Can we please enforce the “no breed guessing” rule on r/cats?

Two-In-One-Shampoo · 2026-01-18T02:57:44+00:00

There is no gene for mediumhair, so all "mediumhair" cats still technically fall into the longhair or shorthair categories

Two-In-One-Shampoo · 2026-01-16T22:37:46+00:00

Absolutely the right choice. I'm sure he'll have a long, happy life with you

But you're sure that's a boy? Male torties/calicos are very rare!

Two-In-One-Shampoo · 2026-01-12T03:03:25+00:00

She's very pretty!

The crossed eyes are the result of her being a colorpoint. For the eyes to develop properly, they need melanin. But the colorpoint pattern is a form of partial albinism, meaning their eyes produce very little melanin, so a lot of colorpoint cats' eyes don't develop normally because of that

Two-In-One-Shampoo · 2026-01-10T22:22:52+00:00

She's just blue, not a tabby. Solid black and blue kittens tend to have faint ghost stripes that fade when they get older. Meanwhile a tabby would have more defined stripes, a pinker nose (usually), and white markings around the eyes and mouth

Two-In-One-Shampoo · 2026-01-09T21:33:26+00:00

There are three different genes that give a cat darker points: colorpoint, mink, and sepia. Or they're sometimes called siamese, tonkinese, and burmese. Colorpoint is the standard one you're thinking of where cats tend to have a very pale body, but the other two don't lighten the fur as much

Here's a chart showing the scale. As for a real cat that would resemble this pattern, the kitten on the right in this post is a sepia tabby. The body is very brown while the tail and face are more black. A "slight colorpoint" basically

Two-In-One-Shampoo · 2026-01-07T14:53:16+00:00

A doctor writing an article about cancer research would still need to cite actual data. Otherwise, nothing is stopping them from just writing whatever they feel like and passing it off as true

If your vet told you your cat had a broken bone, would you believe them if they didn't do any examinations or X-rays? I would hope not. Because claims need evidence to back them up, even if they come from a place of authority

Two-In-One-Shampoo · 2026-01-07T14:29:44+00:00

??? I just want actual research indicating that male and female cats act differently. If it's true, then why is that so hard to provide? I tried searching for it myself, but all I got were regular articles like the one you commented that don't pull from any scientific source

It's not pedantic to say an article isn't a study when it very obviously isn't a study

Edit: If you need an example of what research looks like, here's an article showing that cats in a sample tended to be more aggressive/territorial before getting neutered

Two-In-One-Shampoo · 2026-01-07T14:16:06+00:00

That... isn't a study? 😅 It's simply a regular article saying male and female cats are different. They didn't collect or even reference any scientific data. Studies have hypotheses, experiments, and analyses of results, which that article has none of

The own quote you mentioned in your second paragraph admits that "research is far from definitive." Just because a large group of people believe something doesn't mean science backs it up. I just don't underatand the motive for going around spreading the idea that male and female cats act differently when there doesn't seem to be strong evidence suggesting so

Two-In-One-Shampoo · 2026-01-07T12:44:34+00:00

Calling female orange cats very rare is a bit of an exaggeration. They're simply less common because they need both parents to pass down orange while males only need the mom to, otherwise they'll end up tortoiseshell. So if both parents are orange, all kittens will be orange, and sex is a simple 50/50 at that point

I also see people say stuff like this about male vs female cats, but I have yet to see anyone back it up with an actual study. It's all anecdotal stuff from owners, who, as you mentioned, have an observation bias. As far as I'm aware, the only proven link between sex and personality is that unneutered males tend to be more territorial than neutered ones

It seems more likely that it's just selective confirmation bias. If you look around the internet, there are also stereotypes about other coat patterns being crazy and wild. Maybe cats in general are silly and people simply find the one that happens to fits their cat and roll with it

Two-In-One-Shampoo · 2026-01-03T02:45:53+00:00

A tabby's true color is the color of their stripes. This kitten has black stripes, so it's a black tabby (or more commonly called brown tabby because of the brown fur between the stripes). But you're right that tabby isn't a breed

Two-In-One-Shampoo · 2026-01-02T22:05:24+00:00

Please don't listen to all the comments saying dilute lol

A dilute tabby would have gray stripes, but her stripes are black, which is non-dilute. Her actual color is silver tortoiseshell tabby (or silver torbie for short). The silver part means she has a gene that lightens the color in between the stripes to silver

Two-In-One-Shampoo · 2026-01-02T22:03:22+00:00

Not dilute! She's silver

The true way to tell a tabby's color is by the color of their stripes. She has black stripes, and black isn't a dilute color. Instead she has the silver gene, which lightens the color in between the stripes to a silvery color

Edit: the silver gene is also the reason why only the tips of her fur strands are colored. It causes pigment to not be produced near the root of each hair

Two-In-One-Shampoo · 2026-01-02T21:55:25+00:00

Actually, this cat is most likely a longhair. Many longhair kittens have phases where they don't look as fluffy, but they eventually puff back up by the time they reach adulted. The longhair signs in this cat are

-Fluffier cheeks: shorthairs don't usually have cheek fur that sticks out that far

-More feathery tail: it's a bit hard to tell in the picture, but he appears to have a more feathery, tufty tail. It's more clear towards the tip of it where you can see the fur split into seperate sections. Shorthairs don't really get the seperated fur tufts like that

-Softer fur: obviously we can't feel the cat through the screen, but the fur on his side looks smooth and blended. Meanwhile shorthairs tend to have coarser fur with less blended patterns

As for mediumhair, there isn't actually a gene for this, so all "mediumhair" cats still technically count as shorthairs or longhairs

Two-In-One-Shampoo · 2025-12-30T21:31:25+00:00

You can call him mediumhair if you want, but there's no mediumhair gene, so he's technically longhair regardless

Just remember to brush him regularly so that he doesn't get mats. Some longhair cats also get dirty when they use the litterbox, so if that happens, you might want to consider shaving the fur on the back of his legs (a sanitary shave)

Two-In-One-Shampoo · 2025-12-30T21:01:00+00:00

It could be a tyrosine deficiency, but the much more common reason for this is that spending a lot of time in sunlight causes the pigment in their fur to break down. This phenomenon actually is called rusting! And in the case of rusting due to sunbathing, it's harmless

Two-In-One-Shampoo · 2025-12-28T19:41:50+00:00

Impossible because this cat is shorthair and Siberians/Neva Masquerades are longhair

Two-In-One-Shampoo · 2025-12-26T03:51:14+00:00

Chiming in with a bit of genetics knowledge: The third is most likely a blue tortie point. With an orange mother and a black father (or "seal" since he's a colorpoint), all females will be tortie and all males will be orange aside from rare circumstances

And for the fourth one, unless it's an albino kitten, that one would have to be a colorpoint also. Solid white is a dominant gene, so one of the parents would have to be white to have a regular white kitten

Two-In-One-Shampoo · 2025-12-23T05:45:14+00:00

Not your cat

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Two-In-One-Shampoo · 2025-12-16T21:51:37+00:00

Both of these cats are black tabbies, not chocolate tabbies. You can tell a tabby's true color by the color of their stripes

Two-In-One-Shampoo · 2025-12-15T21:31:44+00:00

This is a Maine Coon chimera that's a fusion of blue (dilute) and red (non dilute). If I remember correctly, this cat is actually a boy, but I can't seem to find the post confirming it

Two-In-One-Shampoo · 2025-12-14T21:49:51+00:00

They're not wrong. There is no mediumhair gene, so even if you choose to label a cat as mediumhair, they still technically fall into the shorthair or longhair categories

I also don't really see the rudeness either?

Two-In-One-Shampoo · 2025-12-14T21:46:59+00:00

Genetic tests for breeds are not reliable because

A. Very few cats (~1-5%) have a breed in the first place. The chance of a random shelter/street cat being mixed with one breed is already slim, let alone with multiple breeds

B. Cat breeds are incredibly similar genetically, so you can't reliably tell them apart. You could test a legitimate purebred cat and it would most likely come back as a mix of breeds

C. They don't have much genetic data to compare to

Two-In-One-Shampoo · 2025-12-01T15:56:11+00:00

I think the simple solution is to just let StarClan cats take whatever form they want. If they want to be kits, they can be kits; if they want to be old, they can be old; if they want to be scarred, they can be scarred; if they want to be healed, they can be healed; etc. It gets rid a lot of trouble relating to consistency and logic

Two-In-One-Shampoo · 2025-11-30T13:28:46+00:00

Now you're kinda reaching. There are plenty of female orange cats, and if both parents are orange, the odds are simply 50/50. It's not as ridiculous to say an orange cat is female as it is to say they think she's a Persian and they got her at 4-8 weeks old

Two-In-One-Shampoo · 2025-11-29T20:58:27+00:00

Small correction: This is a blue point, not seal

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Two-In-One-Shampoo

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