What kind of cat do I have?

Is my cat a purebred at all?

Start here, because it decides everything else. If your cat came from a shelter, a rescue, a neighbor's litter or the street, it is almost certainly a house cat, also called a domestic shorthair or domestic longhair. Shelters often write a breed on the card, such as "Russian Blue mix" or "Maine Coon mix", but that is a guess from looks. Purebred cats usually come from a breeder, with papers that list the parents.

That does not make a house cat less interesting. Mixed cats come in every look, they tend to be hardy, and many carry traits from one or more breeds. The clues below tell you which breeds your cat looks like.

1. Coat length

Coat length rules out half the breeds straight away.

• Long and flowing, with a ruff on the chest: Persian, Himalayan, Maine Coon, Ragdoll, Siberian, Norwegian Forest Cat, Birman, Turkish Angora or Turkish Van.
• Short and dense, like plush: British Shorthair, Exotic Shorthair, Russian Blue, American Shorthair.
• Short and fine, lying close to the body: Siamese, Oriental, Bombay, Abyssinian, Egyptian Mau, Bengal.
• Unusual coats: no hair (Sphynx), tight waves (Cornish Rex) or a thin, patchy salt-and-pepper coat (Lykoi).

2. Coat color and pattern

Patterns are the most visible clue and the most misleading one. Tabby, calico, tortoiseshell, tuxedo and solid black or white appear in house cats and in many breeds, so on their own they say little. A few patterns do point to a breed. Pale bodies with dark points and blue eyes suggest Siamese ancestry. A ticked coat with no stripes on the body suggests an Abyssinian. Leopard-like rosettes suggest a Bengal. Our guide to cat coat patterns explains them all.

3. The shape of the head and face

Look at your cat from the front and from the side.

• A flat face with a short nose belongs to the Persian family: Persian, Himalayan and Exotic Shorthair.
• A big round head with full cheeks points to the British Shorthair.
• A long wedge with a straight nose points to the Siamese or Oriental.
• A square muzzle on a big head suggests a Maine Coon, while a straight profile and a triangular head suggest a Norwegian Forest Cat.

4. The ears

Ears are one of the strongest clues, because a few breeds are defined by them. Ears folded forward and down mean a Scottish Fold. Ears that curl backward mean an American Curl. Very large ears on a slim cat point to the Siamese, Oriental, Cornish Rex or Sphynx. Tufts of hair at the tips, like a lynx, are common in Maine Coons, Norwegian Forest Cats and Siberians.

5. The tail

A cat born with no tail, or only a stub, may be a Manx. A short, bobbed tail about a third of the usual length suggests an American Bobtail. Be careful here: many house cats have short or kinked tails from an old injury or mixed ancestry. A long, bushy plume is typical of the big longhairs.

6. Size and build

A cat that weighs over 15 lb (7 kg) without being overweight is likely to have Maine Coon, Ragdoll, Siberian or Norwegian Forest Cat in it. A slim, long-legged, almost tubular body suggests the Siamese family. Very short legs on a normal body mean a Munchkin. Most house cats sit in the middle: medium size, medium build, nothing extreme.

What does a DNA test tell you?

A photo, whether you judge it yourself or use our scanner, can only tell you what your cat looks like. A cat DNA test reads its genes. It shows whether your cat is mostly one breed or a mix, which breed groups it shares markers with, and some health genes. For mixed cats, the breed part of the result is an estimate, and different tests can disagree. For a pedigreed cat, papers from the breeder remain the proof.

The quick way: scan a photo

Our cat breed identifier checks all six clues at once. It was trained on more than 50,000 labeled cat photos and compares your cat with 31 breeds and the house cat. On photos it had never seen, it had the right answer in its top three 98.5% of the time. When no breed fits clearly, it says house cat, because that is usually the honest answer.