What breed does my cat look like?

Most likely a moggy, and that is good news

The vast majority of pet cats do not belong to any breed: they are mixed-breed cats, the good old moggy. There is nothing wrong with that, quite the opposite: they tend to be robust cats, with a huge variety of personalities and fewer inherited problems than many breeds. This tool tells you which breeds yours looks like in appearance and character, which is a lovely bit of curiosity and sometimes hints at its ancestors. What it cannot do, and nor can anyone looking at a photo, is tell you that your cat belongs to a breed.

Colour is not a breed

This is the most common mix-up. A ginger tabby, a black cat, a black and white bicolour or a tortoiseshell are not breeds: they are colours and patterns that appear in cats of every kind, with or without a pedigree. Some come with genetic curiosities, such as the fact that almost all tortoiseshell and calico cats are female, because the genes for those colours are on the X chromosome. That is why the tool uses colour and pattern only as one more piece of information, alongside what really sets breeds apart: the shape of the head, the ears, the body, the tail and the type of coat.

What does give clues

The shape of the face and body says more than the colour. A triangular head, large ears and a slender body bring the Oriental breeds to mind; a round, flat face, the Persian; a large body with tufted ears and a very bushy tail, the Maine Coon or the Norwegian Forest Cat. The colourpoint pattern (a pale body with a dark face, ears, legs and tail and blue eyes) in a mixed-breed cat usually comes from a Siamese ancestor. And long hair in a street cat may have a Persian or Angora somewhere behind it, although it also simply turns up in ordinary moggies.

How to read the result

As a resemblance, not a diagnosis. If your cat comes out very similar to a British Shorthair, it means it shares several visible traits, and perhaps some of character, with that breed, not that it is one. A breed, strictly speaking, is a population bred with a pedigree and registered with a cat association, so a cat without papers does not belong to any breed even if it is identical to the photo. The useful part of the result is something else: reading the profiles of the breeds that come up can explain some of your cat’s traits, such as why it is so talkative or why it needs so much brushing.

If you really want to know

Only a genetic test gives real clues about the origins of a mixed-breed cat, and even then it is worth taking calmly: in cats the breed databases are more limited than in some other species and the result usually speaks of affinities, not exact percentages. Where these tests are genuinely useful is in detecting certain specific colour mutations or inherited diseases. For everyday health, though, a check-up matters more than knowing its family tree: a moggy and a pedigree cat need the same vaccines, the same clean litter tray and the same nets on the balcony.