Did the very first cats have lengthy hair or quick hair?
What decides how lengthy a cat’s fur will probably be?
And what stops lengthy hair on a cat from simply rising, rising, and rising?
There’s fascinating historical past and science within the story of lengthy hair in cats. Lengthy hair in cats is woven into the saga of the traditional migration of cats around the globe.
And even earlier than that, lengthy hair in cats is expounded to the story of the evolution of cats. It’s proof of cats’ wonderful potential to adapt to residing nearly anyplace.
And eventually, the story of lengthy hair in cats can be the story of people and our love affair with cats. Evolution apart, it was typically individuals who determined which traits in cats to protect.
Fortunately, that included lengthy hair.
Quick-haired cats got here first. There are two vital details that assist this conclusion:
- Our home cats are descended from the African Wildcat (Felis lybica). The African Wildcat is short-haired.
- Egyptian artwork and mummified cat stays present a number of the earliest, most in depth, and well-documented data of domesticated cats, courting again to 4,000 B.C.E. Egyptian cats are very clearly short-haired.
As an aside, the oldest known pet cat was actually found on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, not Egypt. That cat lived 4,000 years before the civilization of Egypt began. It was an eight-month-old kitten, buried in a shallow grave next to the grave of its owner.
Unfortunately, we have no way of knowing if the Neolithic pet cat in Cyprus was short- or long-haired.
Where did the first long-haired cats come from?
I’ll get to how cats get long hair in a moment. First, let’s address where the first long-haired cats came from.
The answer is…nobody knows exactly. There are several plausible theories. What follows is not a complete list of all the theories, just the most likely of them.
Did long-haired cats come from Russia?
One possibility is that long hair in cats popped up in Russia first and then spread to Persia (today’s Iran) and Turkey. Siberian cats and Russian Angoras may have grow to be Turkish Angoras and Persian cats.
The truth that these breeds all have cold-climate options together with a dense undercoat, coarse hair, and a heavy construct, helps this concept.
Did long-haired cats come from Turkey?
Alternatively, lengthy hair in cats may have arisen in Turkey first. Lengthy-haired cats may have been carried alongside commerce routes by retailers touring from Turkey to Europe, the Center East, and the Far East.
Did long-haired cats emerge in other places on the identical time?
One other thought is that lengthy hair may have emerged in all three places: Russia, Persia, and Turkey, at roughly the identical time.
We all know that gene mutations for curly hair and bobbed tails in cats have surfaced individually in numerous places at totally different occasions in historical past. It’s no huge leap to think about that the mutations for lengthy hair occurred the identical method.
It makes sense that cat populations in completely separate cold-climate areas simultaneously developed long hair to protect them from freezing temperatures.
Eventually, long-haired cats made their way around the globe
While we may never know where long hair in cats started, we do know that they were first seen in Europe in the 1500s. It’s believed that soldiers brought some long-haired cats home with them from The Crusades.
The first documented import of a long-haired cat to Europe happened in Italy in 1520. Pietro della Valle imported a long-haired cat from Persia.
In France, about a hundred years later, Nicholas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc imported a long-haired cat from Turkey.
Eventually, the Turkish Angoras and the Persians were deliberately bred with each other, leading to a jumble of breed genetics. This is where human interference (and a desire to preserve long-hairedness in cats) comes in.
Eventually long-haired cats would come to America as ships’ cats. These cats founded the Maine Coon breed.
The important thing to any change in a species is genetic mutation. This consists of lengthy hair in an in any other case short-haired animal species.
What’s a genetic mutation?
A genetic mutation is a “mistake” that occurs when cells divide.
Earlier than I clarify why cells divide and the way these errors are made, I wish to level out that “errors” are actually the rationale you and I and cats live on this planet collectively.
Errors/mutations are the uncooked materials of evolution. With out mutations, all 5 billion, or 50 billion, or 1 trillion (depending upon whom you ask) plants, animals, and microorganisms that have ever lived on this planet would have never existed.
We would all still be primitive, single-celled organisms living in a boiling-hot sea.
Thanks to more than 4 billion years of mutations, life on Earth today is as diverse as a tiger is from a bacteria and a giant Sequoia tree.
Why do cells divide?
Mutations happen during cell division.
Cats and humans all start off as a single cell in their mothers’ wombs, called a zygote. One cell eventually becomes an entire living thing made up of trillions of cells thanks to cell division.
That very first cell, the zygote, literally splits in half to make two cells. Those two cells each split to make four cells. And so on, and so on, and so on, until you have enough cells to make an entire cat or human.
That kind of splitting-in-half cell division continues even once we’re out of the womb. Body cells get damaged, or get old and worn out, and need to be replaced. Our bodies’ cells are constantly dividing and renewing themselves.
Mistakes happen during cell division
I made it sound easy, but cell division is a complicated process. Most of the time, all goes as planned. But occasionally, there are errors.
If that error or mutation is bad enough, it can cause disease, like cancer. But errors that occur during ordinary cell division only affect that individual person or animal.
Some mutations can be inherited
There’s another kind of cell division that happens only when the body manufactures sperm and egg cells. It’s more complicated than ordinary cell division, and there is a lot more room for error.
When a cell is dividing to make a sperm or egg cell, it actually forms four (not two) new cells. Each of the new cells have only half the normal number of chromosomes. This is so that later, when a sperm and egg cell fuse to make a zygote, the zygote will have the correct number of chromosomes.
But the most important thing to understand about mutations that happen during the creation of sperm and egg cells is that those mutations can be passed on to the next generation of cats or humans.
They are inheritable mutations.
What do mutations have to do with long hair in cats?
Most mutations are probably never noticed. But some mutations cause harm, while others are beneficial.
The long-hair mutation was incredibly helpful. A cat born with long hair in Siberia would have natural protection from the weather.
Cats with long fur in a cold climate wouldn’t require as many calories to keep warm. So, they wouldn’t have had to hunt as often, or would have been less likely to starve in bad times.
A long-haired cat might be less susceptible to disease or more able to fight off an illness than a short-haired cat.
Consequently, a long-haired cat might outlive his short-haired friends, getting to reproduce and pass on his long-haired genes to generations upon generations of kittens.
That is how pure choice works.
How does the mutation for lengthy hair in cats work?
There may be one gene through which the long-hair mutation happens known as fibroblast progress issue 5, referred to as FGF5 for brief.
The mutation (really, mutations – there are 4), messes round with the hair progress cycle.
The hair progress cycle has 4 levels:
Anagen, through which the hair is rising.
Catagen, through which the hair is transitioning from rising to resting.
Telogen, through which the hair is resting, however nonetheless firmly rooted within the follicle, and
Exogen, through which the hair is being shed.
The long-hair mutations all work by delaying the transition between the anagen and catagen phases. Just when the hair is supposed to be thinking about resting, it keeps growing.
By the way, this growth cycle is why hair doesn’t just keep growing and growing and growing, in cats or in humans.
We all have a genetically predetermined growth cycle which determines the maximum amount of time our hair will stay in the anagen portion of the sequence.
What are the four long-hair mutations?
Three of the mutations are specific to a breed, but the fourth mutation variation is found in all long-haired cats.
Mutation 1 – is found in Ragdolls
Mutation 2 – is present in Norwegian Forest Cats
Mutation 3 – is present in Maine Coon cats and Ragdolls
Mutation 4 – all long-haired cats have this mutation
How is lengthy hair inherited?
The long-hair mutation is recessive.
Which means a cat has to inherit the gene twice, from each mother and pop, to have lengthy hair.
A cat may inherit one copy of the short-hair gene from one dad or mum and one copy of the long-hair gene from the opposite dad or mum, however until he has two copies of the long-hair gene, he will probably be quick haired.
Which means short-haired cats can carry the long-hair gene and produce long-haired kittens. Two short-haired cat mother and father may theoretically produce a whole litter of long-haired kittens.
Enjoyable reality about cat-hair genetics
There’s really a really uncommon recessive short-hair gene that has been seen in some strains of Persian cats.
Because of this loopy gene, matings of two long-haired Persians can produce short-haired kittens!
Cat hair may be very variable, whether or not quick or lengthy.
Quick hair may be very dense and plush, just like the fur of a British Shorthair. Or, it may be modern and close-lying, just like the coat of a Siamese.
Lengthy hair may be wooly, because of a thick undercoat, like a Siberian’s. Or, it may be silky, high-quality, and mushy like a Birman’s.
Size varies, too. Persians have lengthy, flowing tresses, whereas the Turkish Angora sports activities a semi-long coat.
However basically, quick hair in cats is lower than two inches lengthy, and lengthy hair in cats is as much as 5 inches lengthy.
Lengthy hair mutations have proven up in wild-cat species too.
A mutation that causes cheetahs to have wooly, semi-long-haired fur was final noticed within the within the late 1800s. It’s extinct now, most likely resulting from trophy hunters.
I haven’t personally chosen a cat based on hair length, and I’ve had both long- and short-haired cats.
Long-haired cats do require more grooming, and it has to be committed grooming. If you don’t groom a long-haired cat regularly, the cat will develop hair mats. Matted hair is not just unsightly; it is dangerous and painful.
Read more about matted hair in cats in this post.
While both short- and long-haired cats shed equally, some say that long-haired cats appear to shed more.
I’ve had the opposite experience. I find shed short cat hair fluttering everywhere, while shed long cat hair seems to stay stuck amongst the other hairs on a cat’s body until I brush it out.
Shed long hair that separates from a cat’s body tends to fall off in clumps, unlike shed single short hairs that land on every surface of the house.
Look at all of these beauties!
Persian
Himalayan
LaPerm
Maine Coon
Norwegian Forest Cat
Ragdoll
Ragamuffin
Siberian
Selkirk Rex
American Bobtail
Birman
Japanese Bobtail
Pixiebob
Turkish Angora
Turkish Van
Most cats actually enjoy gentle grooming. If yours doesn’t, don’t force your cat to submit. Do as much combing or brushing as she will tolerate and then come back for more later.
How often should I brush/comb my long-haired cat?
You should groom as frequently as your cat’s individual coat demands.
A cat with a fine, silky, long coat, might only need a quick comb-through once or twice a week.
A cat with a thick, wooly undercoat might need a daily brushing.
If your cat is older and unable to groom himself as efficiently as he once did, you may need to help more often than you did when he was younger.
What tools should I use to groom my long-haired cat?
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Slicker brush
Start with a slicker brush first. Gently part the fur into sections with your hand. Brush the fur with slicker in every direction so that you’re brushing the topside, underside, and sides of each section.
A simple slicker brush with plain pins, like this one from Burt’s Bees, is all you want.
Comb
Subsequent, comb by the sections you simply brushed. A comb will assist additional detangle and discover hidden mats.
You should use a simple stainless steel comb, like this one from Andis, or a detangling comb with short and long tines and a handle, like this one. Chances are you’ll must strive each varieties to see which one works higher in your cat’s fur, and which one feels extra comfy in your hand.
This video does an excellent higher job of explaining it than me:
In case your long-haired cat has grow to be significantly matted, convey her to a groomer to have the mats fastidiously shaved. Don’t use scissors to take away matted fur from cats. Mats type so near the pores and skin that they’re inconceivable to take away with scissors with out chopping the cat’s pores and skin, too.
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Daybreak LaFontaine is a lifelong animal lover who all the time appears to have somewhat pet hair in her keyboard. Her weblog, Kitty Contemplations, helps cat guardians higher perceive and look after the particular beings they share their lives and houses with. Her cat-products enterprise, Cat in the Box, sells lovely, well-made, and award-winning merchandise that she designed to satisfy the organic wants of cats.
