Three Black Beauties.. and they are all different!

[desireroberts]

Hey guys, 

I have three cats, and in the household we have a total of 5. My three are all black, two girls and a boy. I would like to determine a possible genetic link, although all of them are mixed-bred with DSH. Reason why I'm looking for a possible similarity, I'm looking for general life-span, and possible medical issues common to the breed. Although, most tabbys have no serious health issues, and 

Charms, 2.5 years old, male, large green-to-gold eyes (his eyes change colour), 100% black with a rust patch, fairly large, not heavy (due to a diaphragmatic hernia), large paw size, strong build, long, tall, thick medium length soft coat of silk with little dark grey undercoat, requires daily brushing, always shedding, and an impeccable personality. Quiet, calm, relaxed, very gentle, requires moderate attention, behaves like a Velcro cat and is very strict with diet. Has a history of an accident induced diaphragmatic hernia, prone to UTI's and a build-up in the urethra requiring catheterizing on occasion. Charms will chew anything plastic, or mine; laptop, cellphone, hard plastic shopping bags, LOVES leather, etc. 

2013-03-02 07.22.00.jpg

• desireroberts
• Sep 1, 2013

Willow, 13 months old, female, beady golden/amber eyes, 99.9% black and going "grey" on the back of the head, small, small paw pads, thin, long, slender build, very Egyptian-looking, no medical history, never requires brushing, short wirey coat with no undercoat. Very quiet, needs very little attention, very light high-pitched meow (sounds like a child honestly). Willow is an almost silent cat, known as the Eternal Kitten.  

2013-03-02 07.21.11.jpg

• desireroberts
• Sep 1, 2013

Twixy, 6 months old, female, stunning big green eyes, 100% black, stocky build, medium sized, heavy like stone, WILL NOT STOP EATING, large law pads, "lion snout", silky coat with no undercoat, vibrating tail, always very alert with big wide eyes looking like the Energizer bunny on steroids, back twitches when excited. Very raspy load meow, not nearly as graceful as a Siamese (that's how bad the rasp is) It almost sounds like a constant complaint. Will eat ANYTHING, and everything you put in her bowl.. Sleek tail which seems to have a permanent hook... Requires too much attention, purrs incessantly, but very aggressive - fights all the time. 

2013-08-09 11.59.03.jpg

• desireroberts
• Sep 1, 2013

All of them are 100% black, paw pads included. 

 

[maewkaew]

 Gorgeous cats!    

Only around 3% of cats are classified as a " breed"  and it's usually very hard to tell if a cat has a little of some breed.  but most cats would just be descended from cats from the same area who have bred randomly over many generations.  

But.... I think it sounds like  you may have some Siamese mixes.    Do you know if they are possibly related?   

 As soon as I saw Charms, I wondered if he may be a Siamese mix.   The head shape and body type could be from some Siamese ancestry., plus he's got pica.  and that is more common in Siamese than most breeds.    and he's Velcro.  ( not that other breeds and moggies aren't sometimes velcro cats too.   but Siamese often are very attached to their people.

   It may just be he reminds me a lot in his shape of my Louis who was a seal point Siamese mix. 

 Charms is more calm than most purebred ones but with mixes there is a bigger variation in temperament.    

So there I am thinking Charms may be part meezer.... 

Then there's Willow with the long slender body and the single coat. 

.... then you mention Twixy having a tail kink AND a raspy voice.   Well those 2 things are notorious characteristics of Siamese.   Those things sound very much like some southeast Asian ancestry.    ( and not all Siamese are graceful,  I have a gorgeous lilac point boy who is very elegant looking but is an absolute klutz.  he is the biggest goof. ) 

 The stocky body sounds more like the U.S. version of Burmese  ( the raspy voice could also be Burmese,  they have voices maybe even more raspy than many Siamese,  though in general Siamese are more nasal sounding with more force  and volume!  )    but Siamese are a lot more common most places so that would be more likely.

 I have to stop and ask where you are,  though.  because if you're  IN Southeast Asia then you have that RACE of cats that Siamese came from (and Burmese) .... so things like raspy voices and kinked tails are  across the whole landrace ,  and would not really mean a specific breed.

Health?   well , first thing that comes to mind is kidneys,  keep theem on a low carb wet diet and avoid high phosphorus ( which you should do anyway due to Charms'  tendency to urethral blockage) . avoid feeding a lot of fish. 

There are some very good articles on a vet's site  http://www.catinfo.org.    a general one about feline nutrition.  plus there is  one about feline urinary tract health that you should have a look at.     And she also has a chart on there with nutrition info for many kinds of U.S. canned cat food and commercial raw too.   she's got 2 versions,  one is  in ascending order by phosphorus amount.  http://catinfo.org/docs/FoodChartPhosphorus9-22-12.pdf       I would try to go no higher than the low 200s  ( in mg phos per 100 kcal) ,  and for the carbs try to stay under 10% of calories. 

 

[desireroberts]

oh Thank you! They're on a strict-ish diet.. Willow likes the occasional curried chicken, and Twixy will sit incredibly still waiting for you to share, and we do because the fact that she's STILL means she's trying very very hard not to rampage your plate! Charms is the hardest to feed. I had to change from Friskies since the vet suspected that caused the UTI, and trying anything new with him is a VERY hard thing. It's even harder when we have an incredible limited supply of cat food here - we get Whiskas and Friskies and nothing else. I managed to get some Royal Canin from a small supplier, so a bought a great deal of cans since I don't know when he will have or if he will ever have again.. 

We live in Trinidad, in the West Indies (Caribbean). 

Willow seems to be oriental, except she does not have the voice to match, and she's a very small cat. She also has golden almond eyes. 

Twixy I was leaning more to Burmese or Bombay I believe it is, since she literally cannot stop eating and weighs a ton (at healthy weight/size ratio by the way). But Twixy's tail and voice point to Siamese.. 

Charms is definitely mixed with something, and it's not just an ancestry, he had a purebred parent, but because I picked him up from a shelter, they couldn't contact the previous owner for me. Apparently, they gave him up because he wasn't a pedigree. 

 Of all the cats I have ever had (and that list is quite long), Charms is outstanding personality-wise. 

I know my runts are mixed (here we call mixed dogs pothounds, so I'm guessing they are pot-cats LMAO!) 

 

[Willowy]

Ah, I was going to say that they look like Oriental mixes. . .but street cats are bound to be different in Trinidad than they are in the US. The warmer climate would likely explain the single coats and more exotic profile. Beautiful kitties, all of them!

 

[maewkaew]

LOL,   pot hounds and pot cats!    That is one I had not heard.    Someone on here wrote not long ago that  in their country,  the cats of no particular breed are called roof cats.     I don't remember what country.  Maybe thats better than being gutter cats  as they are called in France. 

   Charms is the one who ,  at least in these photos,  looks to me more like he has  a head shape and body type very much like the old style Siamese.   There may be Siamese of that kind in Trinidad & Tobago?   at least I have heard of there being some in some caribbean islands.      Charms LOOKS in this picture like he probably has a very long body and legs?    He is so beautiful and reminds me so much of my beloved Louis. the Siamese mix who was the smartest cat  I have known.

 and Twixy's voice and kinked tail certainly imply some sort of southeast Asian ancestry.    I  don't know how likely Burmese would be.   Just going by numbers,  probably more likely than Korat but less likely than Siamese.     How many Burmese are there in Trinidad?   Bombays (which are basically black Burmese)   are more rare than Burmese.  She  may just be a combination of some ancestry from Siamese and some from local moggies of Western European ancestry  with a cobbier build.   

It would be extremely, wildly  unusual if you adopted 3 cats who originally came from different sources,  and just by chance ended up with 3 cats  with  a large amount of ancestry of a specific breed not native to your location.  It's even very unusual to have it happen twice! 

That's very different than with dogs.  That would just be normal for dogs.    But the vast majority of cats are not a breed NOR a mix of breeds in the way that dogs usually are.    The purebred / pedigreed cats are a tiny percent of cats and probably only 1% or fewer of shelter cats.   So there also could not be many mixes with a recent pedigreed ancestor.    At least that is how it is in the U.S.  and I doubt Trinidad has a lot more cat breeders and  purebred cats.   

Willow's build  sounds like she tends toward the body type seen in many cats from southern Asia and the Mediterranean region --  cats with a more elongated body and legs,  a little lighter in boning than the quintessential moggy from Northern Europe.  .... but  moggies do come in a variety of shapes and size s without having a lot of a breed in their ancestry. .    so  it's not a certain thing.     And  Willow has a single coat which is not typical for most  European cats ( which is where most of the cats in the Western Hemisphere came from ) ...But Trinidad is a warm place;   It might be that some cats there   have evolved to have less undercoat than their ancestors.      The temperament certainly does not sound very oriental!     Willow may just be a regular cat  without any big amount of ancestry of a specific breed?    Of course that wouldn't mean she's any less special. 

Traits like  enjoying eating and overeating can be in any breed or type of cat. I would never use that as a way to guess at breed.    Body type is about length of the body and limbs,  and about the thickness of the bones.    but a long bodied , fine-boned cat can still like to eat and can get overweight.    and a heavier boned, cobby cat can be thin and a picky eater.  

 You may want to consider making your own cat food, if you have difficullty obtaining good food.    The links I gave you before were to the site of a vet who also has a section on there about making cat food with her own recipe for cat food made from ground raw meat and bone.    There's also a sub- section in the Nutrition category on this forum 

 

[pushylady]

They are all gorgeous, striking cats!