Comments on: Weird Cat News

By: jtm_kryptos

jtm_kryptos — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 18:01:49 +0000

well, i love this who focus on mystery felids, but i’m of the scientific mind, so winged cats are a big no no! yet remember black pumas are oddly accompanied by maned big cats (ATROX) {loren coleman, mysterious america},

By: Shelley

Shelley — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 16:51:28 +0000

When the story first came out, the owner said her male cat grew the wings due to the constant harrassment of male cats wanting to mate with him. The entire thing reeks of someone wanting press attention, perhaps for financial reasons, which is why I am very suspicious of the structure that seems to hold these “wings” together, combined with the cat’s relatively short fur.

There are other photos with the web site I mentioned in my first post, and they look far more like the “clumps of matter hair on a longhaired cat” explanation than this one does.

And we complain about having to clean the little footprints from the feral kitties off our cars! I’d love to see some of those wild big guys laying around here, but I guess it would make mornings even more complicated!

By: pitbulllady

pitbulllady — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 20:50:39 +0000

Aside from FCA, which is very rare, all the “winged” cats are long-haired. As the owner of a Persian, and many previous Persians, I’ve seen many develop “wings” when I got a bit lax in grooming, as the “wings” were nothing but hair mats. Often, they would contain a “core” of rolled-up undercoat hair, making it appear as though they contained a solid “bone” inside, but they were still just hair. Reports of “bones” inside the “wings”, from the Chinese media, must be taken with a grain of salt, as the news article also reported that the cat in question was a MALE, when it is, in fact, a FEMALE, since she is a calico, and due to the sex-linked nature of that pattern, all calico cats are female, with a few very rare exceptions, which are often “chimeras”-examples of twins, one male and one female, contained in the body of one animal. I saw one such animal at a cat show last summer, and its nature was verified by vets at UGA’s veterinary school. Such animals are invariably sterile, and have odd facial markings that set them apart from normal, run-of-the-mill calicoes like the Chinese “winged” cat.

As for the bobcats living in the foreclosed house, I’ve often stepped out to go to work and found a big male lounging on the hood of my car under the car port; it’s just part of life when you live out here in the sticks! I wouldn’t mind if it weren’t for the dirty paw prints all over my car.

By: Ceroill

Ceroill — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 18:07:13 +0000

Galea, ok, thanks for the correction. Good to know..

By: Shelley

Shelley — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 17:33:42 +0000

For those of you who are not cat people [in the generally understood sense, not with tails of your own!] here is the complete website for feline medical curiosities.

There are a surprising number of cats who survive into adulthood with extra limbs these days, thanks to advanced veterinary science. There are also a number of cases of the brittle skin condition, although any “wings” in these cases tend to fall off when handled.

Some of these rather shocking deformities have been caused by selective breeding to maintain established breeds or to create new ones, which is why cats have a high incidence of these genetic problems. Even well-known breeds like the Manx routinely produce a high number of kittens with deformed spines, rear limbs or non-functioning kidneys and bowels. The creation of dwarf cats in recent decades has produced a whole new spectrum of deformed kittens and stillbirths, as well as surviving kittens living in pain.

Those of you who are really cat people, with tails, claws and vertical pupils, see me about a lucrative career in show business!

By: cryptidsrus

cryptidsrus — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 15:15:20 +0000

Funny-looking critters, these “winged” cats…

I agree the cat should be examined closely.

I seem to remember a report of one who sort of “flew.”

By: Galea

Galea — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 14:36:14 +0000

Actually, alot of these cats CAN move their wings.

In the skin condition called feline cutaneous asthenia or FCA, which is related to Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (elastic skin) in humans. In winged cats that are due to FCA, the wings only occur on the shoulders, haunches, or back. Winged cats that are due to FCA can often actively move their wings, suggesting the presence of neuromuscular tissue within the wings, which is not present within clumps of matted fur alone.

There have been multiple account of cats actually flapping these wings when jumping or performing other activities.

By: Ceroill

Ceroill — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 13:03:21 +0000

In the reports I’ve read of in the past, many do indeed seem to be simply hair mats. Some of those have been reported to just ‘fall off’ or however you wish to put it. Others are, as Kittenz has said seem to be extended folds of skin. A few supposedly (allegedly?) have some traces of bone and/or cartilage in them, though no real support or muscles. A very few, perhaps dubious (moreso than the rest) are said to have been able to be spread wide by choice of the cat, and allow a sort of very abbreviated glide (more of a slightly elongated jump). But in no cases that I’ve seen has it ever been claimed (that I recall, and it’s not like there have been thousands) that the ‘wings’ had enough structure and function to be able to flap like real wings (as if with that small of a surface area it would do much good).
Ok, I’ll sit back down now.

By: Aztec Raptor

Aztec Raptor — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 11:53:10 +0000

Maybe cats are evolving at the moment. They could be evolving wing like growth that would get so large they could possibly glide using it.

By: kittenz

kittenz — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 10:52:15 +0000

The “winged cats” that I have seen don’t really have bony growths. They are normal longhaired cats that have not been groomed – maybe ever. Any longhaired cat develops the “winglike” mats if they go uncombed for a long time. It’s fairly difficult to get to the skin under a mat that has been on a cat for a year or more. I can see how someone could mistake the mats for wings at first, but, using the correct groomimg tools, the “wings” can be easily removed without any damage to the cat’s skin.

Very rarely, cats can have a hereditary condition, feline cutaneous asthenia, in which the skin grows into abnormally thick, stretchy, fragile folds. Possibly a cat with this condition could also produce mats that look like the “wings” shown here. More information about feline cutaneous asthenia, along with a synopsis of one of the initial case studies from Cornell, can be found here.

I seriously doubt if any of these “winged” cats have bones in the “wings”. I’d have to see the complete veterinary workup, with Xrays and biopsies, before I would believe it.

I suppose that a kitten born with extra legs might just possibly have those legs in a position such that they could be mistaken for “wings”, but I’ve never heard of a case, and most kittens with extra limbs are stillborn.