Long-haired kitten?

MikyPiky

TCS Member
Thread starter
Alpha Cat
Joined
Nov 14, 2019
Messages
551
Purraise
514
I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this, tell me if I'm wrong!

Hopefully I can explain this well enough. So I'm currently taking care of 5 4-week old kittens because their mom just died. She was a small short-haired black cat, and their dad is a grey and white long-haired cat. All of the kittens are short-haired but one, he is quite fluffy and definitely stands out from the rest. I've heard that its impossible for a long haired kitten to be born with only one long haired parent, except if the short haired parent has long hair in their genes. I already have one cat that is long haired, and his mom was short haired, not sure about his dad but he must have been long haired. So does that mean that both moms had long hair in their genes?

I'll try to send a pic of the fluffy kitten!
 

jen

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Dec 27, 2001
Messages
8,501
Purraise
3,009
Location
Hudson, OH
There could be multiple males involved here. If the mother mated with different males you might have some kittens from one dad and some from another.
 

lutece

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 8, 2018
Messages
4,499
Purraise
5,739
I've heard that its impossible for a long haired kitten to be born with only one long haired parent, except if the short haired parent has long hair in their genes. I already have one cat that is long haired, and his mom was short haired, not sure about his dad but he must have been long haired. So does that mean that both moms had long hair in their genes?
Long hair is recessive. You are correct that in order to produce any LH kittens, both moms must have carried the LH gene, and the father of the LH kittens must have carried LH. It's not necessary for the father to have been LH himself, though.
  • If both parents are LH, all kittens will be LH.
  • If one parent is LH, and the other is SH carrying LH, each kitten has 50% chance of being LH.
  • If both parents are SH carrying LH, each kitten has 25% chance of being LH.
  • If either parent is SH and doesn't carry LH, all kittens will be SH.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #4

MikyPiky

TCS Member
Thread starter
Alpha Cat
Joined
Nov 14, 2019
Messages
551
Purraise
514
Long hair is recessive. You are correct that in order to produce any LH kittens, both moms must have carried the LH gene, and the father of the LH kittens must have carried LH. It's not necessary for the father to have been LH himself, though.
  • If both parents are LH, all kittens will be LH.
  • If one parent is LH, and the other is SH carrying LH, each kitten has 50% chance of being LH.
  • If both parents are SH carrying LH, each kitten has 25% chance of being LH.
  • If either parent is SH and doesn't carry LH, all kittens will be SH.
Okay that's exactly what I was looking for, thank you!
 

cataholic07

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Jul 28, 2014
Messages
1,502
Purraise
1,691
Yep very possible as long as the mom had the gene to. My boys are from a farm so they aren't 100% certain about the dad, but they are pretty sure my boys dad was a short hair tabby as he was the only one seen around. The mom was a short hair grey tabby. They were a litter of 4 kittens, 3 were longhair and one was shorthair. Jethro (brown tabby with less brown on face) is super longhair, Fynn (grey and white) has less length of fur but still poofy.

FB_IMG_1555976490135.jpg

momma.jpg
<there mom. Cant find the pic of the dad though. Poor boy was caught after he was run over and was severely injured so had to be euthanized. He was a massive brown tabby shorthair (over 14lbs). There were quite a few other older kittens (4 month old kittens) at the farm who were longhair as well.
2020-05-02 12.15.32.jpg
2020-03-08 13.25.02.jpg
Fynn and Jethro now at over a year old.

My girl was the only longhair in a litter of 5 kittens, the mom was short hair grey tabby, and the only male found in that area was a shorthair either flamepoint siamese or red cream cat. They were the neighbors cats, but he only had the one unfixed male as he was breeding cats to sell kittens.. My girl is the one with the massive orange spot at 5 weeks old, you can see her fur is thicker and wavy, the others are more sleek.
5wke.jpg
ceriah5weeksold.jpg
<..her at 5 weeks old a fuzzball with thick fur and fluffy paws.
1del.jpg
<.. while her brother has kitten fuzz but paws are sleek, and ear fur length is short.

mom.jpg
posdad (2).jpg

the mom and more then likely dad (all the girls were either torbies or torties, red must be in the genes to do that so he does make sense). And if the mom is related to my boys she would have longhair genes. She looks similar to the grey tabby brother to my boys, and their mom had at least one litter prior, possibly more to be honest.

2020-05-02 12.21.00.jpg
< her now at almost 7 months old, you can see she is longhair due to the extra tufts of fur on her paws, the thick fur and super long whiskers and ears tufts :) She won't fully poof out until a year old. Longhair kittens go through the sleek stage.

So, yep its possible lol.
 

Attachments

  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #6

MikyPiky

TCS Member
Thread starter
Alpha Cat
Joined
Nov 14, 2019
Messages
551
Purraise
514
Yep very possible as long as the mom had the gene to. My boys are from a farm so they aren't 100% certain about the dad, but they are pretty sure my boys dad was a short hair tabby as he was the only one seen around. The mom was a short hair grey tabby. They were a litter of 4 kittens, 3 were longhair and one was shorthair. Jethro (brown tabby with less brown on face) is super longhair, Fynn (grey and white) has less length of fur but still poofy.

View attachment 332717
View attachment 332721 <there mom. Cant find the pic of the dad though. Poor boy was caught after he was run over and was severely injured so had to be euthanized. He was a massive brown tabby shorthair (over 14lbs). There were quite a few other older kittens (4 month old kittens) at the farm who were longhair as well.
View attachment 332725View attachment 332726 Fynn and Jethro now at over a year old.

My girl was the only longhair in a litter of 5 kittens, the mom was short hair grey tabby, and the only male found in that area was a shorthair either flamepoint siamese or red cream cat. They were the neighbors cats, but he only had the one unfixed male as he was breeding cats to sell kittens.. My girl is the one with the massive orange spot at 5 weeks old, you can see her fur is thicker and wavy, the others are more sleek.
View attachment 332722View attachment 332728 <..her at 5 weeks old a fuzzball with thick fur and fluffy paws.
View attachment 332729 <.. while her brother has kitten fuzz but paws are sleek, and ear fur length is short.

View attachment 332723View attachment 332724
the mom and more then likely dad (all the girls were either torbies or torties, red must be in the genes to do that so he does make sense). And if the mom is related to my boys she would have longhair genes. She looks similar to the grey tabby brother to my boys, and their mom had at least one litter prior, possibly more to be honest.

View attachment 332727 < her now at almost 7 months old, you can see she is longhair due to the extra tufts of fur on her paws, the thick fur and super long whiskers and ears tufts :) She won't fully poof out until a year old. Longhair kittens go through the sleek stage.

So, yep its possible lol.
Thank you for sharing all that, those kittens are beautiful! I would be amazed if I had two short hairs and they had a long hair kitten, but it's very possible!
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #7

MikyPiky

TCS Member
Thread starter
Alpha Cat
Joined
Nov 14, 2019
Messages
551
Purraise
514
I just wanted to show you a picture of the little long haired kitten! He was born last yet he looks the most mature of all his siblings.
20200512_085351.jpg

Also I have a quick question. His and all his siblings' eyes have already been changing color, they started to change at about 3 weeks. One of them looks like his eyes are fully green now. I heard that kittens eyes should start to change color at about 6-8 weeks, they aren't even 6 weeks yet. Is it normal for their color to change so early?
 

lutece

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Mar 8, 2018
Messages
4,499
Purraise
5,739
He's adorable :redheartpump:

Eye color development is a gradual process, and is very individual. Some kittens' eyes will start to change color when they are just a few weeks old, while other kittens' eyes will remain "baby blue" for many weeks before they start to change. This is totally normal, and we see these individual differences even in pedigreed cats. Eye color can continue to develop even into adulthood; I have had some cats that did not have their fully adult depth and richness of eye color until they were 2 years old.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #9

MikyPiky

TCS Member
Thread starter
Alpha Cat
Joined
Nov 14, 2019
Messages
551
Purraise
514
He's adorable :redheartpump:

Eye color development is a gradual process, and is very individual. Some kittens' eyes will start to change color when they are just a few weeks old, while other kittens' eyes will remain "baby blue" for many weeks before they start to change. This is totally normal, and we see these individual differences even in pedigreed cats. Eye color can continue to develop even into adulthood; I have had some cats that did not have their fully adult depth and richness of eye color until they were 2 years old.
Ok thank you for the info! It's amazing watching their eyes change color. I'm so happy their eyes are going to be green, my favorite colour.
 
Top