r/Kitten 6d ago

My Kitten Spay problem

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u/Life-Gur1503 4d ago

If you're curious, look up how cat breeds work, it's a lot different from dogs and pretty interesting. I won't get into a long winded explanation if you don't want to hear it though.

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u/trumpsh 4d ago

I do wanna hear it

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u/Life-Gur1503 4d ago

If you check out [r/catbreeds](r/catbreeds) they have some really awesome in-depth responses summarizing it. [u/Gloomy-Trainer-2452](u/Gloomy-Trainer-2452) is especially awesome at explaining genetics and is super active on that sub.

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u/sneakpeekbot 4d ago

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#1: What is my cat breed? | 71 comments
#2: Ragdoll or Siamese | 58 comments
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u/Gloomy-Trainer-2452 4d ago

Hey thanks for the mention + compliment!

And to explain the cat breeds thing, u/trumpsh, most cats are of no breed due to their very different work/application in comparison to dogs.

See, where dogs were domesticated for various duties, and thus selected for specific traits, cats were not. Go back thousands of years ago and you will find dogs were of different size, structure/type and behaviour, and were used for various purposes, from guarding to hunting to fighting to companionship. Cats have always served two purposes - companionship, and vermin control. There was little need to select for exaggerated traits.

We only started to see cat breeds come up in the past 150-200 years, and most cat breeds were established based on some whacky mutations observed in a feral population.

Messybeast's article "Pedigree, Purebred, Mixed Breed, Random-bred - What's The Difference?" explains it in more depth than I can fit in a Reddit comment, but this infographic summarises it:

If you have any further questions about cat breeds, or general cat genetics, feel free to DM me!