Multi-Toed Cats- or My Cat is a Mutant.

[Wonko The Sane]

Ok. I shit you not. My cat (Jack) has a lot of extra toes. He has nine toes on each front foot, and seven on each rear foot at last count(though I swear he grows extra ones every so often). Does anyone have a cat/cats with extra toes, or have any reason why they have this toe-hoarding behavior?

[robinh]

We had a cat with extra toes. I have no idea why this occurs, but I do want to suggest you keep an eye on his claws. One of this cat's extra claws had a tendency to grow in on itself. Eventually, we decided to have that one claw removed to avoid problems. (We were afraid we might let too much time go between clipping and the claw might grow into the pad, causing pain and possibly infection.) The vet ended up removing the entire toe, as it was severely deformed. Just something to keep in mind.

[Wonko The Sane]

only one of his -extra- toes had a claw, but I got him declawed due to my allergy to being scratched. I get big welts. His extra toes are just like flaps of skin kinda.

[bauble]

Is Jack part Maine Coon ? That breed, for a time, was bred to have extra toes (I think the trait is 'polydactylism', if I'm spelling correctly this morning).

[lunapark]

You don't live near a nuclear waste sight do you?

[RealityChuck]

Our cat has extra toes on each foot. No real problems with it, other then when you trim his claws, which makes a difficult job that much more difficult. They can cause a problem, but Lightning's claws are well-formed so he's fine.

[andyman]

Check out

http://www.polycoon.org/

I believe polydactylism can occur an any breed, and is a result of too much inbreeding.

[SwimmingRiddles]

I know it's a New England farm thing, if you have a dairy barn, you have cats to keep mice away from the grain for the cows. And then they inbreed, hence lots of extra toes.

Still wierd looking, though.

[AWB]

I have a part Maine Coon Cat that has 1 extra "thumb" on her forepaws. Some of her littermates do too, the others are "normal".

Polydactyl cats are common in New England, where I guess local inbreeding keeps it going.

For Maine Coon show cats, polydactism is not desired, probably because breeding for it is considered Frankensteinish. Inbreeding polys can lead to serious deformities in the kittens, from hugely excessive toe counts to missing forelimbs.

See these links:
http://www.etexweb.com/personal/speir/twisty/twisty.htm
http://www.etexweb.com/personal/speir/kats/twisty2.htm
http://www.connect.net/gevans/Sassy/gallery.html
for the freakish results.

[bibliophage]

An article from Cornell University, Cat Watch, (1998) stated that studies done on polydactlous cats, beginning in the 1940's and continuing into the 1970's, showed that the trait probably initially occurred in cats who came over from England to the Boston area with the Puritans in the mid-1600. This article also speculated that it was possible that the mutation developed in cats already in the Boston area. Scientist surmise that the immediate descendents of these cats may have lived on board trading ships, and soon found their ways to Halifax, Yarmouth MA, and Nova Scotia, which now have sizable multi-toed cat populations. In Europe, polydactyl cats are virtually non-existent, because during Medieval times any cat which was unusual was put to death due to superstitions regarding witchcraft (Kelly, Larson, 1993). A reliable source in Sweden (1998) reported that they do see polys in the household pet population and a reliable source in Europe (1998) reported never having seen a poly household pet. The only polys that my European source had seen were registered Maine Coons. (It should be noted that any type of cat can be a polydactyl not just the Maine Coon.) When researchers were taking censuses of polydactylous cats, they found that areas close to Boston had greater populations of polydactylous cats than New York City or Chicago.
source: http://www.furkats.net/polart.htm

For what it’s worth, my sister had a cat (not a Maine Coon cat) with two extra toes, in Connecticut.

Polydactyly is not limited to cats, and many people have extra fingers. Anne Boleyn is supposed to have had 2 extra fingers, but that may have been an invention of her enemies.

[labdude]

Originally posted by andyman
Check out

http://www.polycoon.org/

I believe polydactylism can occur an any breed, and is a result of too much inbreeding.


This also includes humans. Isolated populations of humans often have extra fingers or toes.

[Nen]

Polydactylism may or may not be the result of inbreeding (I've never been exposed to that concept before), but it is a dominant trait. I've got three cats which are polydactyls.

[CrankyAsAnOldMan]

Somewhere down in Key West there's an Ernest Hemingway site that is just crawling with cats with extra toes. It's not all that unsual among kitty cats. Nine toes, however, does seem like an embarrassment of riches, so I think the nuclear waste question is not invalid....

[Lance Turbo]

Is it true many New England cats have extra paws because Boston ships' captains considered them lucky? (http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/m6toecat.html)

[Phobos]

drat! I was trying to find that link.

[Tymp]

In Europe, polydactyl cats are virtually non-existent, because during Medieval times any cat which was unusual was put to death due to superstitions regarding witchcraft
Burned at a stake? Drown? Beheaded? Was there any attempt to save the souls of these misguided cats before their execution? Do the Dominicans and Jesuits still downplay the actual number of cats tortured and killed in the name of God and the eradication of devilish witchcraft?

[andyman]

(Minor Hijack :eek: )

I've also heard that one of the reasons the black plague was so bad was because of cat eradication. There were no cats to control the rats, so they bred like crazy, gave fleas a bigger food supply. This produced more fleas which then spread the disease.

[lovelee]

One of my cats has 7 toes on his front paws and normal hind paws. He was the only polydactyl in his litter.

He is incredibly outgoing and energetic. I've heard that polydactyls are the socialites of the feline world - is this true, from what you've seen of your own cats?

[wolfman]

ALfonseca, a pitcher for the Marlins has 6 fingers and toes on each hand.

[Tengu]

Originally posted by wolfman
ALfonseca, a pitcher for the Marlins has 6 fingers and toes on each hand.

OK...6 fingers is one thing...but SIX TOES on each hand...that's freaky...

[Fiver]

wolfman:
ALfonseca, a pitcher for the Marlins has 6 fingers and toes on each hand.

Are the toes in their own group to the side, or do they alternate finger/toe, finger/toe?

[yosemite]

I have a six-toed cat. Just lost my other Poly last year.

I grew up with a steady stream of polys. We usually had one or two. And then they'd have kittens, (not breeding with each other, mind) and we'd have a new generation of polys!

I've seen polys with all sorts of toe configurations. 7 toes, 8 toes - you name it. One cat had 7 on one front paw, 8 on the other. Freaky.

[Wonko The Sane]

Jack is a mutt cat that I got at the spca- so I don't know the breed. I live in NJ, so I very well may live near Nuclear Waste.

[dragonlady]

My Polly is a patched tortose-shell. She has 7 toes on each front foot and 6 on each rear foot. They are all good toes, her feet look huge. The vet commented on the "all good toes", saying they frequently had trouble with toes that were little more than skin and claw. She was a stray, and pregnant when we got her. She had 6 kittens. 3 with extra toes, 2 males and 1 female. The female had her extra toes like half an extra foot, or like a human hand with 2 thumbs. They were removed because she had trouble walking.
The vet removed several of the funny little skin and claw toes from each kitten and they never grew back.
All her babies have been spayed/neutered, but it would be interesting to see how the extra toes turned up in future generations.

[Larry Borgia]

Polydactylism is harmless (though robinh makes a good health point) and is quite common in the American Northeast. I believe it is a genetic variation which serves no real purpose but persists due to inbreeding.