What Breed Is My Cat? A Guide To Identifying Your Cat’s Breed

What breed is my cat is one of the most common questions cat owners ask me. Although I can’t be completely sure without a DNA test, I can make a pretty good estimate at the genetic history of your kitty just by looking at him. Today I’m going to share my years of kitty experience with you, and help you to see if you can identify your cat’s breed through a few key features. Cat breed traits include size, colors, pattern, coat type, face shape, tail length and even behavoir.

Contents

• What breed is my cat by size
• Fur patterns and colors linked to breed
• The hints in hair type
• Face shape can indicate type
• Some breeds have a longer tail length
• Breeds by behavior

I thought for years that my gorgeous cat was a simple tuxedo. It wasn’t until he went for his annual vaccinations one year and the vet described him as a black and white tabby that things got interesting. Because my ordinary cat, when you look very closely, has tabby markings in his coat. This fact isn’t useful in any practical way, but it is somewhat fascinating when you start to think about his genetics and what could have caused that quirk. Perhaps the answer is in the breed or breeds that have come before him?

In this article we are going to help you to work out which of the various types of cats your kitten belongs to. Sharing lots of information on the signs of different cat breeds. Some factors to look at include: fur color and patterns, face shape, tail length and more! Read on to find the answer to the question: what breed is my cat!

What Breed Is My Cat?

Although DNA tests can now pick between some of the more popular breeds, there are ways to identify your cat’s breed at home. Today we’ll look at the factors that are likely to give the strongest indicator of type, including their size, pattern, coat, shape and even behavior.

Perhaps your cat was a rescue, a gift, or even a stray before it became part of your family. Whatever the reason, you now want to know how to tell what breed your cat is. There are lots of ways kitten breeds differ from one another. We can use these features to identify individual cats.

Let’s Start With Some Easy Wins

There are a few cats that you can be fairly confident of the history of by glancing at them.

• Does your kitty have tufty ears, long fur and too many toes? He’s probably a Maine Coon!
• Are there dark spots all over your pet’s back, a slim build and an independent streak a mile long? You might be looking at a Bengal.
• Is this kitten’s face flattened, ears small and eyes rather protruding? You’ve almost certainly met a Persian cat.
• Slinky bodied, long nosed, attention seeking and deafeningly loud? That’s the pointed Siamese.

But sadly identifying your pet’s background is not normally so straight forward.

Purebred or Mixed?

Purebred cats are kittens whose ancestors are all from the same breed. So, they often share similar characteristics that fit into their breed standard. Which makes them much easier to identify! But not all common types of cats are purebred.

Mixed breeds, on the other hand, can inherit features from either of their parent breeds. Which can make them quite hard to identify. Even mixed breeds from the same litter can look really different. The features we mentioned above are the best way to narrow your options down.

Cat Breeds By Size

One of the first and main features that shows your cat’s breed, is its size. Knowing whether your kitten is a large or small cat breed can narrow down your options. But, it’s important to remember that kittens of any breed can vary in size. So, size isn’t necessarily a guarantee of your cat’s breed, especially if it is a mixed breed.

Small Cat Breeds

Just like their larger counterparts, small cat breeds can look very different from one another. But they all share a similar small size – they rarely weigh more than 15 pounds.

• Cornish Rex
• American Curl
• Singapura

Dwarf Cats

Another well known small cat breed is the Munchkin. This cat is only so small because of its short legs, caused by pseudoachondroplasia (a type of dwarfism). Munchkins have regular sized bodies and very short legs, which make it much harder for them to move and live like a normal cat. They are also at risk of a lot of health issues. There are several mixed breed cats that have been created from theMunchkin cat. For example:

• Bambino
• Kinkalow

What Breed Is My Cat By Fur Patterns and Colors?

The color and pattern on your cat’s coat is another great feature to answer “what breed is my cat”. And cat markings can be very distinctive. Let’s take a look at some of the most distinguished patterns and colors you can look out for:

Solid

Solid fur patterns are pretty self explanatory. This coat has only one color, with no pattern or breaks. Solid patterns can come in a huge variety of colors. Click on the links to see which cats fall into these color categories:

• Black cat breeds
• White cat breeds
• Cream
• Brown
• Red

What Breed Is My Tabby Cat?

Tabby cats are hugely popular and this pattern comes in a lot of different rare and common breeds! This coat pattern can come in a large range of colours, with long or short fur. Tabby coats come in one of four patterns:

• Mackerel – narrow, parallel stripes
• Classic – swirled pattern, circular markings
• Spotted – spots of darker color on lighter background
• Ticked – multiple bands of color on each strand of hair
• Patched – patches of color.

The patched pattern is just seen as tortoiseshell by some. We will look at this pattern in more detail in a moment.

Bicolor

A bicolor cat is often also called a piebald. This coat pattern occurs when white fur mixes with another color. One of the most common bicolors is the Tuxedo. The black and white pattern on this kitten’s fur makes it look as if it is wearing a tuxedo! If your cat’s fur has two tones, but no white, it will be a tortoiseshell pattern.

Tortoiseshell

The tortoiseshell fur pattern will have any two colors, except white. These two colours can appear mixed together, or just show up in large patches. One of the most common combinations is red and black, but tortie coats aren’t limited to these colors! They can include orange, yellow, grey, or brown. To make things even more confusing, one or both of the colors on a tortie cat can be tabby patterned!

Calico

The calico fur pattern is often confused with the tortoiseshell pattern. Calico cats have three tones in their fur, but one of these is always white. If your tortoiseshell has tiny bits of white fur, it will be called a tortoiseshell and white. It needs to have large amounts of white to qualify as a calico. When the other two colors are more balanced with the white fur, you have a calico.