Coat Type

Long Hair (Discovered in the Norwegian Forest Cat)

Long Hair (Discovered in the Norwegian Forest Cat) Photo

The Long Hair (Discovered in the Norwegian Forest Cat) variant is one of four variants known to cause long hair in cats.

More Info

Did you know?

Norwegian Forest Cats are sometimes referred to as “skogkatt” in Norway. The Norse goddess of love and beauty, Freya, was fond of the skogkatt and they were often depicted pulling her chariot across the sky in Norse mythology.

How it works

Two copies of any Long Hair variant must be inherited for a cat to have a long coat. This can either be two copies of a particular variant, such as this one, or two of any combination of Long Hair variants.

Health implications

Some long-coated cats require regular grooming to prevent mats from forming which can cause discomfort, and in severe cases, skin injury.

Prevalence

1 in 20 cats

has one or more copy of this genetic variant in our testing.

Technical Details

Gene FGF5
Variant G>A
Chromosome B1
Coordinate 142,177,919

All coordinates reference FelCat9.0

References & Credit

Credit to our scientific colleagues:

Drögemüller, C., Rüfenacht, S., Wichert, B., & Leeb, T. (2007). Mutations within the FGF5 gene are associated with hair length in cats. Animal Genetics, 38(3), 218–221. View the article

Kehler, J. S., David, V. A., Schäffer, A. A., Bajema, K., Eizirik, E., Ryugo, D. K., Hannah, S. S., O’Brien, S. J., & Menotti-Raymond, M. (2007). Four independent mutations in the feline Fibroblast Growth Factor 5 gene determine the long-haired phenotype in domestic cats. Journal of Heredity, 98(6), 555–566. View the article