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What breed is my cat? Usually, the honest answer is none.
Around nine in ten cats in North America are domestic shorthairs or longhairs — mixed ancestry, no pedigree. Calico, tabby, tortoiseshell and tuxedo are coat patterns rather than breeds, and a grey cat is not a Russian Blue. What actually distinguishes the breeds is build, coat texture and head shape, which is what this key asks about.
Cat Breed Identifier — Free★ 4.8 · 21 ratings · iPhone & iPad
- Build and coat, not colour
- Says when the answer is no breed
- Health notes on every breed
1.How long is the coat?
optionalThe first split, and the one nobody gets wrong.
2.What is the build?
optionalBody type is what breed standards actually describe, and it is far more diagnostic than colour. Most cats are 'ordinary cat shape', which is itself informative.
3.What shape is the head?
optionalHead shape separates the big longhairs from each other — a squared muzzle, a straight profile and a round face point at three different breeds.
4.What about the ears?
optionalFolded or curled ears each come from a single mutation and identify a breed on their own.
5.Anything else stand out?
optionalPick anything that applies.
6.What is the coat pattern?
optionalAsked last and it never removes a breed, because pattern is not breed. Calico, tortoiseshell, tabby and tuxedo describe colouring that appears across many breeds and in most cats of no breed at all.
- AbyssinianUncertain — developed in Britain
- American CurlUnited States
- BengalUnited States
- British ShorthairUnited Kingdom
- BurmeseMyanmar
- Devon RexUnited Kingdom
- Domestic LonghairEverywhere
- Domestic ShorthairEverywhere
- Maine CoonUnited States
- ManxIsle of Man
- Norwegian Forest CatNorway
- Oriental ShorthairUnited Kingdom
- PersianIran
- RagamuffinUnited States
- RagdollUnited States
- Russian BlueRussia
- Scottish FoldUnited Kingdom
- SiameseThailand
- SiberianRussia
- SphynxCanada
The breeds people mix up
Similar cats, and the one character that settles each.
All breeds
Twenty breeds, plus the two entries that describe most cats.
Questions people ask
Is a calico a breed of cat?
No. Calico, tortoiseshell, tabby and tuxedo are coat patterns, not breeds. They occur across many breeds and, far more often, in cats of no breed at all. A calico cat is almost always a domestic shorthair.
How can I tell what breed my cat is?
Usually you cannot, because most cats are not any breed. Around nine in ten cats in North America are domestic shorthairs or longhairs of mixed ancestry. A breed is a documented pedigree, not a look.
Is my big fluffy cat a Maine Coon?
Probably not. Most large longhaired cats are domestic longhairs. A Maine Coon has a squared blocky muzzle and a rectangular, heavily boned frame — size alone is not enough.
What is the difference between a Maine Coon and a Norwegian Forest Cat?
The profile. A Norwegian Forest Cat has a straight line from the brow to the tip of the nose and a triangular head; a Maine Coon has a visible dip and a squared muzzle.
Do DNA tests identify cat breeds?
They work well for a documented pedigree and poorly for a mixed cat, because most domestic cats share too much ancestry to be assigned cleanly. They are more useful for the health markers they screen than for the breed percentages.
What does the app do that this site does not?
It identifies from a photograph, which is faster when you have the cat in front of you. This key is better when you want to understand which characters actually matter — and it says plainly when the answer is that there is no breed.