Polydactyl cats as a new breed...
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| Mon, 06-20-2005 - 11:07am |
By Denise Flaim
Hemingway had a lot of them. And we're not talking about hangovers.
Though they sound like something out of the Mesozoic Era, polydactyl cats are, literally, "many toed," having more than the requisite five front toes (including the dewclaw, which does not touch the ground) and four rear toes. (Ironically, the noun form of the word, polydactyly, resembles the condition that it describes, with that last "y" looking for all the world like a superfluous appendage.) Although the most famous of these big-footed felines reside at Hemingway's Key West home, polydactyl cats aren't as rare as one might think. Colonies persist in certain cities - many of them port towns such as Boston and Halifax, Nova Scotia - and polydactyl cats have been noted in Britain and Scandinavia.
The murky history of these "mitten kittens" suggests that they were favored by sailors, who, depending on what you read, thought them lucky, enhanced in equilibrium, or well-equipped for ratting. Hemingway's first six-toed kitty was supposedly a gift from a ship's captain.
But seafaring isn't the only cause of their far-flung popularity. "Polydactyly crops up rather frequently" in cats, says Leslie Lyons, an assistant professor and geneticist at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California at Davis. In some instances, she says, it is a mutation that just spontaneously arises. In some breeds, such as Maine Coons, polydactyly is thought to be a simple dominant trait: Only one parent needs to be polydactyl in order to pass it on, with each offspring having a 50 percent chance of being "digitally enhanced." This is presumably how Hemingway's extended cat family earned its tropical snowshoes.
And conversely, such dominant traits are easy to breed away from, which is how polydactyl Maine Coons - by some estimates comprising 40 percent of the breed in its early days - were curtailed in that purebred population: Modern breeders simply decided not to breed cats with the trait.
Today, some Maine Coon breeders have revived these "polycoons," and are lobbying to have them accepted. In only one breed, the Pixie-Bob - created in the American Northwest to resemble the wild look of the native bobcat - are polydactyl cats considered as acceptable as "straightfoots." (Though seven toes is the official limit.) Some of the bias against polydactyly may come from a concern that the extra toes adversely affect a cat's health or functioning. This does not seem to be the case, says Lyons. "I see it as a rather innocuous variant," compared to others, such as Munchkin cats, which exhibit a form of dwarfism that can arguably make life more physically challenging. The extra digits even come in handy - literally. "Some polys actually use and manipulate them to grasp and pick up food."
Predictably, polydactyls are popular, "just because they're different," says Amy Peterson, a Pixie-Bob breeder at LegendTales Cattery in Everett, Wash. Her only caveat is that owners need to carefully trim all those excess claws, which can become overgrown and curve into the paw pad.
A footnote in this polydactyl discussion is an unfortunate phenomenon dubbed Twisty Kats by a Texas horse breeder who created a Web site about them five or so years ago. Produced from pairings of bobtailed polydactyls, these deformed cats had radial hypoplasia, resulting in underdeveloped, missing, misshapen or flipperlike forearms. The "kangaroo cats" caused a furor on the Internet, and the breeder is not offering them for sale. Lyons stresses that the twisty mutation is "the more extreme expression" of polydactyly, and it is not a foregone conclusion that poly breeders will produce it.
But as breeders seek to revive and even create more polydactyl breeds - polys crossed with Bengals, for example, are now dubbed Mojave Spotteds - they need to be especially vigilant. "Breeders should be responsible and breed carefully to make sure there are no health issues," Lyons says, adding that too close inbreeding and a focus on the more toes, the merrier might lead to trouble down the line. "At some point," she concludes about the impulse to add "just one more" toe, "you have to ask yourself, 'When do you call it quits?'"




What a cool idea! 6 toed maincoon cats as a new accepted breed! Wow! But I do not think we should stop there…. Personally I always thought something was missing from my nephew when he was born. Now I know what! My nephew should have had 6 finders on each hand! That would have been so cool! And imagine if my nephew could have had a pushed in face as well? Only real big problem I have with my nephew is that he just does not like to play Frisbee. Perhaps he could have had a bit of retriever added too! Wow, I would be the luckiest uncle in the world to have a Polydactyl Persian retriever nephew! I think we need more breeders to help with my plight.
David and the CoolCyberCats
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My sister adopted a kitten from an extremely multi-cat household about 6 years ago. I was the one who noticed that the kitten happened to have extra toes... and even dewclaws on the BACK legs. A couple of her claws had even mutated and split into two. I thought it was because of the place she came from - the woman who owned the cats shamelessly admitted that she couldn't afford to spay/neuter all her cats, and that they were producing litters roughly every couple of months. She always ended up keeping kittens she couldn't find homes for, so grown kittens were mating with their parents and/or siblings. *Sigh*
My sister's kitten, aside from having some extra claws and toes, also had worms and ear mites, and was rather... eccentric. LOL - we always joked that the poor thing was "simple". But she turned out to be very healthy, cuddly, and besides being BAD, she's a great cat.
I can not believe that people WANT this mutation though - because that is exactly how I saw it. I remember telling my sister that if this was 50 years ago, and she had been a "show cat", or a purebred dog, she would have been put in a sack and thrown in the river. Now people are PURPOSELY breeding this?
You know... how often have you joked that you need an extra pair of hands? Just wait -- maybe one day we'll be getting that wish.
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A random natural mutation (not helped along by some greedy twit) is one thing and I have little issue with that. I would have no problems adopting a 3 legged cat (if I did not have 7 now... cats that is, not legs) or a 6 toes cat. But when I start to attempt to breed my 6 toes cats with my 4 eared cats and my 5 legged cats in order to create a frankenstien cat......
How come it is okay to do this to animals?? *sigh*
Itchys, Electras & Copycats eternal flame
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David and the CoolCyberCats
Forever in my heart
Enter YOUR Cool Cat! A winner each month!
Cats nap, only humans put them to sleep: Sterilize, don't euthanize.
Uh hun, sure... If RH is the radical expression of polydactal cats - why are only 2 of my 8 RH cats polydactal? Sorry, but RH isn't quite that simple.
If it naturally occurs, I have no problems with polydactal cats. I have no problems with it in the Maine Coons - it's naturally occuring there. I have no problems with it in the Pixie-Bobs - it's naturally occuring there.
Then again, one of the barn cats here is named Jack Bauer since he's got 24 toes. But, I never claimed to be normal :)