All domestic cats are descendants of a species called Felis Silvestris, which is made up of three distinct groups of cats—the African wildcat, European wildcat, and Steppe wildcat. These original ancestors to our lap cats weigh in the range of 11 to 18 pounds. You may wonder why our domestic cats come in so many shapes and sizes—well, that’s partly because their original ancestors do too. The European wildcat has longer fur and a bushy tail. The African wildcat has short fur and faint stripes and the Asiatic wildcat is spotted.
How could those who first domesticated these cats possibly know that we’d come up with
more than 3,000 types of domestic cats from the DNA of these three. And would you believe that only 8% of those are pedigree cats.
If you’d like to know more about your formerly feral or stray cat or one that you purchased from a breeder, you might consider sending for a DNA kit. You may need to send a little fur, maybe a swab from inside your cat’s cheek, and a check for anywhere from $44 to $125 and then wait six to eight weeks to learn some interesting tidbits about your cat. Here’s a site ranking some of the DNA test labs.
