What breed is this? Please help

Vancik26

TCS Member
Thread starter
Kitten
Joined
Jan 5, 2022
Messages
1
Purraise
0
received_467339321455859.jpeg

Can someone please tell me what breed this is. I'm inexperienced in cat breeds
 

GoldyCat

Moderator
Staff Member
Moderator
Joined
Jul 31, 2008
Messages
15,759
Purraise
4,676
Location
Arizona
Over 95% of cats have no specific breed. You have a lovely Domestic Shorthair. I don’t see any features that match a specific breed The color/pattern is red tabby. Do you have a picture of his/her sides? That would help in determining which tabby pattern.
 

Kieka

Snowshoe Servant
Staff Member
Forum Helper
Joined
Sep 6, 2016
Messages
11,394
Purraise
19,964
Location
Southern California
Breed: Domestic Shorthair

Most of the cats in the world are domestic cats, either shorthair or longhair. The whole idea of breeding cats hasn't been around for very long and isn't as prevalent as dog breeds are. As a result a vast majority of cats in the world don't have any relation to any specific purebred cat breed.

Coat Pattern: Tabby

There are a couple different patterns to tabby. A side photo would help someone identify which tabby patterning but that's not my wheelhouse.

Color: Orange/Red

Orange encompasses all the tones of red from dark red to pale creamy orange; he looks closer to what most people would call just orange (or marmalade) on the scale but color can change slightly between kitten and adult coat. He might end up being a darker red or lighter cream. Fun fact, due to how color genetics work all orange cat will have the tabby coat pattern. If it is a male and males get their color genetics from Mom you also can infere that his mom was either orange, tortoiseshell or calico colored herself. If your kitten is a female that would mean dad was orange too but with males they don't get a color from dad.
 

StefanZ

Advisor
Staff Member
Advisor
Joined
Sep 18, 2005
Messages
25,997
Purraise
10,644
Location
Sweden
I suppose its a kitten? When he becomes adult and get an adult body, we will see better what look alike he / she may be.
Money bet its a domestic short hair, if nothing else is said. Even if there ARE pedigreed "European shorthair", and their near cousins, "American shorthair".

A good side photo is welcome, so we see more clearly what pattern there is.

A bet is, its a ticked tabby, as I dont see clearly no pattern on the sides.
 

Flybynight

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
May 24, 2020
Messages
505
Purraise
556
I agree, he looks like a domestic shorthair. He is skinny but a kitten as was said. See what his body shape develops when older. Lovely looking fellow 🙂

Have to disagree that in the west - 95 percent of cats are pure domestics. Probably more like 70-80. Cat breeding has been around over 100 years and the idea of keeping cats only inside is fairly new and not always observed today.🤔 Not to mention waiting too long to sterilize both male and female cats....
 

Kieka

Snowshoe Servant
Staff Member
Forum Helper
Joined
Sep 6, 2016
Messages
11,394
Purraise
19,964
Location
Southern California
Have to disagree that in the west - 95 percent of cats are pure domestics. Probably more like 70-80.
Using today's numbers and assuming that the number of cats who are born and die is equal....

Only roughly 3% of households have purebred cats, in America. There are roughly 60 million pet cats in America and 50-70 million feral cats in America. Rough math that each household has the same number of cats and purebred household are only purebred, 1.8 million purebred cats and 118 million non-purebred.

Looking at the non purebred for ancestors within 5 generations since more the 5 generations is distant ancestors and any specific traits will start to blur. Figure perfect world a purebred cat escapes and has kittens, they can have 100-1,000 decendants (I know there is that 42,000 number but that's not real math). But 75% of those will die because that is the feral cat mortality rate. Which leaves us with roughly 125 decendants with a tenuous purebred connection from an escaped purebred (taking 25% survival rate at the midpoint of 500). This includes all grandkittens of the original escaped purebred and their kittens who are alive at that 5 year mark.

Spay and neuter rates for cats in America are at 80%. Take our 1.8 million purebred cat population say 80% are spayed or neutered. So we have 360,000 unspayed purebred cats. Now you can say spay and neuter levels used to be lower but I'd say that those cats from 10 to 20 years ago who got out unspayed have negligible impact now because it's been 10+ generations. I could also argue that breeders tend to be stricter about reproduction clauses in contracts so their spay and neuter rates would be higher. But we can also use a 60% spay rate on purebred just for kicks to double the unspayed population of purebred to 720,000 to adjust for prior spay and neuter rates and give us worst case scenario numbers.

Now roughly 10 million pet cats go missing each year, a staggering 16% of the 60 million pet cat population. So let's take our unspayed population and say 16% of them go missing. 120,000 purebred missing cats, again only roughly 75% of feral cats will survive so of those 120,000 only 30,000 survive long enough to have kittens (which a pet cat probably has a lower survival rate but let's use the general feral numbers). So they each have 125 decendants after 5 years which means 3.7 million feral cats with a tenuous connection to purebred after 5 years.

1.8 million actual purebred cats
3.7 million within 5 generations of a purebred
120 million total cats between pet and feral populations and heritage.
All gives us that 4.5% of the cat population in America is purebred or within 5 generations of something that was purebred.

Again, pretty rough math and assuming the same number are born and died keeping overall population stable. Although feral populations do have very high mortality rates and shorter lifespans. My girl was from a feral colony and after 6 years she is the only survivor of the colony and over 125 kittens that were born in that colony.
 
Last edited:

Flybynight

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
May 24, 2020
Messages
505
Purraise
556
There are no real statistics on breed vs non breed cats.

Not all breed cats are registered for various reasons. Cats get out and mate.

A good book series is Cats in the Belfry. It is the 60's but shows how breed and non breed wandered about an English village. Guess what happened?

I think it is more often people who have particular breeds of cats pretending that their cats are as rare as teeth on worms.
I volunteer at an animal shelter and we see the non rare color point cat and the occasional kitten with huge winged bat ears (mixed with Siamese or Oriental with the new triple sized ears) or definitive Maine Coon features Etc.
They mix.
Breed clubs keep going to extremes to make their cats look different but they are still cats and can breed with any other cat.
 

StefanZ

Advisor
Staff Member
Advisor
Joined
Sep 18, 2005
Messages
25,997
Purraise
10,644
Location
Sweden
Are you an engineer Kieka Kieka ? Engineers are renown for making such rough calculations, based on some rough assumptions. When controlled, its usually very close to the real numbers... :)
 

Kieka

Snowshoe Servant
Staff Member
Forum Helper
Joined
Sep 6, 2016
Messages
11,394
Purraise
19,964
Location
Southern California
Are you an engineer Kieka Kieka ? Engineers are renown for making such rough calculations, based on some rough assumptions. When controlled, its usually very close to the real numbers... :)
More along the lines of a Business Anthropologist with a few years of analytics training working in Business Analytics.... but close enough. ;)
 

Meowmee

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
May 2, 2018
Messages
2,874
Purraise
3,606
There are no real statistics on breed vs non breed cats.

Not all breed cats are registered for various reasons. Cats get out and mate.

A good book series is Cats in the Belfry. It is the 60's but shows how breed and non breed wandered about an English village. Guess what happened?

I think it is more often people who have particular breeds of cats pretending that their cats are as rare as teeth on worms.
I volunteer at an animal shelter and we see the non rare color point cat and the occasional kitten with huge winged bat ears (mixed with Siamese or Oriental with the new triple sized ears) or definitive Maine Coon features Etc.
They mix.
Breed clubs keep going to extremes to make their cats look different but they are still cats and can breed with any other cat.
In my area there are very few colorpoints in the domestic population.
 

Kieka

Snowshoe Servant
Staff Member
Forum Helper
Joined
Sep 6, 2016
Messages
11,394
Purraise
19,964
Location
Southern California
In my area there are very few colorpoints in the domestic population.
In my area, the feral population has a good amount of colorpoints. My girls entire litter was some point even though Mom was a solid tabby. But every few years it seems like all the feral cats suddenly are colorpoint and then it goes back down. The only good news with colorpoint in the feral population is that they tend to get adopted quickly.
 

Meowmee

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
May 2, 2018
Messages
2,874
Purraise
3,606
I noticed a lot in rescues online in CA. I volunteered for a few years at a local rescue and we had only one litter with two cp kittens in that time of those I cared for at petco. I have only seen a few posted that are local on stray feral groups.
 
Last edited:
Top