Cat Breed Quiz

Looking for a cat breed quiz? There are two on this page.

Visitors' answers can be seen by clicking on this link. My answers are at the base of this form. Prefer wildcats? See:

• Lion Quiz
• Tiger Quiz

First Cat Breed Quiz




Here are my answers:

1. No. All cat breeds are one species of cat, the domestic cat, scientific name: Felis silvestrus catus or sometimes referred to as Felis catus.

2. Over 100 but many are rare and very much on the fringes. The CFA recognise about 40.

3. The Abyssinian cat. See Agouti Ticked Coat and Abyssinian Cat.

4. Maine Coon  Cat

5. F1 Savannah Cat "Magic" and she is a Savannah cat recognized by TICA.

6. Toyger

7.  More breeds because it is more adventurous. The CFA is quite part of the establishment.

8. Egyptian Mau. Amongst the first cats to be domesticated from the African wildcat.

9. Yes, the CFA calls them (at 2011) "Household Pets". I don't like the description. Some of these cats are stunning.

10. Persian. The "Ultra Persian" or contemporary Persian cat with the obligatory flat face. See traditionals and the arguments.

11.  Bengal cat.

12.  Chartreux.

13.  Four. See Grey Cat Breeds.

14. Yes, both are oriental in body shape. See Modern Siamese cat and Oriental Shorthair cat.

15.  F1 Savannah cat, top quality - A1 Extremes.


Second Cat Breed Quiz

Here are 20 cat breed questions and the answers for anyone who'd like to use them for whatever purpose:

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1. What is the difference between a mixed breed cat and purebred cat?

2. When is a cat a pedigree cat?

3. Name three hairless or near hairless cat breeds.

4. Name two cat breeds that originate in Russia.

5. Name two cat breeds that originate from Japan or near Japan.

6. Name three natural cat breeds ("natural" means that the cat has evolved naturally).

7. Which three cat breeds are amongst the most popular?

8. Name two cat breeds that like or have an affinity to water

9. Name one cat breed with a very wedged shaped head and one with a very rounded shaped head.

10. Which cat breed is arguably the best indoor cat?

11. Name two cat breeds that could be said to be the rarest, one of which claims to be rarest.

12. Name the cat breed, native to America, that is one the biggest cat breeds.

13. Name two tamed wild cats that can be domestic cats.

14. Name two wildcat/domestic cat hybrid cat breeds.

15. Is it true that the CFA (the Cat Fanciers Association - the biggest) prefer "pretty" or more groomed Maine Coon cats to more natural Maine Coon cats?

16. Name the cat breed famous for a ticked coat.

17. Name three cat breeds with short or no tail.

18. Name two dwarf cat breeds.

19. Which is the founding dwarf cat breed?

20. Which gene causes the tabby coat?

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Cat Breed Quiz Answers:

1. Mixed breed cats do not have a controlled parentage as set by the cat associations. The parentage makes for the cat type (appearance). Mixed breed cats are what the name states, a mixture of various cat breeds. Mixed breed cats can be shown at cat shows and can have a recorded history (a pedigree) however. The breeding of purebred cats is controlled by the cat associations to ensure good type and health but the gene pool will necessarily be smaller in order to ensure that the cat looks like the cat breed she is meant to be.

2. A cat with a recorded parentage going back several generations as stipulated by the association concerned.

3. Sphynx, Don Sphynx, Peterbald.

4. Peterbald, Don Sphynx or Russian Blue.

5. Japanese Bobtail, Kurilian Bobtail.

6. Chartreux, Norwegian Forest, Maine Coon, Abyssinian (some doubt this).

7. Persian, Abyssinian and Bengal (also Maine Coon and Siamese).

8. Bengal and Chausie.

9. Sphynx or Modern Siamese (wedge), Persian (rounded).

10. Persian (the modern or ultra Persian has to stay indoors)

11. Sokoke claims to be one of the rarest. The California Spangled, and the dwarf cats (other than the Munchkin) are rare.

12. Maine Coon.

13. Serval and Safari.

14. Bengal and Chausie (another is the Savannah).

15. Yes.

16. Abyssinian.

17. Japanese Bobtail, American Bobtail, Kurilian Bobtail, Pixie-bob.

18. Napoleon, Kinkalow, Munchkin, Skookum, Bambino are just 4, there are more.

19. Munchkin.

20. Agouti.

Photographs of Bengal cats:

• Top: copyright tunick
• bottom: copyright _imax (both reproduced under creative commons)
  

From Cat Breed Quiz to List of cat breeds A-H

Pictures of Different Cat Breeds

Pictures of Different Cat Breeds are available in alphabetical order, listed over three pages, with links to more details and more great pictures on the main website on these pages:-

Cat Breeds A-H
Cat Breeds J-P
Cat Breeds R-T

Enjoy these pages. They are designed to provide easy access to a list of breeds so you can make comparisons quickly. The photographs on these three pages are not thumbnails so you don't have to click through on the links if you don't want to.

Sure there are a lot of pictures of different cat breeds on the Internet. But I hope that you will agree that the ease of reference in combination with the best cat photography by Helmi makes the pages listed above some the best on the 'net as a starting reference point to the cat breeds.

The list is comprehensive but there are still one or two breeds to go before the list is complete. That said some cat breeds are so marginal or simply variants on existing breeds to make it doubtful if it is worth dealing with them as different breeds. There are also complications on breed classification and naming across the registries and between the UK and USA for instance. It is probably better therefore to stick more or less to the mainstream breeds.

Photograph heading this post - the top breed probably at the moment - the Abyssinian cat - photograph copyright isbye

Pictures of Different Cat Breeds to one of the top breeds - the Abyssinian

Sosgatinhos (S.O.S kittens)

Sosgatinhos (S.O.S kittens) is a rescue center in Sao Paulo, Brazil run by Leila Galvão. It is very brave of her to do this and wonderful. I admire you Leila. I also admire the photography of fofurasfelinas (and I can spell her flickr name without copying and pasting :). Her real name is Giane Portal. She lives in Porto Alegre, Brazil, about 400 miles south of San Paulo. She is a designer by profession

Fofurasfelinas is certainly one of the top 5 (at least) cat photographers on Flickr and there are lots of cat photographers. It also means that she is one of the best amateur cat photographers in the world. There is no doubt about that. She is also probably one of the best cat photographers, amateur or professional in the world. And I know cat photography.

Anyway she is supporting the work of Sosgatinhos and so I am as I use fofurasfelinas's photographs on my website under creative commons.

My site is for cat charities and I have some charities marked out. When the money comes through (I've made about $400 so far) I will send some to Sosgatinhos to try and help Leila keep her charity afloat. Good Luck Leila. Love to the cats and thanks.

Read more about Sosgatinhos (as written by forfurasfelinas) on this page (takes you to the Flickr site)

Sosgatinhos (S.O.S kittens) to pictures of stray cats

What Breed is My Cat?

Selkirk Rex. Photo in public domain.

What Breed is My Cat? This is a question asked by people who think they may have a purebred cat or are unsure about cat breeds generally. There are many visitors on the main site PoC, who ask about their cats. Here are just two examples:

• I am curious about what breed my cat is
• Is my cat an Egyptian Mao? (the spelling of Mao is "as is" in the post title)

Two more recent examples of visitor's submissions to the main website  (at June 2010) ask if their cat is part Egyptian Mau or purebred Egyptian Mau. It seems that this is one of the breeds that people believe most represents their cat. There actually may be something in this if we look at it dispassionately as the Egyptian Mau was originally (in about 1,500 BC or so) a domesticated African wildcat. It is reasonable to assume that the genes have travelled far and wide and dispersed with other mixed bred cats over the centuries. Also people with cats that have nice spots see the Egyptian Mau in their cat. The Egyptian Mau is in the top ten most popular cats and a naturally spotted cat. However, tabby spots are very common. The tabby spotted coat is perhaps the most natural cat and commonly occurring cat coat as it comes from the wildcat. Just because a handsome domestic cat has spots does not mean that it has Egyptian Mau or Bengal cat in its makeup. Here are these recent posts (June 2010):

• Is my cat part Egyptian Mau
• What breed is my cat?

In fact, there are very few (in the world scheme of things) purebred cats in the world. If you lived with one you'd almost certainly know about it because your cat would have usually been bought from a cat breeder. The breeder would have proved the cat was purebred by demonstrating parentage (pedigree) in certificates. The cat would be registered with a cat association who keep records of pedigree and provide these certs. The cat may also have the look and feel of a purebred cat. Not all purebred cats, however, are registered. Sometimes breeders don't bother if the cat is not sufficiently of type. These are sold as pets sometimes and even relinquished to rescue centers. A classic example is the case of the RagaMuffin cat and the Princess.

If your cat was adopted from a rescue center the center should know the breed, if purebred and should have papers to prove it. You can read about mixed breed cats (Moggies) and their place in cat world on the main site on this page. The moggies page also explains the difference between purebred and pedigree. There are in fact a number of purebred cat rescue websites.

If you are unsure whether your cat is a cat breed it is more than likely that your cat is a mixed breed (or random bred) cat. Mixed breed cats are as fine and beautiful as purebred cats and often healthier because they come from a wider gene pool. Cat breeders of purebred cats must get the appearance just right and in achieving this goal risk breeding too tightly. This has the potential to bring in genetically associated conditions (see Genetic Diseases of Purebred Cats).

If you still think your cat is purebred you will have to obtain some evidence that is more than simple appearance. Apperance alone is not enough to judge whether a cat is purebred but it does provide clear indications. Some cats shout out, "I am purebred". But without papers you cannot say that they are really.

It may be that your cat is between mixed breed and purebred (a purebred mix). As mentioned a purebred cat has to have a parentage as laid down by the registries and indeed should be registered. But what if your cat is nearly perfectly purebred but just missed out in her parentage (lineage)? It will look like a purebred cat but perhaps not exactly right in terms of appearance (type). This is not uncommon judging by searches on Petfinder for example. In this case you will be living with a mixed breed cat like the rest of us (including me) albeit one that has the appearance of purebred cat which means they are more expensive. It can be hard to tell if your cat is a genuine purebred but if the cat is registered (and therefore a pedigree cat as well) you can find out. A visit to the main cat registries (CFA, TICA, ACFA, ACA) would be a useful start.

It is possible to get confused. Some coat types can be confused for cat breeds. Calico and tabby come to mind. These both describe a coat type not a breed of cat.

By the way, I think that there are too many cat associations, which causes confusion and the names of the breeds vary sometimes from one association to the next - more confusion. This doesn't help in answering, "What Breed is My Cat".

You can do a visual check by scrolling down the list of pictures of nearly all the cat breeds starting on this page. This exercise won't tell you if your cat is purebred, but it may indicate it. As mentioned, your cat's lineage will need to be as required by the associations to be a purebred cat.

The bottom line is that documentary evidence is required and if it is not there the cat is almost certainly not purebred and it could be argued that even purebred cats without documentary evidence are not purebred and therefore not a breed of cat.

From What Breed is My Cat to Pictures of Cat Breeds

Alexa Toolbar

The Alexa Toolbar is a free download from the Alexa website. Alexa is part of Amazon the mega sized online shopping business. The figure that you see and which is used by Alexa to rank the site is the site's position in relation in the world. It is based on the number of visitors to the site plus how many pages that they visit. This site is ranked about 300,000 at March 2008 (at Oct 1st 2008 it is ranked 120,000 - going up). This means it is the 300,000th site in the world in respect of the above criteria. Yahoo is no.1. Google is about 3 or 4. Wikipedia is about 8 or 9 and so on. The big social networking sites are ranked high as expected.

This site's ranking is quite good, at March 2008, considering it is built by a single person with no outside help except SBI, who host the site. This site is a sub-domain.

The Alexa method of measuring ranking is not that accurate for sites outside the top 100k. It is very hard to get inside 100k. There are about 100m+ sites in the world, could be near 200m if you include the blogs which are growing fast (200,000 daily).

The highest ranked cat sites are around 150K (Messybeast being one). The biggest market is the USA. If you all have the Alexa toolbar and visit this site or the main site, http://www.pictures-of-cats.org the ranking will improve and I can sell more advertising and give away the revenue to cats.

The toolbar is useful and simple. It is benign and won't hurt your computer. It gives you an idea how popular a site is (i.e. visited) which can help in making decisions on buying from the site as an example.

From Alexa Toolbar to American Bobtail