Unsure On Breed Of My Kitten?

GMeadows13

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Hey! My partner and mother in law picked up two kittens a few days ago. One looks like a (possible to be long hair?) domestic calico kitty - but the other is nothing alike. The fur on him is coarse and springy, almost like what I imagine a sheeps wool would feel like? He also has curly whiskers. He is eating, drinking and using the litter tray well and interacting well with us and his sister - so I'm assuming the strange coat isn't pointing to any health issues. I hope! But I am unsure of what breed he is, my mother in law hasn't got any pictures of mum or dad cat either. I have never seen or felt a kitten or cat with fur like this before, thanks in advance!
 

abyeb

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Congratulations! It looks like your kitten has a rex coat! The rex mutation gives cats a curly coat and whiskers! There are certain breeds that have rex coats (Cornish Rex, Devon Rex, or, the cat whose fur is closest to your’s, the Selkirk Rex), but it can arise as a random mutation as well. He is very cute!
 
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GMeadows13

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Thank you for your help! I was curious whether it could be a Rex coat after googling for a while but I just wanted to get a few opinions (and some reassurance that he's healthy and well) before I assumed anything. Thanks again!
 

lutece

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If the coat is coarse in texture, your kitten may have either the wirehair coat mutation, or possibly one of the rex coat mutations. The wirehair mutation (seen in the American Wirehair breed) is dominant, like the Selkirk Rex and La Perm rex mutations, so only one parent would need to have the mutation to pass it on to your kitten. Most rex coats are fairly soft in texture, so if your kitten's coat is very coarse I would suspect wirehair rather than rex.

UC Davis has a test for the Selkirk Rex gene, however I am not aware of a commercial test for the wirehair mutation.
Selkirk Rex

Wirehaired and rex coat mutations don't indicate any health issue, I wouldn't worry about that!
 
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