Cats with curled ears actually have a lot of the same negative health issues as folded eared cats for the same reason, because it has to do with poor cartilage function :(
Oh that's terrible. can you send me source info for this? (my tumblr's in the desc) if I can verify it somewhere reliable, I'll edit the video desc & pin this so folks can see
@@littlehungrywarrior For some reason it says the certificate is not valid when I try to go to your tumblr, but there are many pieces of info you can find from googling health problems associated with american curls/curled ear cats and folded ear cats. Some sources say they have the same problems with degeneration in cartilage especially when bred together, and almost all of them mention that weak cartilage causes significant problems with the curls due to deforming the ear canals and sometimes collapsing them entirely, not just needing extra cleaning :( very sad, I love curls
@@willothewisp2980 I think Tumblr's servers are having some serious problems...the website is struggling for me on a whole rn. that's, uh, a problem. anyway, thank you for sharing this info. it's important stuff
@@willothewisp2980 I'm struggling to find anything on the ear phenotype specifically but Tumblr's servers are working for me, here try this link: littlehungrywarriorcats.tumblr.com/
i'm beginning to be glad i swapped my character's bobbed tail from natural to "winning" a fight with a fox because damn was i never told the manx gene was that harsh
The Topaz cats really are a tragedy. I'm working on a Warriors fic right now with the associated appearances, including a black-eyed cat. The fact they existed at all is beautiful and a great excuse for a cursed child story, but I'm glad the lineages were cut off. Immune problems are no joke, especially in cats that love to pretend they're not sick.
i have a cat with the manx trait! his name is fuzzy! based on the graph you showed, i think he's more like a "rumpy riser". we found him as a kitten under a neighbor's car when i was like, six. when he was old enough we took him to the vet, and the vet told us that he wouldn't live very long because of some jumbling of his internal organs. he's currently 14 years old and doing great for his age! like you mentioned, he is a bit grumpy and doesn't get along great with the two other cats we got later, but overall he's a healthy happy boy. knowing how catastrophic the manx trait can be for cats, i'm really grateful he's doing so well. love these videos! i'm a zoology major and have been a warriors fan for a long time, so this series is right up my alley! keep doing what you do!!!
OH WE'VE GOT EAR SHAPES AND SMUSHED FACES IN ONE VIDEO. On a less "wow I'm excited" note, I'm glad someone is talking about mutations bred into cats that are detrimental to cat's quality of life. Nobody ever talks about how these genes affect the cats quality of life, and I didn't even know that the Manx gene could cause such painful problems. It sucks to see how people just see these genes and think they're cute without considering the quality of life for animals. Also I didn't know about the Ojo's gene. That is incredibly awesome that breeders made the right choice to stop breeding cats with the Ojo's gene. Also WHAT. THERE'S A NEW GENE MUTATION? WHAT THE HELL. THAT'S INTERESTING AS FUCK. I'm excited to see a new genetics video. Especially because right now my current bio course (I survived my first semester of college) we're talking about population genetics & doing a lab to look at evolution of ecoli bacteria (which made me so happy because ecoli is my second favorite bacteria).
@@littlehungrywarrior Bacillus anthracis! I genuinely think it's pretty neat, even if it's also really deadly. I actually heard about it before I started college when I looked for a random UA-cam video to put on in the background during one of my highschool classes, and found a video on Anthrax & it's more bioterrorism/bio weapon type of history.
@@JudgementJury holy shit, that does sound interesting :O hmmm... I don't know much about bacteria but my favorites would probably be the strand of e.coli that's being engineered to eat plastic!
Just watched the video. It made clear to me what you meant about the Ojos Azules breed being gone for years- which I honestly didn't know about until today. Also, the Topaz gene makes the cats look so unique and *CUUUUUUUUTE*! Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for pointing me to where I would be able to hear about it! P. S. I don't need fiction. I already got a lovely long-haired calico cat named Misty who looks like she's wearing eyeliner. I think she might be a Norwegian Forest Cat- or at least descended from one. 😁
So happy I got to teach someone something new! I'm surprised people don't bring it up more often; I didn't even know _myself_ until I interviewed the creator of Messybeast back in college. And YES I LOOOOVE TOPAZ CATS! So they're so pretty! Awww
I know that the vote had already happened, (and I’m stoked about dog genetics !) I wanted to throw Guinea pig genetics into the mix! They can look so pretty, and I feel like with rodents we might have more data with genotypes, as they of course breed faster. Rat genetics (domesticated) could also be interesting, seeing as sooooo many people think about them when thinking of a lab!
I'll add 'em to the list! I plan on going thru all the "losers" of this last poll for fairness before getting to new suggestions. rats are already on the list ;)
I don’t think you realize this but you are also helping about choosing which cat to adopt and so which business to support or not. And also things that need to be stopped in breeding animals which is wonderful (couldn’t bear to have an animal destined to suffer or worse)
Me: ***makes a cat version of a character i like with literally a bunch of these bad mutations*** Also me after watching this video: oh... oh no... ***holds my precious baby*** I'm so sorry what have i done to you?? In all seriousness this series has helped me a lot to understand how cat coats work better and this video in particular really goes into how certain 'cute' traits aren't actually as cute once you realize how harmful it can be to an animal. lots of people (And i'll be 100% honest, myself included before watching) would just have slapped some of these traits onto a character without really thinking about the consequences it'd have on a real life animal. Of course in a fictional setting some of these things can be ignored (unless you want the realism for the sake of being realistic or using it as a point of relevant struggle for a character) but it's always important to understand the real life issues revolving around these sorts of things when making real world decisions revolving these animals. Just like how you can like a villain character who does horrible things for the sake of being :{: E V I L :}: but would never condone their actions in real life. It's all about being mindful! Anyway little rambling aside, really loved this video since you're being completely honest about these traits and not completely sweeping it under the rug.
That's not really a gene, but maybe I could do a breed profiles series if enough people are interested? Long faces are a polygenetic gradient trait, just like smushed faces :)
The floppy folded ears and joint issues track with Darwin's Traits of Domestication. (I think I'm typing that right) Basically: the cells that make the "action" trigger, come from the same blob of cells that make up pigments and cartilage. Thus: breeding foxes to be friendlier, meant they were less red and had semi-curled tails. It's a cool connection to look in to, I'm starting to see these traits in humans as well. I'm curious if the curly kitty ears are at all related to the curly Marwari horse ears, and whether or not either of those is related to sulfur connections. Yay science! Cool avatar!
Oh yes domestication syndrome is FASCINATING! I looooove reading about domestication syndrome, and rly pleiotropy in general tbh. Usually domestic animals getting floppy ears doesn't result in such horrible pain tho :( good question :O I should look into that. analogous mutations are cool af. and thanks! my bestie drew it for artfight ages ago :3
@@littlehungrywarrior I'm guessing that pain comes from the lack of cartilage produced: they don't have as much of a squishy cushion between their joints. I'll agree that a lot of floppy-eared critters get along well enough, so I'm supposing cats are a bit special, or potentially more sensitive to this? Either way, it's a crummy trait to encourage in any beastie- at least to that degree. Thanks for the videos! 🙂
@@Nenanin from my understanding it's not that the same thing that's happening to, say, dogs' ears is happening to cats' ears, but the cats are "more sensitive" to it, but rather the specific mutation cats have results in osteochondrodysplasia (of which folded ears are just one symptom), whereas the specific mutation dogs have is a different cartilage-related disorder that DOESN'T cause osteochondrodysplasia. thanks, and glad you liked it!
Always love this series! Thank you for going in between the depressing and the nice, it was refreshing. I always knew folded ears caused a lot of pain but god, the whole "they're called a lazy breed, but really they don't move a lot because they're in incredible pain" just hurt. Really happy that the ojos azules gene was allowed to die out after you explained the complications that happened with it. Thank you so much for all these videos!
I have an OC named Sunpaw. He’s a Siamese Calico cat hybrid. His mom was a pale-yellow Siamese. His dad is a male calico cat, not a torti though. Anyway he and his brother Smokey are hybrids, but Sunpaw inherited more of his mom’s gentics with just barely visible brown patches. His brother however is most calico with only amber eyes from the Siamese genetics.
@@littlehungrywarrior Yeah. It was fun. I bet you write a lot of fanfics too. This video is definitely helpful though as I’ve been struggling with unique cat breed designs and eye colors. Thanks.
An interesting mutation I saw in my local semi-feral(?) cat colony is this gorgeous cream colorpoint (? It never really got close enough for me to tell) but it’s front legs were way shorter than their back legs. It looked nothing like the other cats out there which always gave unfortunate implications.
HOPEFULLY it's just a long-buried recessive that just hadn't gotten the chance to express in a long time, but I'd hate to imagine someone's unfixed point getting out :(
@@littlehungrywarrior On the bright side, the people around here take good care of the cats, and I saw the point again for the first time in a while doing fine! Hope it stays that way.
Loved this series! I have like this giant document where I took notes in for every episode, and I’ve been applying the genetics to my ocs. For ideas on any further species to cover, dogs might be interesting! They seem very complex with how many breeds they have. It would also be interesting to learn of the genetics of non-domestic animals, tho I’m wondering if they have as much research done on them. Maybe some type of bird, pidgeons might be a good middle ground and have more info on them. Also for any additional episode ideas maybe one on eye color. I understand the blue eyes now and breed specific eye colors but I don’t know how the rest work. Everything online about it is very confusing 😵💫
Noted! I'd LOVE to cover pigeons, I studied tf outta them in college when I started specializing in domestic species. I wish I could cover cat eye color but we don't really understand it outside of blue :( Covering non-domestic species is a good idea. Given there's less variety & less research, if I covered an animal like, say, foxes, it'd probably be its own self-contained video, which could be a fun buffer between series. Hmm...
Also - I'm SO flattered that you have such a huge document dedicated to notes!! ;v; very humbling, very happy! I'd love to hear about some of those OCs if you'd be comfortable sharing
Definitely seconding the pidgeon suggestion, my father breeds them, but we basically only have the normal blue ones and some that are red or white spotted. Would love to know more on how that works.
I love this series! I’d love to see a series on horse genetics (I breed horses so I think I could benefit from it anyway 😅) I’ve read several textbooks but the way you present content is so easy to understand and fun! Anyways, thanks for making this series ❤
this is soooo cool, thanks for making this awesome series! if you're still taking suggestions for other species to cover, my vote is for horses! they have soooo many cool color patterns and the horse loving communities are even more obsessed with realistic color and pattern genetics, but there's a lot of information going all around that some things get passed along incorrectly. ^_^
Thank you for posting videos like this where not only you talk about the genetics in a way that's very easy to understand, but also talk in depth about what those genes also cause and other ethics. I have always been intrigued by evolution, domestication and other genestics stuff but I never got far into it because I'm still in highschool and I never thought about learning on my own. Your genetics videos made me realize what I am really interested in. I'm considering taking AP bio or electives that focuses on genetics next year. I have taken a lot of notes from this video and I have a notebook dedicated to the notes and my oc warriors clan cats that are genetically accurate. Thank you again, sorry if my English is not good, and I love to see more videos on other animal's genetics because your genetics content is easier than most out there and very in depth!!
@@seervae9294 Ooh, I'm actually friends with someone who does research on cow genetics... :O it's apparently very difficult to get info on, but if anyone would have it, it's her!
If you’d like a suggestion on another animal to cover, i would say chickens! (Which is at least partially because I’m in love with them lol). Their colors/patterns are also very very confusing, sadly I haven’t found many places explaining how the more complicated colors interact (the main place is a chicken genetics calculator, very fun to use but sometimes doesn’t have pictures for the crazy stuff). There are chickens with all black skin and there’s a few different colors for their legs/feet too. Some genes that are interesting are frizzle and silkie, frizzle curls feathers (can be brittle + can’t deal with cold, sadly) and silkie makes the feathers all downy (which can make jumping/flying harder) I’ve heard of chickens that can grow 2ft tall. There’s a breed that has a tail that can reach 25+ feet long, too! I actually hatched chicks the other day and most of them have some white feathers, despite neither parents having something that could cause that (only one could have recessive white, neither have dominant) Whatever animals you cover, I’d love to see more content like this! (:
Oh man chickens are so cool... I have a friend who breeds chickens and knows a LOT about their genetics. I forget if they're already on my list. If not I'll add 'em. If so, I'll put you as a tally mark in their favor :)
Thank you so much for making this series! It has helped me understand so much more about cat genetics, and I’m really glad there are people like me who are interested in them! I will definitely be coming back to these videos over the next few years, as I study biology (in particular animal science), so these videos will be a life saver! Thank you so much again!!! If you want anyone to talk to about genetics, or warrior cats or ocs (or anything else 😅) I’d love to chat with you!
This was so interesting!! I just finished the whole series and I've learnt so much; I've been interested/lightly studying cats' coat colour genetics, but never really dove deep into the whole fur/body mutations; I knew the basics, brachiocephaly= bad, polydactyly= harmless, no whiskers= no good, and such, but some of these were very new to me. So sad to see the lykoi gene causes those terrible skin infections :[ As for suggestions on a possible future video, I've been REALLY curious about the "amber" and "sunshine" coats, as well as the ringtail mutation. I know very little about both- I just know the sunshine gene is only found in Siberians as of now, and can combine with....silver? If I remember correctly, to create a "bimetallic" coat. The amber coat is quite interesting as well, because it seems to change through the cat's life, turning black pigment into this dull amber/tan colour! The Bengal/toyger pattern would also be really cool to see in a video :]
thanks so much! also "no whiskers = no good" i'm stealing that LOL I did cover Amber in the widebanding/inhibitor video, but I do want to look more into sunshine & bimetallic as I hadn't heard of them until another commenter not long ago :O
@@littlehungrywarrior LMAO feel free to use it! ARGH I'm already forgetting some things it seems, I'll have to go for a second round of this series then >:] (p.s. I reckon I used your picrews around a year ago!)
I would love love LOVE more videos on animals’ genetics. I absolutely love this stuff. My suggestion would be horses or dogs first, I knew a lot of cat genes (but not all) but I’ve been wanting to dip my toes into understanding horses’! ❤
been watching the entire series, mainly because cat genetics simply interest me, but also because i want to re-design a lot of my warrior cats ocs and id like to be accurate for fun :D I will surely need to re-watch some stuff since learning it all takes time and practice. Also I am SUPER GLAD you also talk about the darker sides of cat genetics and educate. theres not enough people talking about it imo and it also made me realize that some cats are crippling that I did not know about before.
I did not know the Manx gene was that harsh. I have a cat with a short tail who looks very similar to a Manx when it comes to body shape but I'm starting to doubt that that's the case as he is turning 6 years old and seemingly has no health problems. My have to rethink that Manx tailed cat in my series
pleaseee make more animal genetics, I'll love you for that, this stuff is my favorite thing ever, I know most of this tuff already but listening to someone explain this like this is so nice, altho I did not know about how harsh some of these are
I imagine since it's so rare there isn't much known genetically about its expression, but have you seen/heard of the thai "skunk stripe" bicolor? I'm pretty sure it's a selectively bred mutation now but apparently it may have been a characteristic landrace in the past?
I've seen it around & heard the proposal that it used to be a common mutation that simply stopped showing up after a certain point, and then either a new mutation popped up that does the same thing OR stayed unexpressed for countless generations and then showed up again. Very interesting! I wish we had more info on it.
My aunt has a cat who has a natural extra toe (he has no pain or anything bad following it it’s just a little extra bean) and they named him hook he’s also a very loving orange cat 😃
great video, great series! thanks for discussing how harmful some of these mutations can be. i'd love to know more about american ringtails/cats with curled tails, since i've heard that they may or may not be harmful? i love this mutation and wonder what your thoughts are on it.
That's an interesting one! Though hard to get info on bc "Ringtail cat" is also its own species lol. I can't seem to find a lot of info on the ethics but it's a very new gene from the 90s... If you have info I'd love to see it.
I think the Karpati (did I spell that right? Did I use the right term?) gene in cats is pretty cool, which in simple ape brain terms looks like a colorpoint, but with white points and roaning. I don't know much except that it's recessive, though.
Curiously, is there anything super specific about how eye color passes down or is it similar to humans where it's just a certain chance for one parent's or the others? (also thank you SO much for this series, i've been on a kick of wanting to make my warriors ocs as realistic/"possible" as i can genetics/design wise and this helped me redesign one of my oldest ocs! He went from black with white tabby patches to a ghost tabby with appaloosa-style white spotting like my parents' cat has haha)
I mean...all genetics is a certain chance from one parent or the other LOL. In humans, eye color genetics is actually EXTREMELY complicated! There's a lot of research into the several genes that contribute to it. High school lied to you sorry* In cats tho? Nnnnot much research at all. We really only understand eye colors that connect to a pelt, like blue-eyed siamese. I'm glad it helped, and thanks so much! Also that pattern sounds adorable *On that note, one time I was researching eye color genetics for a college presentation & found a VERY long research paper from a pissed-off scientist that seemed to have been written purely in spite about high school Bio classes using incorrect blue/brown eye punnett squares LOL
Are you able to talk about rare cat breeds & common cat breeds? I would love to know more about them, particularly cat breeds for their environments? Like water cats, ones with webbing between their toes?
This series has been very instructive though a have two questions about male tortie XXY cats, will they have more female kittens then male if their fertile and how do you handle their punnet squares?
That's a REALLY good question that I unfortunately don't have the answer to. Klinefelter's is associated with infertility so there isn't much research on XXY reproduction & gametes' genetic content, at least that I'm able to find. Anyone who has an answer (backed up by a source) please chime in!
hello! i was looking for any material about the side effects of some cat breeds having short tails (like kurilian bobtails or american bobtails), but some of the results scared me a bit, so i wanted to ask - does having any type of short tail in cats imply various health problems? i wanted to create an OC as a highlander breed, or any other short-tailed breed, but i don't want this character to be doomed to suffer in the future :'D and also, thanks for the series!!!
Hi! to my knowledge (tho pls, as you have been, do more research than just my limited knowledge), known short-tail mutations that AREN'T manx don't inherently cause terrible health problems, but can be bad for the cat in terms of communication & expression of natural behaviors. also, any shortening of the tail can lead to spine/hip problems, but it's less common in non-manxes and not nearly as severe (to my knowledge). however, a trait is not a breed. Kurilian bobtails & American bobtails come with expected health problems (as any breed does, some moreso than others). this happens because a breed is, with very little exception, a closed gene pool, so the health problems already present in the population perpetuated, and the inbreeding required to create and/or upkeep a breed make recessive health problems express. if your research thusfar has been on looking up breed-related health problems, found some, and you weren't sure how having a short tail could cause that...it may very well not! it may just be from being a purebred. for example, the heart problems in American Bobtails don't come from the tail mutation, its a separate gene that got caught in the gene pool when the breeders closed it. thank you :3
@@littlehungrywarrior OOOOOH thank you very much!!! thank you, I really appreciate the effort and time you put into this reply! i'll try and research some more info on that matter, but that was very informative already
i am LOVING these videos! if you ever make another video about various mutations, i'd love to see munchkin compared with other forms of dwarfism in cats, as they seem to function differently! i have dwarfism, and i'd love for artists to learn some of the nuances for how it can manifest! in cats, at least haha
@@littlehungrywarrior i don't have any off the top of my head! lil bub was a well-known dwarf kitty. and her guardian was very open about her care, so maybe you can start there! she was much more complex than most dwarf cats though, it's all i got atm
@@littlehungrywarrior she had a lot of weird, rare, complicated medical stuff going on. even with the best care, she only lived about 8 years. most dwarf cats aren't like her case, hers is just highly publicized so i thought i'd suggest her first :)
I once saw a cat that had folded ears and a stub tail. it was a stray. what would that do to the cat? edit: forgot to add, the cat was really short too
Well, as mentioned in the video, they probably have pain from the ear condition. Stub tail could be from a number of things; possibly genetic, possibly developmental, possibly lost in an injury. so I can't speak too much on that, but it'll impede communication & balance for sure. if by "short" you mean dwarf, then again, same as video. otherwise, sometimes cats are just small and they might get bullied but they might be fine
The source is a different warriors youtuber with only a very basic understanding of genetics (and I forgot which one and didn't check the source they... I THINK put in the description? but maybe they just said what it is and didn't put it there and I don't remember the name anyway so it's basically as reliable as playground pokemon myths from pre-internet era) but I have heard about "hidden white", where a cat kind of "has" white and can pass it down, but just kinda... doesn't show it. Like 1 hidden white hair, or something. I do not remember if there was even a claim of this being able to cause blue eyes, but it's possible to assume it could just like regular showing white, if it's even real.
I mean, not really. If someone has a genetic sample of an Ojos Azules cat, we can create clones if we really wanted to. There's even agencies that you can pay to clone you pet now. It's $$$, but they don't really care about the ethicality of it.
@@littlehungrywarrior Sample doesn't exactly have to be from a ..living cat. Unless every single body was incinerated. : / I also did kinda like the idea of that being the reason that all but one of Crow's kits with Nightcloud died, but considering Nightcloud doesn't have blue eyes, it's unlikely.
@@DragonArbock you need a living sample to clone; the DNA in the nucleus needs to be viable so it can thrive in the egg it gets planed into ooh that'd be interesting :O two black cats have almost a whole-ass litter of solid white dead kittens + ONE black kitten who's fine
@@littlehungrywarrior The animal itself doesn't need to be living, the DNA just needs to have been properly preserved. Well, technically, in this case we would only need the single gene, as we already know how to splice genes into existing sequences. Just, the likelihood that someone would have preserved a sample is low; I know that they isolated and identified the gene in question, but I frankly don't know if anyone ever keeps that kind of stuff.
@@DragonArbock fair enough, DNA can be stored outside of cells, but it takes a LOT of work to keep DNA viable that way, and no one's done that for a short-lived cat breed that went extinct for ethical purposes. also, cloning specifically requires the entire nucleus. it gets put into the egg. you can't just put loose dna in there.
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Cats with curled ears actually have a lot of the same negative health issues as folded eared cats for the same reason, because it has to do with poor cartilage function :(
Oh that's terrible. can you send me source info for this? (my tumblr's in the desc) if I can verify it somewhere reliable, I'll edit the video desc & pin this so folks can see
@@littlehungrywarrior For some reason it says the certificate is not valid when I try to go to your tumblr, but there are many pieces of info you can find from googling health problems associated with american curls/curled ear cats and folded ear cats. Some sources say they have the same problems with degeneration in cartilage especially when bred together, and almost all of them mention that weak cartilage causes significant problems with the curls due to deforming the ear canals and sometimes collapsing them entirely, not just needing extra cleaning :( very sad, I love curls
@@willothewisp2980 I think Tumblr's servers are having some serious problems...the website is struggling for me on a whole rn. that's, uh, a problem.
anyway, thank you for sharing this info. it's important stuff
@@willothewisp2980 I'm struggling to find anything on the ear phenotype specifically but Tumblr's servers are working for me, here try this link: littlehungrywarriorcats.tumblr.com/
i'm beginning to be glad i swapped my character's bobbed tail from natural to "winning" a fight with a fox because damn was i never told the manx gene was that harsh
The Topaz cats really are a tragedy. I'm working on a Warriors fic right now with the associated appearances, including a black-eyed cat. The fact they existed at all is beautiful and a great excuse for a cursed child story, but I'm glad the lineages were cut off. Immune problems are no joke, especially in cats that love to pretend they're not sick.
i have a cat with the manx trait! his name is fuzzy! based on the graph you showed, i think he's more like a "rumpy riser". we found him as a kitten under a neighbor's car when i was like, six. when he was old enough we took him to the vet, and the vet told us that he wouldn't live very long because of some jumbling of his internal organs. he's currently 14 years old and doing great for his age! like you mentioned, he is a bit grumpy and doesn't get along great with the two other cats we got later, but overall he's a healthy happy boy. knowing how catastrophic the manx trait can be for cats, i'm really grateful he's doing so well.
love these videos! i'm a zoology major and have been a warriors fan for a long time, so this series is right up my alley! keep doing what you do!!!
oh man I'm glad he's doing okay!!!
OH WE'VE GOT EAR SHAPES AND SMUSHED FACES IN ONE VIDEO. On a less "wow I'm excited" note, I'm glad someone is talking about mutations bred into cats that are detrimental to cat's quality of life.
Nobody ever talks about how these genes affect the cats quality of life, and I didn't even know that the Manx gene could cause such painful problems. It sucks to see how people just see these genes and think they're cute without considering the quality of life for animals.
Also I didn't know about the Ojo's gene. That is incredibly awesome that breeders made the right choice to stop breeding cats with the Ojo's gene.
Also WHAT. THERE'S A NEW GENE MUTATION? WHAT THE HELL. THAT'S INTERESTING AS FUCK.
I'm excited to see a new genetics video. Especially because right now my current bio course (I survived my first semester of college) we're talking about population genetics & doing a lab to look at evolution of ecoli bacteria (which made me so happy because ecoli is my second favorite bacteria).
Maybe a series on dog genetics would be interesting? There are so many different breeds of dog and a lot of those breeds vary a lot in range.
@@JudgementJury Counted! Thnx & congrats on finishing 1st semester of college :O what's your favorite bacteria?
@@littlehungrywarrior Bacillus anthracis! I genuinely think it's pretty neat, even if it's also really deadly. I actually heard about it before I started college when I looked for a random UA-cam video to put on in the background during one of my highschool classes, and found a video on Anthrax & it's more bioterrorism/bio weapon type of history.
@@JudgementJury holy shit, that does sound interesting :O hmmm... I don't know much about bacteria but my favorites would probably be the strand of e.coli that's being engineered to eat plastic!
Can you do long kinked tails, Thai skunk pattern, and half tails.
Just watched the video. It made clear to me what you meant about the Ojos Azules breed being gone for years- which I honestly didn't know about until today. Also, the Topaz gene makes the cats look so unique and *CUUUUUUUUTE*! Thank you, thank you, thank you so much for pointing me to where I would be able to hear about it!
P. S. I don't need fiction. I already got a lovely long-haired calico cat named Misty who looks like she's wearing eyeliner. I think she might be a Norwegian Forest Cat- or at least descended from one. 😁
So happy I got to teach someone something new! I'm surprised people don't bring it up more often; I didn't even know _myself_ until I interviewed the creator of Messybeast back in college. And YES I LOOOOVE TOPAZ CATS! So they're so pretty!
Awww
I know that the vote had already happened, (and I’m stoked about dog genetics !) I wanted to throw Guinea pig genetics into the mix! They can look so pretty, and I feel like with rodents we might have more data with genotypes, as they of course breed faster. Rat genetics (domesticated) could also be interesting, seeing as sooooo many people think about them when thinking of a lab!
I'll add 'em to the list! I plan on going thru all the "losers" of this last poll for fairness before getting to new suggestions. rats are already on the list ;)
@@littlehungrywarrior alright, thank you!
I don’t think you realize this but you are also helping about choosing which cat to adopt and so which business to support or not. And also things that need to be stopped in breeding animals which is wonderful (couldn’t bear to have an animal destined to suffer or worse)
Me: ***makes a cat version of a character i like with literally a bunch of these bad mutations***
Also me after watching this video: oh... oh no... ***holds my precious baby*** I'm so sorry what have i done to you??
In all seriousness this series has helped me a lot to understand how cat coats work better and this video in particular really goes into how certain 'cute' traits aren't actually as cute once you realize how harmful it can be to an animal. lots of people (And i'll be 100% honest, myself included before watching) would just have slapped some of these traits onto a character without really thinking about the consequences it'd have on a real life animal.
Of course in a fictional setting some of these things can be ignored (unless you want the realism for the sake of being realistic or using it as a point of relevant struggle for a character) but it's always important to understand the real life issues revolving around these sorts of things when making real world decisions revolving these animals. Just like how you can like a villain character who does horrible things for the sake of being :{: E V I L :}: but would never condone their actions in real life.
It's all about being mindful!
Anyway little rambling aside, really loved this video since you're being completely honest about these traits and not completely sweeping it under the rug.
well-put! and thanks!
I'd love to learn more about Oriental cats! The ones with the long faces?
That's not really a gene, but maybe I could do a breed profiles series if enough people are interested? Long faces are a polygenetic gradient trait, just like smushed faces :)
@@littlehungrywarrior Id love a breed profiles series!! That sounds super duper fascinating
@@doe4003 I make no promises but I'll make a note of it :)
@@littlehungrywarrior breed profiles would be super cool :D
@@littlehungrywarrior yesss I'd love to see a series about breeds too!
The floppy folded ears and joint issues track with Darwin's Traits of Domestication. (I think I'm typing that right) Basically: the cells that make the "action" trigger, come from the same blob of cells that make up pigments and cartilage. Thus: breeding foxes to be friendlier, meant they were less red and had semi-curled tails. It's a cool connection to look in to, I'm starting to see these traits in humans as well.
I'm curious if the curly kitty ears are at all related to the curly Marwari horse ears, and whether or not either of those is related to sulfur connections. Yay science! Cool avatar!
Oh yes domestication syndrome is FASCINATING! I looooove reading about domestication syndrome, and rly pleiotropy in general tbh. Usually domestic animals getting floppy ears doesn't result in such horrible pain tho :(
good question :O I should look into that. analogous mutations are cool af.
and thanks! my bestie drew it for artfight ages ago :3
@@littlehungrywarrior I'm guessing that pain comes from the lack of cartilage produced: they don't have as much of a squishy cushion between their joints. I'll agree that a lot of floppy-eared critters get along well enough, so I'm supposing cats are a bit special, or potentially more sensitive to this? Either way, it's a crummy trait to encourage in any beastie- at least to that degree. Thanks for the videos! 🙂
@@Nenanin from my understanding it's not that the same thing that's happening to, say, dogs' ears is happening to cats' ears, but the cats are "more sensitive" to it, but rather the specific mutation cats have results in osteochondrodysplasia (of which folded ears are just one symptom), whereas the specific mutation dogs have is a different cartilage-related disorder that DOESN'T cause osteochondrodysplasia.
thanks, and glad you liked it!
RUNS TO GRAB MY NOTEBOOKS. Always a treat when you upload!
Always love this series! Thank you for going in between the depressing and the nice, it was refreshing. I always knew folded ears caused a lot of pain but god, the whole "they're called a lazy breed, but really they don't move a lot because they're in incredible pain" just hurt. Really happy that the ojos azules gene was allowed to die out after you explained the complications that happened with it. Thank you so much for all these videos!
I have an OC named Sunpaw. He’s a Siamese Calico cat hybrid. His mom was a pale-yellow Siamese. His dad is a male calico cat, not a torti though. Anyway he and his brother Smokey are hybrids, but Sunpaw inherited more of his mom’s gentics with just barely visible brown patches. His brother however is most calico with only amber eyes from the Siamese genetics.
that doesn't make a whole lot of sense genetically, but it's very creative & sounds fun!
@@littlehungrywarrior
Yeah. It was fun. I bet you write a lot of fanfics too. This video is definitely helpful though as I’ve been struggling with unique cat breed designs and eye colors. Thanks.
An interesting mutation I saw in my local semi-feral(?) cat colony is this gorgeous cream colorpoint (? It never really got close enough for me to tell) but it’s front legs were way shorter than their back legs. It looked nothing like the other cats out there which always gave unfortunate implications.
HOPEFULLY it's just a long-buried recessive that just hadn't gotten the chance to express in a long time, but I'd hate to imagine someone's unfixed point getting out :(
@@littlehungrywarrior On the bright side, the people around here take good care of the cats, and I saw the point again for the first time in a while doing fine! Hope it stays that way.
I’m kind of struggling to imagine that was it like perpetually looking like it was crouching or something
Loved this series! I have like this giant document where I took notes in for every episode, and I’ve been applying the genetics to my ocs.
For ideas on any further species to cover, dogs might be interesting! They seem very complex with how many breeds they have. It would also be interesting to learn of the genetics of non-domestic animals, tho I’m wondering if they have as much research done on them. Maybe some type of bird, pidgeons might be a good middle ground and have more info on them.
Also for any additional episode ideas maybe one on eye color. I understand the blue eyes now and breed specific eye colors but I don’t know how the rest work. Everything online about it is very confusing 😵💫
Noted! I'd LOVE to cover pigeons, I studied tf outta them in college when I started specializing in domestic species. I wish I could cover cat eye color but we don't really understand it outside of blue :(
Covering non-domestic species is a good idea. Given there's less variety & less research, if I covered an animal like, say, foxes, it'd probably be its own self-contained video, which could be a fun buffer between series. Hmm...
Also - I'm SO flattered that you have such a huge document dedicated to notes!! ;v; very humbling, very happy! I'd love to hear about some of those OCs if you'd be comfortable sharing
Definitely seconding the pidgeon suggestion, my father breeds them, but we basically only have the normal blue ones and some that are red or white spotted. Would love to know more on how that works.
I love this series! I’d love to see a series on horse genetics (I breed horses so I think I could benefit from it anyway 😅) I’ve read several textbooks but the way you present content is so easy to understand and fun! Anyways, thanks for making this series ❤
this is soooo cool, thanks for making this awesome series!
if you're still taking suggestions for other species to cover, my vote is for horses! they have soooo many cool color patterns and the horse loving communities are even more obsessed with realistic color and pattern genetics, but there's a lot of information going all around that some things get passed along incorrectly. ^_^
Thank you for posting videos like this where not only you talk about the genetics in a way that's very easy to understand, but also talk in depth about what those genes also cause and other ethics. I have always been intrigued by evolution, domestication and other genestics stuff but I never got far into it because I'm still in highschool and I never thought about learning on my own. Your genetics videos made me realize what I am really interested in. I'm considering taking AP bio or electives that focuses on genetics next year. I have taken a lot of notes from this video and I have a notebook dedicated to the notes and my oc warriors clan cats that are genetically accurate. Thank you again, sorry if my English is not good, and I love to see more videos on other animal's genetics because your genetics content is easier than most out there and very in depth!!
Oh wow, what an honor!! I wish you so much luck going forward. And your English is perfect
@@littlehungrywarrior Thank you! I would love to see cows since I see them a lot on the road and I haven't researched them yet 🐄
@@seervae9294 Ooh, I'm actually friends with someone who does research on cow genetics... :O it's apparently very difficult to get info on, but if anyone would have it, it's her!
I have always been curious about rosettes!
I got so excited when I saw this video came out 20 minutes ago… lol
If you’d like a suggestion on another animal to cover, i would say chickens! (Which is at least partially because I’m in love with them lol). Their colors/patterns are also very very confusing, sadly I haven’t found many places explaining how the more complicated colors interact (the main place is a chicken genetics calculator, very fun to use but sometimes doesn’t have pictures for the crazy stuff).
There are chickens with all black skin and there’s a few different colors for their legs/feet too.
Some genes that are interesting are frizzle and silkie, frizzle curls feathers (can be brittle + can’t deal with cold, sadly) and silkie makes the feathers all downy (which can make jumping/flying harder)
I’ve heard of chickens that can grow 2ft tall. There’s a breed that has a tail that can reach 25+ feet long, too!
I actually hatched chicks the other day and most of them have some white feathers, despite neither parents having something that could cause that (only one could have recessive white, neither have dominant)
Whatever animals you cover, I’d love to see more content like this! (:
Oh man chickens are so cool... I have a friend who breeds chickens and knows a LOT about their genetics. I forget if they're already on my list. If not I'll add 'em. If so, I'll put you as a tally mark in their favor :)
Thank you so much for making this series! It has helped me understand so much more about cat genetics, and I’m really glad there are people like me who are interested in them! I will definitely be coming back to these videos over the next few years, as I study biology (in particular animal science), so these videos will be a life saver! Thank you so much again!!!
If you want anyone to talk to about genetics, or warrior cats or ocs (or anything else 😅) I’d love to chat with you!
I'm so glad!
@@littlehungrywarrior Ok, I’ll definitely follow :D Thank you so much!
This was so interesting!! I just finished the whole series and I've learnt so much; I've been interested/lightly studying cats' coat colour genetics, but never really dove deep into the whole fur/body mutations; I knew the basics, brachiocephaly= bad, polydactyly= harmless, no whiskers= no good, and such, but some of these were very new to me. So sad to see the lykoi gene causes those terrible skin infections :[
As for suggestions on a possible future video, I've been REALLY curious about the "amber" and "sunshine" coats, as well as the ringtail mutation. I know very little about both- I just know the sunshine gene is only found in Siberians as of now, and can combine with....silver? If I remember correctly, to create a "bimetallic" coat. The amber coat is quite interesting as well, because it seems to change through the cat's life, turning black pigment into this dull amber/tan colour!
The Bengal/toyger pattern would also be really cool to see in a video :]
thanks so much! also "no whiskers = no good" i'm stealing that LOL
I did cover Amber in the widebanding/inhibitor video, but I do want to look more into sunshine & bimetallic as I hadn't heard of them until another commenter not long ago :O
@@littlehungrywarrior LMAO feel free to use it! ARGH I'm already forgetting some things it seems, I'll have to go for a second round of this series then >:]
(p.s. I reckon I used your picrews around a year ago!)
@@kittyclaws1219 oh wow!! :O that's so cool to be recognized for my picrews!
I would love love LOVE more videos on animals’ genetics. I absolutely love this stuff. My suggestion would be horses or dogs first, I knew a lot of cat genes (but not all) but I’ve been wanting to dip my toes into understanding horses’! ❤
dogs won the poll ;) workin on 'em now
horses were in 2nd, but I plan on re-doing the poll after dogs so we'll see if they win next time
been watching the entire series, mainly because cat genetics simply interest me, but also because i want to re-design a lot of my warrior cats ocs and id like to be accurate for fun :D
I will surely need to re-watch some stuff since learning it all takes time and practice.
Also I am SUPER GLAD you also talk about the darker sides of cat genetics and educate. theres not enough people talking about it imo and it also made me realize that some cats are crippling that I did not know about before.
this is SO entertaining dawg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WAITING for the dog version
I did not know the Manx gene was that harsh. I have a cat with a short tail who looks very similar to a Manx when it comes to body shape but I'm starting to doubt that that's the case as he is turning 6 years old and seemingly has no health problems. My have to rethink that Manx tailed cat in my series
pleaseee make more animal genetics, I'll love you for that, this stuff is my favorite thing ever, I know most of this tuff already but listening to someone explain this like this is so nice, altho I did not know about how harsh some of these are
dogs are next on the list! :3
I imagine since it's so rare there isn't much known genetically about its expression, but have you seen/heard of the thai "skunk stripe" bicolor? I'm pretty sure it's a selectively bred mutation now but apparently it may have been a characteristic landrace in the past?
I've seen it around & heard the proposal that it used to be a common mutation that simply stopped showing up after a certain point, and then either a new mutation popped up that does the same thing OR stayed unexpressed for countless generations and then showed up again. Very interesting! I wish we had more info on it.
My aunt has a cat who has a natural extra toe (he has no pain or anything bad following it it’s just a little extra bean) and they named him hook he’s also a very loving orange cat 😃
great video, great series! thanks for discussing how harmful some of these mutations can be.
i'd love to know more about american ringtails/cats with curled tails, since i've heard that they may or may not be harmful? i love this mutation and wonder what your thoughts are on it.
That's an interesting one! Though hard to get info on bc "Ringtail cat" is also its own species lol. I can't seem to find a lot of info on the ethics but it's a very new gene from the 90s... If you have info I'd love to see it.
I once had a housemate who had a cat with 6 toes on each foot. His name was Sasquatch (idk how to spell it) bc he was a Bigfoot cat
I'm just gonna make an ojos azules oc but say they were an ancestor to still keep things consistent with reality.
I think the Karpati (did I spell that right? Did I use the right term?) gene in cats is pretty cool, which in simple ape brain terms looks like a colorpoint, but with white points and roaning. I don't know much except that it's recessive, though.
Oh I love karpati! Idk anything about it genetically, but it looks AWESOME
Curiously, is there anything super specific about how eye color passes down or is it similar to humans where it's just a certain chance for one parent's or the others?
(also thank you SO much for this series, i've been on a kick of wanting to make my warriors ocs as realistic/"possible" as i can genetics/design wise and this helped me redesign one of my oldest ocs! He went from black with white tabby patches to a ghost tabby with appaloosa-style white spotting like my parents' cat has haha)
I mean...all genetics is a certain chance from one parent or the other LOL. In humans, eye color genetics is actually EXTREMELY complicated! There's a lot of research into the several genes that contribute to it. High school lied to you sorry*
In cats tho? Nnnnot much research at all. We really only understand eye colors that connect to a pelt, like blue-eyed siamese.
I'm glad it helped, and thanks so much! Also that pattern sounds adorable
*On that note, one time I was researching eye color genetics for a college presentation & found a VERY long research paper from a pissed-off scientist that seemed to have been written purely in spite about high school Bio classes using incorrect blue/brown eye punnett squares LOL
Are you able to talk about rare cat breeds & common cat breeds? I would love to know more about them, particularly cat breeds for their environments? Like water cats, ones with webbing between their toes?
I've been considering making breed profile videos since a few folks have asked, but it's on the bottom of my lengthy to-do list
idk if there is a lot of research on deer genetics but I would love to see a breakdown on them
oh man, I wish. I'd love to make that if there's ever enough for me to talk about
This series has been very instructive though a have two questions about male tortie XXY cats, will they have more female kittens then male if their fertile and how do you handle their punnet squares?
That's a REALLY good question that I unfortunately don't have the answer to. Klinefelter's is associated with infertility so there isn't much research on XXY reproduction & gametes' genetic content, at least that I'm able to find. Anyone who has an answer (backed up by a source) please chime in!
hello!
i was looking for any material about the side effects of some cat breeds having short tails (like kurilian bobtails or american bobtails), but some of the results scared me a bit, so i wanted to ask - does having any type of short tail in cats imply various health problems?
i wanted to create an OC as a highlander breed, or any other short-tailed breed, but i don't want this character to be doomed to suffer in the future :'D
and also, thanks for the series!!!
Hi! to my knowledge (tho pls, as you have been, do more research than just my limited knowledge), known short-tail mutations that AREN'T manx don't inherently cause terrible health problems, but can be bad for the cat in terms of communication & expression of natural behaviors. also, any shortening of the tail can lead to spine/hip problems, but it's less common in non-manxes and not nearly as severe (to my knowledge).
however, a trait is not a breed. Kurilian bobtails & American bobtails come with expected health problems (as any breed does, some moreso than others). this happens because a breed is, with very little exception, a closed gene pool, so the health problems already present in the population perpetuated, and the inbreeding required to create and/or upkeep a breed make recessive health problems express. if your research thusfar has been on looking up breed-related health problems, found some, and you weren't sure how having a short tail could cause that...it may very well not! it may just be from being a purebred. for example, the heart problems in American Bobtails don't come from the tail mutation, its a separate gene that got caught in the gene pool when the breeders closed it.
thank you :3
@@littlehungrywarrior OOOOOH thank you very much!!! thank you, I really appreciate the effort and time you put into this reply! i'll try and research some more info on that matter, but that was very informative already
i am LOVING these videos! if you ever make another video about various mutations, i'd love to see munchkin compared with other forms of dwarfism in cats, as they seem to function differently! i have dwarfism, and i'd love for artists to learn some of the nuances for how it can manifest! in cats, at least haha
I'm not familiar with non-munchkin dwarfism in cats! :O Do you know any good resources for that?
@@littlehungrywarrior i don't have any off the top of my head! lil bub was a well-known dwarf kitty. and her guardian was very open about her care, so maybe you can start there! she was much more complex than most dwarf cats though, it's all i got atm
@@tinycatfriend what do you mean "more complex"? :O
@@littlehungrywarrior she had a lot of weird, rare, complicated medical stuff going on. even with the best care, she only lived about 8 years. most dwarf cats aren't like her case, hers is just highly publicized so i thought i'd suggest her first :)
@@tinycatfriend Poor thing... :( I'll look into her. Thanks so much!
I once saw a cat that had folded ears and a stub tail. it was a stray. what would that do to the cat?
edit: forgot to add, the cat was really short too
Well, as mentioned in the video, they probably have pain from the ear condition. Stub tail could be from a number of things; possibly genetic, possibly developmental, possibly lost in an injury. so I can't speak too much on that, but it'll impede communication & balance for sure. if by "short" you mean dwarf, then again, same as video. otherwise, sometimes cats are just small and they might get bullied but they might be fine
The source is a different warriors youtuber with only a very basic understanding of genetics (and I forgot which one and didn't check the source they... I THINK put in the description? but maybe they just said what it is and didn't put it there and I don't remember the name anyway so it's basically as reliable as playground pokemon myths from pre-internet era) but I have heard about "hidden white", where a cat kind of "has" white and can pass it down, but just kinda... doesn't show it. Like 1 hidden white hair, or something. I do not remember if there was even a claim of this being able to cause blue eyes, but it's possible to assume it could just like regular showing white, if it's even real.
What about eye color genetics? I don't think you made a video for that? Unless I missed something
We don't know cat eye color genetics outside of the blue-eyed stuff I've already talked about :(
@@littlehungrywarrior awh
Off topic: Have you done rabbit genetics yet?
not yet! I'll add you as a tally mark in favor of it (I run votes to decide next species)
I mean, not really. If someone has a genetic sample of an Ojos Azules cat, we can create clones if we really wanted to. There's even agencies that you can pay to clone you pet now. It's $$$, but they don't really care about the ethicality of it.
we don't tho lol
@@littlehungrywarrior Sample doesn't exactly have to be from a ..living cat. Unless every single body was incinerated. : /
I also did kinda like the idea of that being the reason that all but one of Crow's kits with Nightcloud died, but considering Nightcloud doesn't have blue eyes, it's unlikely.
@@DragonArbock you need a living sample to clone; the DNA in the nucleus needs to be viable so it can thrive in the egg it gets planed into
ooh that'd be interesting :O two black cats have almost a whole-ass litter of solid white dead kittens + ONE black kitten who's fine
@@littlehungrywarrior The animal itself doesn't need to be living, the DNA just needs to have been properly preserved. Well, technically, in this case we would only need the single gene, as we already know how to splice genes into existing sequences. Just, the likelihood that someone would have preserved a sample is low; I know that they isolated and identified the gene in question, but I frankly don't know if anyone ever keeps that kind of stuff.
@@DragonArbock fair enough, DNA can be stored outside of cells, but it takes a LOT of work to keep DNA viable that way, and no one's done that for a short-lived cat breed that went extinct for ethical purposes. also, cloning specifically requires the entire nucleus. it gets put into the egg. you can't just put loose dna in there.