Is My Cat Part Bobcat

[JJMERI]

Hi this is my cat django and hes about 6 months old now. When I bought django from his previous owner i asked them why he had no tail (along with the other 3 kittens in the litter)and they told me that he was part bobcat. I always believed them especially do to the fact of how active django is but I also recently just learned that Bobcat hybrids arent common. What do you think?

 

[JJMERI]

Hi this is my cat django and hes about 6 months old now. When I bought django from his previous owner i asked them why he had no tail (along with the other 3 kittens in the litter)and they told me that he was part bobcat. I always believed them especially do to the fact of how active django is but I also recently just learned that Bobcat hybrids arent common. What do you think?View attachment 298468 View attachment 298469

 

[IndyJones]

Not part bobcat but part Manx. Manx cats are born with a stub of a tail. Its a genetic trait that causes the tail to be shorter than normal.

 

[Willowy]

There has never been a DNA-confirmed bobcat/domestic hybrid. At this point scientists think they aren't interfertile. Every time they've tested a cat the owner said was half bobcat, it turned out to just be a domestic bobtail (or sometimes, a pure bobcat).

He's not necessarily part Manx. Manx are fairly rare and unlikely to run around breeding willy-nilly. The bobtail gene isn't terribly uncommon in the general cat population though. So he's a bobtailed domestic shorthair, and very handsome!

 

[DreamerRose]

According to Norachan , bobtail cats are very common in Japan. Several of hers have short tails. She recently posted pics on another thread.

 

[abyeb]

Django is beautiful! He wouldn’t be part Bobcat, though, because, and W Willowy said, there hasn’t been a documented mating between a Bobcat, and a domestic cat. It’s possible that he has some Manx ancestry, but, the lack of a tail isn’t enough to prove Manx ancestry, because that can occur as a result of a random mutation as well. Manx also have a rounder body and head than he does.

 

[Norachan]

W Willowy explained it so well I don't really need to say anymore.



There are short-tailed domestic cat breeds, such as Japanese bob-tails, Manx cats, Pixie bobs, American bob-tails and Highlanders. You get short or no-tailed cats among feral colonies too. If cats are allowed to interbreed it can lead to birth defects such as short tails.

Most of my cats came from a feral colony, so they probably got their short tails that way. They don't have any other health problems though, so it's nothing to worry about.

Django is beautiful. He reminds me of my Jiro when he was younger. He's black with faint tabby markings too, but the tabby stripes are getting harder to see every year.

 

[lutece]

There are many different known mutations for short tail (like American Bobtail), short and kinked tail (like Japanese Bobtail), or short to absent tail (like Manx). This appears to be a very common type of mutation in the domestic cat, that happens over and over, everywhere in the world. It may or may not indicate a relationship to any breed.

In Django's case, I would describe him as a black domestic shorthair (tailless). He doesn't appear to have other characteristics that would indicate ancestry from the Manx, Japanese Bobtail, or another breed with a bobbed tail. Most cats are not any particular breed. He looks like a beautiful black cat to me!

 

[lutece]

If cats are allowed to interbreed it can lead to birth defects such as short tails. Most of my cats came from a feral colony, so they probably got their short tails that way.

Although inbreeding can certainly result in some problems, I don't believe that short tails have anything to do with inbreeding at all. Genes for short/bobbed tails are generally (if not always) dominant genes, not recessive.

 

[Maria Bayote]

Not to hijack the thread, but reading answers from you guys fascinates me more about cats. It is like going into another world.

BTW, Django is a handsome boy. I love black cats

 

[Norachan]

Although inbreeding can certainly result in some problems, I don't believe that short tails have anything to do with inbreeding at all. Genes for short/bobbed tails are generally (if not always) dominant genes, not recessive.

You might be right, you seem to know a great deal about breeding. I have read that the gene that causes bobtails among Japanese cats is recessive though.

Maybe that's only a Japanese bob-tail thing? I guess the gene that gives American Bob-tails and Manx cats their short tail is dominant?

However they get them, I think short tails are adorable.

 

[lutece]

I have read that the gene that causes bobtails among Japanese cats is recessive though.

The Japanese Bobtail gene is known to be dominant. Here are two relevant research papers. The first (abstract only) discusses only Japanese Bobtails, the second paper (full text) discusses short-tailed Asian cats in general.
Japanese Bobtail: vertebral morphology and genetic characterization of an established cat breed. - PubMed - NCBI
Whole Genome Sequencing Identifies a Missense Mutation in HES7 Associated with Short Tails in Asian Domestic Cats

 

[IndyJones]

I don't know if Bob tails show these traits or not but my friend's Manx cross is very protective especially of my friends baby. She sits by the playpen and guards it. Does the same thing at the nursery door too. She just sits there and stares, it's rather unnerving.

 

[Norachan]

The Japanese Bobtail gene is known to be dominant. Here are two relevant research papers.

Thank you for posting that. They look a lot more reliable than the places I was getting my information from.



7 Unusual Facts About Japanese Bobtail Cats

In reality, the cat’s short tail stems from a natural genetic mutation. The trait is recessive; if two cats with short tails mate, their kittens will have them as well.