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So if you ask us do tabby cats have long hair, the tabby pattern can very well occur on the cat breeds with long hair. Cat hairs are the individual hair strands that are prone to shedding while cat fur is the whole coat that covers the body of a cat. If you are confused between cat hair and fur, let us clear that first. It is possible to expect hair as well as the fur on the tabby cats that can be of different sizes, in this case, long hair. On that note, a long-haired tabby cat can occur with the agouti gene becoming dominant in any of the long hair parent breeds of the progeny. Tabby cats with long hairĪnother special thing to note about the tabby pattern is that is the oldest existing pattern to have been occurred in cats of various breeds, domestic longhair cats being the most frequent recipient. The gene FGF5 has been found mostly in the hybrid breeds in which it was introduced on purpose. However, there exist many breeds with true long hair and no explanation has been found so far for this characteristic of theirs. The long hair in cats is caused by a specific genetic mutation where a gene known as FGF5 or Fibroblast Growth Factor 5 is the main player. On the same note, it must also be remembered that it is not impossible to find a short hair variety of any particular long hair cat breed.
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This type of hair can occur in either true breeds or mixed breeds. The cats with long hairs usually boast a very plush coat which can have hair strands longer than two inches. The Agouti gene A/A or A/a gets dominant either completely or partially in the cat breed and thus occurs the markings on the fur coat and head. This pattern has an interesting genetic and historic tale that involves a modified gene called the Agouti being responsible for the origin of this pattern as it dominates the genetic coding of the particular cat breeds.
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