Marbled Cheetoh?
by chrystie
(az)
Babygirl
My vet says my babygirl is an ocelot/bangle mix. We found her abandoned under a woodpile. There is still a bit of the wild cat about her, but she is loving and devoted.
Highly energetic, she loves to hunt me wrapping her paws around my ankles in an attempt to bring me down like game.
I was wondering if anyone could guess at her F? Score. I would really like to know. My vet listed her as an exotic cat. She is my pride and glory.
Chrystie>
Hi Chrystie... I made the image a bit better quality to allow me to look at your cat's appearance more easily.
My honest opinion - and I am sorry to disappoint you - is that Babygirl is a really nice marbled or classic silver tabby cat of mixed breed (random bred cat).
This is my assessment from the image and by taking a common sense approach that the most likely cat will be a moggie tabby cat as they are the most common and that there are no ocelot/bangle hybrids in existence (incidentally I presume you mean ocelot/California Spangled wildcat hybrid).
The Cheetoh cat is an extremely rare wild cat hybrid of considerable complexity. It would be a miracle if you found one under a woodpile.
As to Babygirl being a wild cat hybrid - no I don't see that. You say she is a wild cat hybrid and ask what generation from the wild she is.
I think your vet is being very polite and nice to you when he suggested that Babygirl is a ocelot wildcat hybrid. He probably realises that there are no ocelot wildcat hybrids in the world that we know of. There have been reports of a ocelot-cougar hybrid but that is a wildcat to wildcat mating. We are talking about domestic cat to wildcat mating.
To my knowledge there are no breeders breeding ocelot wildcat hybrids. You can see the list here: wildcat hybrids.
It may be the case that it is impossible to breed from an ocelot to create a domestic cat/wild cat hybrid. It is difficult to create wild cat hybrids and they are expensive as a consequence which makes it all the more unlikely to find one under a woodpile having been abandoned. That said they do tend to escape and go walk about.
Hope this helps. Sorry it is very disappointing. But I am only one person. Someone else can give their views as well in a comment if they wish.
I think the confusion stems the common use of the name ocelot for the Ocicat. While the Cheetoh breed was a lot more rare at the time of the original post, it is possible to find one is odd places. My wife and I recently adopted a 10 month old marbled Cheetoh from a rescue shelter (he was abandoned as at 4 months).at the time of adoption neither the shelter or us knew about the Cheetoh breed but we have quickly become knowledgeable.
Many thanks David for taking the time to comment. Interesting.