Domestic Medium Hair?

louse76

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Well I was playing around with filling out a cat insurance thing and they listed domestic shorthair, domestic longhair and domestic mediumhair...? I've never heard of that myself. Can anyone post maybe an example?

Maybe Zero is a DMH? He's definately not a longhair, and his hair is a good amoung longer and fluffier than most DSH cats...?

Click on the banner below to see his album and let me know if you think he might be a DMH or not please. Thanks!!
 

hell603

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the cutie pie is most definately is a DSH.

For example Persians and Main Coons are DLH

and I would consider as Somali a DMH
 
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louse76

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Aw shucks, I thought he was special there for a minute...

...oh wait, he still is!
 

jenluckenbach

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A DMH would have a bushy tail, like a long hair, but the body hair would be a lot shorter possibly with a bit of a skirt hanging down on the belly. My Jasper is definitely a DMH.
 

princess purr

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I think my kitty lola is a dmh. She has a fluffy tail and she has longer hair then the other kitties but not really long hair. I'll have to take a pic of her.
 

momofmany

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I consider Muddy a medium hair. Here he is in contrast with his sister Koko, who is definitely short hair. He has the fluffy tail and medium length coat.
 

krazy kat2

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My Leo was a DMH. The vet said he probably had some Maine Coon in his ancestry. He had very thick hair, and thick, fuzzy tummy hair. You could not see skin anywhere on him.
 

wellingtoncats

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I have never heard of the term "Domestic Meduim Hair" before if the cat has any long hair on it's body at all it's classed as a Domestic Long Hair. That's the way it works for cat shows anyway. However as Helen said Zero is definitly a Domestic Shorthair.
 

greycat2

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Even though she isn't for breeding, the way the shelter had Kuce listed was a DMH.

She isn't long-haired per say (except her bushy tail) like a Persain would be nor is she short-haired like a Siamese, so I am not sure where she fits in (Nor am I an expert in cat shows or breeding).
 

vavs

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Hi everyone,


I am new here, and found this forum trying to learn more about how kittens coats develop over time, especially "Maine Coon Type" domestic/ferrel kittens.

I live in rural Western New York. Many of our barn cats are what one might call "Maine Coon Type" cats - semi wild, silky haired, big footed, etc. No doubt that is because natural selection is still selecting for the same characteristics for the same purposes. It was interesting to me in looking for a kitten that the short haired cats in our local SPCA were all turned in and most of the long haired cats were trapped semi ferrel barncats or strays.

I spent some time selecting kittens as I wanted that rugged long hair type, and because I had cats like that for a long time and I really liked their personality - really smart, outgoing, but relaxed in a confident kind of way.

I wanted a classic Tabby like my "Sissy Cat" but chose the kittens I did because of their personality - so like my Patty and Sissy! They were described as long haired by the notice I answered, but I was alittle disappointed that they do not seem as obviously long haired as I think I remember my other cats being when they were the same age.

Mom was short haired "adopted ferrel" and Dad was described as "A huge long haired". Mom had had a long haired kitten before, reportedly. Her short haired daughter was on the premises and had kittens of her own. All were noticabley shorter haired than the kittens from the litter I chose mine from, and the litters, same age, could be picked out easily.

My other kitties lived to be 11 (Patty anyhow-Sissy I believe to have been stolen a few years earlier
) so my memory is quite fuzzy on how their coats developed, but I thought I remembered reading something and watching for their tails and neck ruffs to come in with the adult coats. SOOO....I was looking to find out if that is correct.

I registered here to ask if anyone can tell me how long haired cats of the Maine Coon Type develop as far as first and second coat (esp. tail and ruff) and this thread caught my eye as I have also seen cats listed on petfinder.com as "medium Haired". To my understanding (and I have studied coat genetics to some degree) Long and short hair is one specific gene loci with modifiers that effect how it "plays out". Thus technically there cannot be a "medium hair", only long hair lacking some of the modifiers that effect density, undercoat, and shoulder hair. In what I have read and seen cat genes parallel cavy very much insofar as hair type and structure (including the shoulder length, as it was one of the big hurdles in developing the texel and boucle [alpaca]').


SOOOOO, since mine look like medium haired *grin*
to me, I was hoping you could take a look at some pictures I put up just for you!!!! (don't you feel special). I tried to select pictures that show the hair, but that is harder for the "nearly black" Hermes (who has that scrawny look that I think all black and dark tortie kittens have - also hard to get a good picture of black hair) than his littermate Rocko, but they are close to the same except Hermes is slightly behind that Rocko who was the dominant kitten in the litter. So I had to show his big "poster kitty" sad eyes instead.


http://www.geocities.com/vavs_soror/kitties.html

Okay, that was a long winded way to the real question. For those of you that have made it this far, thank you for you endurance and patience.


PAX et LVX

Vavsie
 

random

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I wish I had a picture of him, but my sister's cat Georgie is a grey DMH (his vet calls him brown, which baffles me). He has a bushy tail and grows a very long, bushy winter coat. In the summer, he loses the bushiness but still has long hairs mixed in with his shorter summer coat.
 

arlyn

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In my estimation, a Turkish Van, Maine Coon in spring/summer coat, Somali would be considered medium haired.
Good breeds to use as coat comparisons at least.
 

mzjazz2u

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Originally Posted by greycat2

Even though she isn't for breeding, the way the shelter had Kuce listed was a DMH.

She isn't long-haired per say (except her bushy tail) like a Persain would be nor is she short-haired like a Siamese, so I am not sure where she fits in (Nor am I an expert in cat shows or breeding).
Ok here's a good one for you, just for laughs. When I got Peaches (very long haired Persian) at the humane society, she was listed as domestic short hair.
Go figure!

I am not sure what constitutes a DMH. I've only heard this term sporadically, at best.
 

mzjazz2u

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Ok for what it is worth... here is some information on types of cats from encyclopedia.com. It specifies long haired cats and says all the rest are considered short haired cats. I think medium haired is a concoction made up later and has spread. Long and short haired cats
 

vavs

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Originally Posted by Arlyn

In my estimation, a Turkish Van, Maine Coon in spring/summer coat, Somali would be considered medium haired.
Good breeds to use as coat comparisons at least.
Originally Posted by Arlyn

In my estimation, a Turkish Van, Maine Coon in spring/summer coat, Somali would be considered medium haired.
Good breeds to use as coat comparisons at least.
Hi Arlyn

I agree. I think the mix up comes when discussing genetics versus comparison. From what I read early angoras were more like Turkish Van than like modern persians. Breeding brought out many modifiers for fuller coat (not to mention type and head/face). We went through similiar with long haired cavies (as I mentioned). Breeds that do not have these modiers, will stay with the long coat gene but will look medium haired as they do not possess the modifiers.


Mixed breed cats are highly unlikey to come by the full bag of modifiers and are likely to be "medium haired" even when homogenous for long hair (carrying two of the recessive gene for long hair. It is a full recessive and is easily carried by short haired cats with no effect".

I dont know much about Somali at all, just from books and pictures, but I wonder if they carry all the modifiers (minor genes) the persian has but not the specific long haired gene - as the coat is very different than Maine Coon, Turkish Van, or "long (medium) haired ferral or domestic cats.

From what I can find, the only really impressive coats on Main Coons are the Tabby's. My Faux Main Coon that was a tabby's "accidents" were dark tortie and black and I remember saying to the adoptees "they don't look like much but you can see the parents so the coat will fill in". The pictures I see of the the non "brown tabbys" from the same lines (usually orange tabbys) look like short haired cats with poofy tails. So as a term descriptive of appearance "medium coat" is a good term.

(this is why I don't get invited to parties
)

Laurette
 
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