Coat Type

Long Hair (Discovered in the Ragdoll and Maine Coon)

Long Hair (Discovered in the Ragdoll and Maine Coon) Photo

The Long Hair (Discovered in the Ragdoll and Maine Coon) variant is one of four variants known to cause long hair in cats.

More Info

Did you know?

The Maine Coon, an ever-popular breed in the United States, can also claim stardom through a female named Pebbles who was one of three cats to play Mrs. Norris, Argus Filch’s pet cat in the Harry Potter films.

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

3 in 10 cats

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

Technical Details

Gene FGF5
Variant Deletion
Chromosome B1
Coordinate 142,185,528

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