#polled

YOU GET WHAT YOU DESERVE

Anonymous said to @ask-drferoxask-drferox: Would it be possible to selectively breed cats to get clawless cats? I mean, they did it to polled cows, why not polled cats?

The development of polled cattle (those genetically without horns) wasn’t a gradual process of people selecting cattle for smaller and smaller horns. It’s one gene in Bos tauros (interestingly two in zebu descended cattle).

It’s just a genetic mutation that showed up randomly one day, and humans went ‘that’s convenient! let’s spread it everywhere!’ so it was very easy to propagate and develop.

And it makes sense that it’s just one simple gene causing the polled trait in cattle. They’re just missing their hornbuds, which is a specialised patch of skin that over time develops into the horn.

Cats don’t have a naturally occurring mutation that causes them to lack an entire bone in the end of each digit. They are hugely different pieces of anatomy, not just ‘pointy things people find inconvenient’.

There are so many parts to the last segment of a cat’s digit, from the bone to the nail bed, tendons and skin. There would be so many mutations required at once, and that cat is not going to walk normally without the last bone.

It’s also a strongly conserved trait. Basically every mammal species, and most vertebrate species in general, have a hard, ketatin structure at the end of their limbs. It’s likely kind of vital, and probably easier to breed in a trait for ‘no limbs at all’ than ‘no claws at end of limbs’. (After all, snakes did it.)

Breeding for clawless cats would likely have other consequences as well. Keratin covers their whole body, if you mess with it genetically it may well have unforseen consequences, and there are certainly cases of birth defects where individuals have been missing bones in their limbs, including parts of fingers, and yet the nail bed is often still present.

*all types of sign language are valid as hell

Because I can’t fit it all in the poll-

1- Neurodivergent, deaf, and I know sign language

2. Neurodivergent, deaf, and I don’t know sign language due to difficulties with fine motor skills

3. Neurodivergent, deaf, and I don’t know sign language due to other (non hand related) language learning difficulties

4. Neurodivergent, deaf, and I don’t know sign language for another reason

5. Neurodivergent, not deaf, and I know sign language

6. Neurodivergent, not deaf, and I don’t know sign language due to difficulties with fine motor skills

7. Neurodivergent, not deaf, and I don’t know sign language due to other (non hand related) language learning difficulties

8. Neurodivergent, not deaf, and I don’t know sign language for another reason

I will take questions about my babies!!!