 2 copies of the mutated agouti gene have solid colour hairs. In wild species this causes melanism (in domestic cats other genes affect the colour e.g. black, grey, brown). In most cat species, the gene for melanism is recessive to that for normal colour. In jaguars, melanism is a dominant gene."

Clearly the dominant (or recessive) gene that produces melanism causes the pigment, melanin, to be added to hair, skin and iris in a continuous manner at the time that the hair, skin and eyes are being formed. By way of contrast, the agouti gene causes pigment to be added to hair in bands producing the tabby appearance.

Biological melanin is called "eumelanin".

Notes:

1. Wild Cats of the World page 8

2. Foreman GE 1988 Behavioral and genetic analysis of Geoffroy's cat in captivity as referred to in Wildcats of the World page 206.

3. Wild Cats of the World page 247

4. Wild Cats of the World page 186

5. Wild Cats of the World page 21

6.  Wild Cats of the World page 320 (leopard description)



Melanism to Home Page

Dickkopf 4 (Dkk4) gene vital to the process of creating cat fur patterns

The research results report is impenetrable for the average layperson. I would politely ask the scientists to provide a second write-up of their research in straightforward English so the general public can understand it. Thanks in advance. This is important research which is central to understanding one of the most important features of domestic cats: the appearance of their coat. It is the most important aspect of the cat's appearance. Please tell us how it works in plain English. I am sure that even the science journalists struggle with the scientists' write-up.

Dickkopf 4 (Dkk4) gene vital to the process of creating cat fur patterns. Image: The researchers.

One of the scientists involved, Dr. Gregory S. Barsh. said to The New York Times:

"We think this is really the first glimpse into what the molecules (involved in pattern development) might be".

They carried out the research at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville, Alabama, USA.

The research identified a gene they have called Dickkopf (Dkk4) as the centre of the process of cat coat pattern development.

"The secreted Wnt inhibitor encoded by Dickkopf 4 plays a central role in this process, and is mutated in cats with the Ticked pattern type".

They analysed skin samples from non-viable cat embryos for the study. Note: they made that clear I guess to avoid criticism of animal testing. Good. It shows a sensitivity towards the immorality of animal testing.

They used the embryos to explore the genetics behind a wide range of cat coat patterns. The original pattern for the domestic cat is the mackerel tabby (my comment) as it comes from the North African wildcat, the domestic cat's wild ancestor. All tabby cats have the famous M mark on their forehead, sometimes almost invisible.

Associated: Why are tabby cats so common?

At birth all cats have developed their coat type that they'll have for their lives.

Image: the researchers.

The gene Dkk4, as it changes in the embryo, dictates the pattern. They found that this 'signalling molecule' is behind all the coat appearance of a range of animals including cheetahs, tigers, leopards and the domestic cat.

Associated page: Cat coats tabby.

Differences in the expression of the molecule during the development of the embryo produces the variety of coat patterns during later hair growth.

Is cat personality linked to coat colour and type?

People like to think that there is a connection between the appearance of someone or an animal and their personality. British people refer to tortoiseshell cats as being "naughty torties" or having "catitude". Sometimes blotched tabbies are referred to as "real homebodies". And mackerel tabbies are seen as being independent. While white patches on a cat's coat have a calming effect on the personality.

Incidentally, it is not until fairly recently that people started to understand that domestic cats have a personality. Even scientists believed that only humans had personalities. That seems hard to believe nowadays.

Is this tortie a naughty cat? Photo:Twitter.

I've always felt that red tabby cats have good relaxed characters. Red tabbies are also called ginger or marmalade cats. They always seem to be spoken of in glowing terms as companions with nice, affable characters. But this is all anecdotal. To turn to science, some scientists believe that the biochemistry that creates different coat colours and types also affects the cat's brain. This is called "pleiotropy". But apparently there is little evidence to support this scientific theory says Dr Bradshaw in Cat Sense.

Perhaps we are on a more solid scientific footing when we turn our attention to the purebred, pedigree cats. With pedigree cats there is a lineage so we know the parents and grandparents; in short, there is a family tree, which allows scientists to study the inheritance of the genes.

There is a relatively restricted gene pool in breeding lines which allows the temperament of a founding cat to be brought forward all the way down the breeding line. So, for example, there is a limited number of high-quality male cats within each breed who are available to produce the type of coat desired as per the breed standard. As a result, the personality of these tomcats becomes predominant within a section of all the cats in a single breed.

For example, there was a time about 20 years ago when British Shorthair cats bred in Scotland with tortoiseshell, cream and especially red coats were difficult to handle. They traced this personality trait back to a single male cat who had a difficult personality. This, incidentally, is an example of breeders breeding for appearance over personality. This founding, male cat was unsuitable, it seems.

And also pointed cats, which you will see both in the Siamese and other pedigree cats and indeed in non-pedigree cats, are likely to be vocal. This is a well-known trait for Siamese cats. The reason, it is said, is because the gene that causes the points i.e. the dark extremities to the cat's body are rare unless that cat has at least one Siamese in its recent ancestral past.

Another way in which coat type and colour can be linked to personality is when the gene that controls the coat is physically close, on the same chromosome, as the gene that affects the way the brain develops. Under these circumstances the chances that a kitten will inherit the combination of these two genes, one affecting the coat and one affecting the brain is much higher. They tend to be inherited together although it doesn't always happen.

An example would be the dominant white gene which causes a cat's coat to be devoid of pigment and therefore is white, sits next to a gene which causes both eyes to be blue and the cat to be deaf. That's why white cats are often deaf with blue eyes or they have odd-eye colour. Because the cat is deaf it affects their personality and therefore in this instance coat type and colour affects personality.

I am indebted to Dr John Bradshaw for the above. Some more...

One aspect of people attaching personality to coat type is that it may colour their opinion of their cat (excuse the pun). The point that I am getting at is that if a person believes that tortoiseshell cats are naughty and if with that belief, they mishandle their tortoiseshell cat and are scratched, the two aspects to their relationship come together which may result in the cat being relinquished to a shelter.

A study found that participants were likely to attribute friendliness to orange cats and intolerance to tricolour cats and aloofness to white and tricolour cats. White cats were seen as being more shy and calmer than cats of other colours.

The participants to the study said that they thought personality was more important than colour when selecting a cat companion. This is interesting because cat breeders of purebred cats attach more importance to appearance that personality. There appears to be a disconnect between cat breeders and their clients.

Fabric eating by Oriental purebred cats may be due to stress

Dr. Bradshaw who wrote the book Cat Sense discusses the reason why the Oriental breeds have a predisposition to eating wool. Because the Oriental breeds - by which I mean the Siamese and the Oriental Shorthair and associated breeds within the Siamese family - are predisposed to this form of pica, Bradshaw says that it must have a genetic origin. 

Lilac Siamese eating wool. Photo: copyright Warren Photographic.

And if it does, it is not inherited directly. He did a little survey for himself it seems of 75 kittens produced by seven mothers. Three of the mothers were fabric eaters while four of them were not. One third of the kittens had become fabric eaters. But many had normal mothers i.e. they were not fabric eaters. Therefore, he couldn't explain fabric eating in these kittens on the basis of genetics or their mother's behaviour.

SOME PAGE ON WOOL SUCKING

He also found that many of the fabric-eating cats had other forms of abnormal behaviour. These included fighting their owners and excessive scratching. And he found that among Oriental cats the desire to eat fabrics starts within a few weeks of the cat entering a new home. That is an interesting observation because at that moment the cat is going to be stressed and the stress might last quite a long time in the average domestic cat.

Also, the beginning of the desire to eat fabric can occur at around one year of age without a move to a new home. At one year of age a cat is becoming independent which carries the possibility of conflict with other cats. When cats become independent, they want their own home range which leads to this potential conflict. And this conflict doesn't need to happen towards cats in the home. It can also be a problem if a mature cat inside the home sees a strange cat outside the home as they feel that that cat is invading their territory.

Based on these observations, Dr. Bradshaw believes that fabric eating may start "as a soothing oral behaviour that these cats adopt when they feel especially stressed rather like thumb sucking in human infants". Interestingly, you will see kittens sucking their thumbs just like humans on the Internet. This is an alternative to wool sucking.

Kitten thumb sucking an alternative to wool sucking due to anxiety. Video screenshot.

It is possible that domestic cats can slide into anxiety issues quite easily because they have been shoehorned into the human home when mentally and emotionally they are still wild cats.

Do Selkirk Rex cats shed a lot?

Do Selkirk Rex cats shed a lot? No, is the answer. There is nothing in the history of this breed which indicates that Selkirk Rex cats shed more or less than other cats. The cat has coarse guard (top coat) hairs and these together with the awn and down hairs are curled.

Curly-coated cat. The Selkirk Rex. Photo: Nathalie Jacques, Saint-Léonard d'Aston, Québec, Canada.

Selkirk Rex kittens are born with curly coats. The coat disappears at about 6-months-of-age. It is replaced by sparse wiry hair. At around ten months old the adult coat emerges which is curly, plush and thick.

There is nothing in the literature which supports the belief that the Selkirk Rex sheds a lot. They neither shed more nor less than cats with normal coats to the best of my knowledge.

Hair shedding in cats is due to the change in the amount of light not the amount of heat. That is why shedding is seasonal with more hair shed in the summer months due to more light.

The gene causing the curly coat is dominant in contrast to the other Rex cats. 'Rex' cats are curly haired cats. The Devon and Cornish Rex cats are also well-known. The Selkirk has gained some popularity recently (2018-2021) because of media coverage of cats with sheep's coats.

Domestic cats get cancer less often than humans?

Wes Warren is part of a team of three with William Murphy and Lesley Lyons who mapped the genome of cats. Warren works at the University of Missouri and Murphy works at Texas A&M University. Lyons is a veterinarian and a specialist in cat genetic. They are very skilled scientists and Wes Warren said that cats don't get cancer very often. I thought I would briefly follow that up because Lesley Lyons suggests that cats should be used more in animal research which I strongly disagree with. 

He actually said this:

'We know that dogs get cancer more frequently, similar to ourselves. Cats don’t get cancer very often. And that’s a fascinating story of evolution.'

He is staying that cats get cancer less often than dogs and dogs and humans get it at similar rates.

Cat, dog and human. Photo: Pixabay.

The reason given is that they have better genes than humans (this is probably a massive oversimplification) and therefore we should study them to see whether we can improve human resistance to cancer and other diseases.

My brief research indicates that in the UK 0.54-0.59% of the human population will get cancer whereas in general I'm told that one in five or 20% of cats get cancer in their lifetimes. That positively does not square up with what Wes Warren stated.

It probably doesn't square up because when you try and research the prevalence of cancer in cats just don't get a clear answer except the one that I provided which comes from the Colorado State University. One thing is for sure and that is cats get cancer less often than dogs.

Certainly, dogs are taken to a veterinarian more often cats. That may point to the possibility that dogs are sick more often than cats (or owners are more concerned about dog health?). Overall, cats have better genetic diversity than dogs because a far higher percentage of dogs are purebred and therefore inbred due to selective breeding than cats. Purebred cats are relatively rare compared to random bred cats. Therefore, perhaps it is fair to say that cats have better genes in terms of longevity than dogs and perhaps humans.

I think this team of geneticists say that cats have better DNA 'dark matter' as they call it. The DNA dark matter needs to be studied as it is more important than believed.

Conclusion: I can't find direct statistical comparison between cats and humans on prevalence of cancer. But Wes Warren should know. Cats get cancer less often than people and dogs is the conclusion.

Study on pet wolf behaviour helps explain why wild cats don't make great pets

It is my contention that true wild cats like the serval don't make good pets because they are not backed up by 10,000 years of domestication. I believe that memory can be inherited. It is called genetic memory. This is why young offspring of wild animals such as wild cats or wild dogs immediately know how to do things completely instinctively. And it's why domestic cats have the memory of human behavior in their DNA.

Zena, a pet serval, and James Brown's partner? Photo: James Brown.

And I believe that domestic cats over thousands of years of domestication learn how to interact with people and that this memory is held in their genes to be passed on to their offspring. And the study on young wolves regarded as pets to their owners found that they could never quite pick up inferences from human behaviour as could domestic dogs. Therefore, they were unable to communicate with people in quite the same way.

Dogs are born with an innate ability to understand what humans want to communicate to them. Their ability is to read people because of perhaps 20,000 years of domestication. Dogs have been domesticated for far longer than cats because they were and still are working animals.

Because they understand people better, they form much better bonds with people than do pet wild dogs i.e. wolves. Across a range of tests in the study the dog puppies greatly outperformed their wolf cousins. For example, despite puppies, only a few weeks old, know where to find their food because the human is pointing at it whereas not one of the young wolves in the study did any better than chance. In other words, there was no background, inherited skills.

The pet wolf is a raw product without a history of interacting with human beings. Take that from the study and you get the same effect in living with exotic cats as they are called, which refers normally to the small and medium-sized wild cat species such as the serval, as mentioned, and sometimes the cheetah or even the mountain lion. I have seen people regard mountain lions as pets. They even go a step further and have lions and tigers as pets sometimes but the relationship between cat and person will never be the same as with a domestic cat.

Wild cats as pets are not able to create the same bond and understanding between themselves and their human carer as the humble domestic cat. That is not to say that bonds are formed. Some people say that exotic cats such as the F1 Savannah create strong bonds but that cat is half domestic cat.

P.S. The study referred to was carried out at the Wildlife Science Center in Stacy, Minnesota and published in the journal Current Biology.

All Scottish wildcats and kittens should be DNA tested for purebred status

NEWS AND OPINION: There is a nice story about Scottish wildcats today reported by the Daily Record. It concerns three Scottish wildcat kittens at the Five Sisters Zoo in West Calder, near Livingston. On their first medical they discovered that they have two boys and one girl. They look very much like Scottish wildcats with their tabby coats and slightly fierce appearance which is exactly the way you want it. The photograph on this page is from the Daily Record. There next job is to name them and they are looking for suggestions on their Facebook page.

Scottish wildcat kitten at his first medical. Photo: Five Sisters Zoo, via the Daily Record.

The report states that there are an estimated 35 Scottish wildcat in the wild in Scotland and that they are 50 times rarer than a giant panda. They may actually be rarer than that. In fact, they may no longer exist in purebred form. There's been so much interbreeding between domestic and feral cats and Scottish wildcats that it is plausible to argue that there are no purebred Scottish wildcats left in captivity or in the wild.

I don't know if any wildcats in zoos are purebred, such as these three darling kittens. I think that zoos should confirm to the public that they are genuine Scottish wildcats with no dilution of their DNA through crossbreeding with non-purebred Scottish wildcats.

Where a wild cat becomes extinct or is becoming extinct through interbreeding with other species of cat, it is beholden upon zookeepers who are in the business of conservation, they state, to make sure that they are caring for the genuine item and not a hybrid. For all I know these beautiful kittens may be hybrids and if they are you can't call them Scottish wildcats. One issue is that the appearance of a Scottish wildcat hybrid is very similar to the genuine article.

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I don't want to be too negative because it's a nice story but I've seen quite a lot of estimates as to the number of Scottish wildcats left in the wild over the years and they are just that: estimates. This leads me to believe that there may be none left which is a stark realisation.

Although people refer to this species of wild cat as a "Scottish wildcat" it is possibly or probably fairer to call this cat a European wildcat. I don't know whether it is true that there is a subspecies of wildcat called the Scottish wildcat. 

Also, please note that I use the word "wildcat" and the phrase "wild cat" for a specific reason. The phrase "wild cat" refers to any individual cat of any wild cat species whereas the word "wildcat" in my opinion refers to the species which is the 'wildcat'. It is complicated but I'm being particular about this.

Pseudo-melanistic black tiger photographed in Odisha, India

ODISHA, INDIA, NEWS AND COMMENT: A lucky amateur photographer, Soumen Bajpayee, captured a black tiger, more particularly a tiger with thick dark stripes almost covering the tawny/orange background because of a genetic mutation described as pseudo-melanism. These tigers are said to be incredibly rare (as reported by the Daily Mail) which is why the photographer was incredibly lucky. I hope that he was able to sell his photographs for a decent amount of money. They also report that melanistic black tigers are only found in Odisha state and that the numbers have declined dramatically, especially recently according to a 2018 tiger count.

Pseudo-melanistic black tiger in Odisha state India. Photo credit per embossing lower left.

Most black tigers can be seen in the Similipal Tiger Reserve in Odisha. They first reported melanistic tigers in this reserve in 2007. A wildlife expert and scientist at the Wildlife Institute of India said that he believed that there were only 7-8 of these tigers left. They are said to be smaller than the standard-coloured tigers.

There is constant pressure on tiger numbers in India because of the continually growing human population, which squeezes out wildlife. I'm referring particularly to human activity which increases as the human population increases. It makes sense. Human activity is anathema to tigers in the wild.

Sarah Hartwell, an expert on cat genetics and unusual cats both wild and domestic, tells us that pseudo-melanistic tigers might be becoming more common due to inbreeding which in turn is caused by habitat reduction which in turn is caused by, as mentioned, increased human activity.

In the fact that pseudo-melanistic black tigers are smaller than the normal tigers also indicate inbreeding. Inbreeding promotes anomalous coat patterns and/or colours. This is because recessive genes are able to manifest themselves in phenotypes. Also, totally black melanistic tigers have been reported. Sometimes people misidentify a melanistic leopard which is totally black, or very dark charcoal coloured, as a tiger which may account for the assessment that melanistic tigers are smaller.

Sarah reports on some old accounts of black tigers. For example, in an ancient Chinese Encyclopaedia written circa 300 BC called Erya, there is a mention of a black tiger in a chapter headed "Explaining the beasts". It starts "The shu is a black tiger."

The book reports of a small black tiger with fur that was dark and luxuriant but "bore spots/stripes". The Tower of London menagerie which was founded in the 13th century by Henry III at one time had a black tiger from the East Indies it is said, but it is more likely that it was a black leopard.

The Daily Mail report is dated Nov. 2020.

Sectoral heterochromia in an all-white cat

This is called sectoral heterochromia. It is rare and beautiful. No health issues. You do see it in domestic cats. The cat is all-white. It is the dominant white gene which affects eye pigmentation creation in the embryonic stage. It causes the removal of melanin pigment across a part of the iris. The blue color is caused by light refraction only (not blue pigment). The yellow by pigment (eumelanin). All-white cats have no pigment in the hair strands. This is why they can get sunburnt ears - no pigment to block sun and in any case the hairs are thin there.

The normal, most common, sort of heterochromia in cats is when they have odd-eyes. One eye is blue and the other is yellow normally. But there are various types of heterochromia and the one we see on this page is called sectoral heterochromia because each eye is divided up into two colours i.e. there are two sections to the eyes. Turkish Angoras sometimes have odd-eyes and they are favoured. They are often all-white cats too. The classic real Turkish Angora is all-white with odd-eye colour.

The cat below looks a bit like an Angora but is not to the best of my knowledge.

Sectoral heterochromia in an all-white cat. Photo: Reddit.com.

Should we genetically engineer cats to curb their urge to kill?

Not long ago I proposed genetically engineering feral cats to make them infertile as an alternative to TNR programs which includes spaying and neutering. But it might be a better idea to genetically engineer feral cats. That would seem to be a more elegant way to control the feral cat population. I don't know whether it's been discussed but what is also being discussed is genetically engineering cats to modify their behaviour, to stop their urge to kill.

Photo: Pixabay

That would mean altering the most fundamental aspect of a cat's behaviour which is to hunt, stalk, attack, kill and eat prey animals. In the case of domestic cats that usually means small mammals such as voles, mice and even rats occasionally (plus reptiles, birds and insects). I'm not sure if it is viable. I'm not a good enough scientist to decide how you'd go about doing that.

The obvious initial downside is animal testing. I can see animal testing taking place which would be cruel. I could not justify it. I don't believe that any animl testing is ethically and justifiable today. It is time to stop it.

You can achieve character changes to a certain extent by selective breeding. This is breeding through artificial selection so you only select those cats which are very passive and mild mannered with a known trait of a disinterest in hunting. That might be hard to believe but some domestic cat hardly hunt at all whereas others are obsessed with it such as my cat!

The average domestic cat will certainly enjoy hunting to a certain extent but it would seem fair to suggest that we could select the least motivated hunters and selectively breed from them to the point where you only had domestic cats that were disinterested in what should be their primary activity: hunting.

Brief research tells me that that scientists genetically engineer animals by introducing a beneficial gene into their DNA. I suppose, therefore, it would mean scientist deciding which genes and on which chromosomes behavioural traits such as hunting are located. 

Then they could remove those genes and replace them with the genes of a cat with known traits including a disinterest in hunting. I'm guessing wildly at this point. But the concept of genetically engineering cats to modify their behaviour to eliminate hunting is fascinating but it seems to be a bridge too far at this stage. What do you think?