Do they understand what causes the bobtail cat in Japan?

[lyrajean]

I lived in Okinawa Japan for 4 years where there are a heartbreaking number of strays. Overtime I noticed all sorts of variants on the "mutant tail" thing. True bobtails like the breed, halftails, fiddlehead tails, kinked tails, tails with a knot or bob in the middle... It's quite endemic over there. Interesting that despite the interbreeding of US pets into the mix that it survives.

If this is all the same gene that forms the neat little bunny tails on the purebred J-bobs how is it controlled and passed on? I even had a rescue kitten with her tail kinked into a squared off spiral. She was adopted out to another home and I can't locate my pictures of her.

 

[Willowy]

Ooh, one of my childhood cats had a half-bobbed tail. Her mother was a Siamese the owner had brought from the US and her daddy was a traveling salesman (presumably one of the Japanese street cats) :tongue2:. At the end of her tail was a knot, I guess it was kinda square, now that you mention it. So I'm interested in this subject too! I was on the mainland, not Okinawa, but I would guess at least half of the street cats had some variation of the bobbed tail.

 

[Norachan]

Oh, I was just about to ask the same question!

I live in Yamanashi ken and there are a lot of bobbed, curly and bent tailed cats around, but I never saw any when I was living in Hokkuriku, the Japan Sea side of Japan.

I saw a documentary a while ago on big cats in Florida. (Cougar? Puma? Sorry, I can't remember the correct name.) This said that inbreeding had caused the short or kinked tail in these cats and that a few other health problems were infertility and heart conditions.

The cats around here don't seem to have any problems with fertility, though I'm TNRing them as fast as I can. However, I've found seemingly healthy young cats dead with no obvious injuries twice before. Both times they have been under 6 months of age, well fed and looked perfectly healthy a few hours before I found them dead. Could this be a heart problem?

I've posted a few pictures of my some of the cats I care for here.

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/273242/a-cats-tail#post_3504619

More pictures of curled and knotted tails to come.

 

[profleslielyons]

Howdy ho Cat Lovers,

The tail traits of cats are under study in our genetics laboratory!!  We just helped to find the gene for the Manx cat - taillessness - and we did prove that this is NOT the same gene for the Japanese Bobtail - which still remains a mystery!!  Did you know they are often missing one of their cervical or thoracic vertebrae though??  This does not cause any health issues with the cats.  Be really great to try and sequence a few Japanese Bobtail cats and solve the mystery!!  Simple dominant  trait but with variable expression.  Cats with two copies of the trait have tail variation too and do not have health issues.

 

[pisces7386]

That is interesting! We thought our cat's tail had been caught in a door at some point but then she had her kittens. The mom has a 1/3 length with a knobby end, one boy kitten has a full and fluffy tail with a tiny kink on the end, one girl kitten has a full regular tail, one boy kitten has a little nubbin, and one girl has a tiny bump instead of a tail. It was funny when they were born because I thought the mom chewed the tail instead on the cord at first. I figured it out with the second one though, lol.  We joke that between the five of them we have three tails that they have to share

 

[Norachan]

 
That is interesting! We thought our cat's tail had been caught in a door at some point but then she had her kittens. The mom has a 1/3 length with a knobby end, one boy kitten has a full and fluffy tail with a tiny kink on the end, one girl kitten has a full regular tail, one boy kitten has a little nubbin, and one girl has a tiny bump instead of a tail. It was funny when they were born because I thought the mom chewed the tail instead on the cord at first. I figured it out with the second one though, lol.  We joke that between the five of them we have three tails that they have to share

It's strange how many variations of tail you get in one litter isn't it? It seems to be 50/50 at to whether they'll get a whole tail or not if their parents carry the Japanese bob-tail gene.

Lot's of the feral cat's I feed look really similar, but I can always tell which one is which by their tails.