My cat jazzmin has double paws in the front - they are huge and sometimes when she raises them it looks like she's giving you the thumbs up, which is pretty cute. Apparently about 5% of cats have this trait these days, yet they have found fossils of cats from 1000s of years ago with them and some suggest that all cats initially had this. They are almost like opposable thumbs and it definitely approves her ability to grab things. If the theory is true, I wonder why so few cats have them now - it would seem to be a natural advantage, something that evolution would keep intact.
oh and for those who haven't seen them this is what they look like. Mind you that's not jazzmin, but its how her front paws look
I've done a little more research and apparently the reason why there are fewer nowadays is that breeders have purposely tried to breed out this trait - they considered it 'unfit' for a show cat. Stupid if you ask me. As little as 50 years ago 40% of Maine Coon cats had this trait, but they started to breed it out of them too. I read that there is now an effort to try and bring back this trait through breeding for Maine Coons as it is believed that they were all polydactyl at one point. Kind a cool
I used to have a cat that had that... He was semi-wild and was also huge and extremely muscular... I miss him...
jazz isn't all that big. she's about eleven pounds, but dayum she can swat things. If she were an outdoor cat, I'd imagine birds in my town would become endangered rather quickly
i dunno man 11 pounds is pretty hefty that's a lot of cat - my little boy is still about 6 pounds, but then he's also like 7 months old. when do cats stop growing anyway...? do you have a picture of yours?
Some breeds actually continue to fill out until they are 3 or 4 - British Short Hairs being one of them. Most are finishead around a year and half to 2 years though. I can't reattach the same picture twice, but here's a link to a picture of her http://hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=47565
Dogs have a similiar thing going on ... theirs are called "dewclaws". Some dogs are born without them and others have them, but their dewclaws are higher up on the frong legs than the cat's are. Anyway my point in posting this was to mention that the reason a lot of dog breeders have the dewclaws removed from puppies if they are born with them is because it can cause a lot of health problems later on. They get snagged on things too easily in a domesticated enviroment, get ripped off, torn, broken, infected, etc.. and because of the location on the leg, it can mess up the rest of the leg too. Sometimes they end up having to be amputated. So maybe that is why they remove some cat's "thumbs". I don't know if cats have the same problems or not, but it's something to think about.
...my friend has a cat like that...and she had one before that was named monkey who had the thumbs as well... ...and all this time i thought it came from the inbreeding of the cats.....hehe.....
I've never seen those on a cat before how cute! I want to give her a high five for scoring herself a pretty good cat dad
I have always thought when a cat has more than 5 toes that was from inbreading, I have seen as many as 7, does anybody know if thats what it is?
