Polydactyl Cats

I have one cat, a tabby who has six on one front paw and seven on the other, and recently i got three kittens, two are calicos and they both have extra toes.. Whats odd is one of them, her hind feet have size claws and pads and they go out, not in like normal feet do… like her left food is on her right leg and vise versa lol.
But she also has a claw on each front paw that is not attached to a pad.. its just hanging free, and is already starting to twist, so i was wondering what should be done to prevent major problems later.

It says polydactyl hind limbs only occur with front limbs but my tortie, Cozmo, has 5 HUGE toes on each front and 5 toes on each hind. Each toe on the front actually looks like two toes joined togeather with a single claw coming out of the middle and a thumb at the end. Is this considered polydactyl? She only has 5 claws but her paws are massive! When she was a kitten thats all you could see.

I first encountered poly dactyls when i was 14, a freshman in highschool, i rescued a manx whom was pregnanat and she gave birth to 3 kittens on my fromt porch. all were poly’s but only one was a manx we didnt fall for him but for the only opther male in the litter, mister mittens. he had 7 toes on each paw he was a beast large orange and bonded with my father after almost dying. we had gotten the mother towards the end of her pregnancy ( my poor parents had to deal with me bringing rescues home all the time) but mittens was the runt and almost went tot eh rainbow bridge but he was smart and used his thumbs..sadly a coyote took our beloved mittens only 2 years after we were gifted with him, but that brought us to pumpkin our second poly, and he was orange as well, and he is smart and fat and lazy and spoiled with the best temperment but *sigh* he was sadly neutered. well now i’m out on my own and have come upon my own polydactyl, his name is mayhem and he has 7 toes in the front and 6 in the back. every polydactyl i meet is cooler than the last. i look forward to hunting down a couple of orange female poly’s or maybe even look to getting a white poly but i want to exclusively breed solid white and solid orange polydactyls. whoever says its JUST a genetic mutation is wrong sofar what i’ve learned is every poly is laid back smart as hell and incredibly affectionate. My Maymers(Mayhems fond nickname) comes whenever i call him. he sits on his hind feet. does tricks and he can even hold his own fork (yes folks its not prodigal its opposable) i live in michigan and i hope to start a niche for orange michigan mitten paws, instead of showing where i live on my hand i’ll do it on my cats paw. mayhem is the base for this and hes only 6 months old but i think i have plenty of time to find suitable breeding stock since the poly gene is dominant. but i have a passion for these sweet, epicly gifted animals and i will share my passion with the world one day.

It bothers me that many people don’t see polydactylism as a positive enhancing feature of dogs and cats alike.
In northern Norway, puffins used to be a major source of winter food, and catching them in enough quantity to make it through the long winters was absolutely necessary.
In order to fill this unique niche, the Norwegians bred a unique dog. The resulting Lundehund was an extraordinary animal with some unparalleled gifts.
The Lundehund is a polydactyl (multi-toed) dog. Instead of the normal four toes a foot, the Lundehund has six toes, all fully formed, jointed and muscled. Polydactyl dogs are not terribly uncommon, but in most breeds the extra toes are dew-claws, not the fully formed variety of the Lundehund. The dog uses these extra toes to gain purchase and haul itself along in positions where only the sides of its legs are touching the rock, a fairly common occurrence while wiggling through tight spots. They also help the dog gain additional traction while scrambling around on steep, often slippery cliffs.

About 3 years ago I answered and ad in a small community paper. “Kittens needing home, extra paws.” I agreed to meet this women in a Walmart parking lot between our two towns. In a box was two approximately 3 month old grey and white kittens. Both with seven toes on their front feet. I agreed to take both and was only sad that I had missed out on the third poly sister that another person had just adopted.

I can tell many stories of their amazing skills with those extra toes. Their “thumbs” are jointed and allow them to do many things.

Today we were blessed with a third litter from from Dolly. A litter of five , I beleive there are two polys, maybe even on with extra back toes. I have not disturbed the new family much at this time.

I failed to tell you that the sisters are so identical in appearance we have to keep different colored collars one them and still get them mixed up sometimes at a distance. The are a delight but have very different personalities.

I also would like to say that Polly is expecting as well and after their litters are old enough they will be spayed. I am just reluctant to stop their amazing cycle but as a good pet owner, I will spay both sisters.

My cat Topaz had dubble toes and each one had a claw with a line in the middle where you could actually see the dubble claws meet. His front and back paws matched. He looked like a regular yellow striped cat except for his large massive paws and claws. I’m not even sure they retracted.He was shot when he was found and it cost $75 dollers to have a pin and metal plate put in his shoulder. My sister said they got the bullet out but I remember that they couldn’t. I set up with him for more than one night.He was a scapper! we never had a problem giving his kittens away. Our neighbor had one of his off spring “Butch ”
for seventeen years. I submitted a picture on feral cats. I just thought he was deformed. Someone told me years later he was a hemmingway cat. He was an excellant hunter. He could run down a rabbit and he even killed a squirel one day. I had to lock him in the shed when I practiced archery. He hid in the grass and jumped up and snached my arrow out of the air. He loved to sit on my shoulder. he was full grown when we got him and we had him about nine years.my family still holds him in high reguard.