Comments on: Dogs are bred to extremes of sizes, why aren’t cats? Why don’t they have these giant kitty cats?

By: Waarom zijn de grootste katten nog steeds klein? | Zeena, the warrior cat

Waarom zijn de grootste katten nog steeds klein? | Zeena, the warrior cat — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:38:45 +0000

[...] Honden vind je in alle soorten en maten, van kleine handtasmormels tot een Deense dog – waarom vinden we deze verscheidenheid dan niet terug in katten? [...]

By: Debbie T

Debbie T — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 03:22:59 +0000

Hi Franco. As a breeder of Maine Coons, which are the largest recognised breed of domestic pedigree cat in all international cat registries, one of the main reasons that breeders are reluctant to breed too large a cat in the genus Felis Catus (without having to cross breed with other larger genus of cats, such as the Caracal, Serval and Asian Leopard Cat) is for health reasons. Because the domestic cat (Felis Catus) has it’s own separate and individual genetic make-up, it has a limit to the size that can be bred from and to, before health begins to be compromised. The larger the cat is in size the greater the burden on the vital organs, especially the heart, where greater strain is put on it to pump the blood around the body. Studies and tests have been done and found that larger domestic cats are at greater heart risk and brain haemorrhage. This is one of the reasons that care is taken not to breed a cat that is too large where health and function of the cat as a whole is not put under undue pressure.

Dogs, have been genetically manipulated by us humans for our own use and side effects of doing this over decades have started to show weakness in some breeds where their genetic constitution has been bred to the limits.

Cats have been lucky in that they did not fall into our every day needs as a working animal, except for mousing. So, this has safeguarded the cat from our profuse genetic breeding and manipulation. And, because of this, cat breeding has been able to learn from the pattern and in some instances mistakes, that have been taken in the dog breeding world.

The larger pedigree cat breeds, such as the Maine Coon, Norwegian Forest Cat and Siberian Forest Cat have all ended up being larger through natural selection of the strongest, hardiest and intelligent, as they are all naturally occuring wild domestic breeds of cat that have been around for centuries and their ancestors would not have survived the harsh climate and terrain that they lived ( and still live) in without producing larger and hardier offspring.

All the best.
References :
Owner, shower and breeder of Maine Coons.

By: Gracie Niemi

Gracie Niemi — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 02:43:59 +0000

Actually there is a breed of cat called a Maine Coon. They’re bred to be very large cats. I have one and she’s beautiful! I don’t know about any tiny cats though…sorry.

Here’s a couple of links of pictures of a Maine Coon…and yes, they are real pictures!! I wish I had one of my cat to show you.

http://mcgonnigle.files.wordpress.com/2007/07/coonbig.jpg

http://www.backwoodszoocrew.com/look1.jpg

References :

By: catloverme123

catloverme123 — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 01:53:59 +0000

savanna cats are rather big along with maine coons, manx cats are small, munchkins have very short legs, though there are a lot of ill effects of the munchkin breed.
References :

By: cat lover

cat lover — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 01:08:59 +0000

There have been very tiny cats bred, but perhaps that is only a novelty. To get a larger cat, you have to have a cross breed with a wild animal, and it takes many generations to get the wildness (lethal to humans) eliminated. But since domestic cats come in pretty much similar sizes, there is not a genetic handle to get a larger domestic cat other than breeding with a wild cat. Another reason may be the mentality of the potential buyers. A large dog is a macho thing. And some who want a large dog are thinking of defense. A cat is not likely to stand up and defend a person like a dog will.
References :

By: Elizabeth

Elizabeth — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:26:59 +0000

I don’t know if there is a genetic reason but there is a practical reason. Humans have traditionally used dogs as workers and have therefore bred them for specific function. For this reason there was the incentive to put a lot of resources and time into the breeding. This has been gong on for many centuries, far longer than cat breeding.

While cats have been lived near people and been kept as pets for centuries, they have only comparatively recently been specifically bred but never for work. The greatest size variation in cats is between the Singapura (a very small cat that developed naturally living in the sewers in Singapore) and the Maine Coon (a much larger than usual cat).

Edited to add: There is also the Munchkin – a cat with extremely short legs that arose from a random mutation. Someone liked the look and bred from the mutated cat to create the breed.
References :

By: egaccas

egaccas — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:18:59 +0000

I have a large tom-cat. But he’s also mixed with a Maine Coon. But FAR from the size of the posted link. :O Jeeez.. Talk about pillow-cat; the only time you see the coon in him is during winter, when his coat grows out. That and my tom is still in kitten-stage.

But I would think that the queen just couldn’t take it; the kitten nursing plus four to five more at a teat — they’d suck her dry! Then again I’m thinking of Lion-cub sizes.
References :

By: eyJude

eyJude — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:01:59 +0000

I have a freind who worked for a vet… they were trying to breed UP Siamese cats… they had to stop because they were VERY agressive and more wild than domestic.

If you want to see a LARGE cat go to Main Coon cats.. (see below) and you will see a very large cat
References :
http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=main+coon+cats&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title

By: richardz74

richardz74 — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:30:59 +0000

In Africa they have Lions, which are very large cats.
They tend to eat people.

References :