If you are an animal lover, you will surely know how comfortable it feels if, after every day of hard work, you return home to the warm welcome of your pet, your beloved cat in your bedroom. for you to freely caress and relax.
Of all the species, the Munchkin may be a relatively new cat breed, but at the same time, they have also sparked a lot of different controversies within the cat lover community. Today, Thegioidongvat.co will clarify all those doubts with 9 facts about Munchkin cats!

1. Munchkin cats were actually born as a result of genetic mutations

Like many other unusual cats such as the Cornish Rex and the Manx, the Munchkin was born from a spontaneous genetic mutation that caused the breed’s legs to become shorter. However, the Munchkin cat gene is sometimes called a ” fatal ” gene because, if a baby inherits one of its parents’ genes, it will not be able to survive. That is why breeders do not breed two short-legged Munchkin cats together. Even long-legged cats can carry the Munchkin gene, so long-legged cats are often crossed with each other or interbred with a short-legged Munchkin cat to create healthy, chubby offspring.

2. Sitting down completely seems to be something that never happens to Munchkin cats

In the 50s, short-legged cats in Russia were named ” Stalingrad kangaroo cats ” because they always sat on their thighs and never put their butts on the floor.
Munchkin cats are similar, they can only sit up. hind legs like those of prairie dogs. To explain this characteristic, it is thought that it is because the Munchkin cat’s back legs are longer than its front legs.

3. America’s first Munchkin cat was named “Blackberry”

Throughout the 20th century, many people recorded images of short-legged feral cats in England, Russia and New England. However, it was not until the 1980s that people officially began breeding this breed. Some people call Munchkins ” Kangaroo cats ” because they have shorter front legs than their hind legs. The
first Munchkin was rescued in Rayville, Louisiana in the early 1980s by a music teacher named Sandra Hockenedel. Some time later, it gave birth to cubs with a similar appearance. This teacher brought the cat to give to her friend – Kay LaFrance. Because LaFrance often let cats roam around, they easily mated with many other male cats, so after a while her house was filled with short-legged cats. In 1990, Hochenedel and LaFrance brought this breed to Solveig Pflueger – a cat appraiser and president of the International Cat Association (TICA). Pflueger and experts have researched and raised concerns that Munchkin cats will suffer from spinal diseases like short-legged dogs. But strangely, in Munchkin, they did not find any deformities or problems. However, some critics still do not believe that this assessment is the final result because the Munchkin cat breed is still quite new and not yet well known.

4. Not all Munchkin cats are the same

There are Munchkin cats known for their short legs, but did you know that not all Munchkins have short legs? There are actually three different leg lengths within a Munchkin breed: “ standard ”, “ medium ” and “ super short ”. If an individual Munchkin cat is not heterozygous, they will be born out with a standard foot length. On the contrary, this species must be born with a dominant gene to have shorter legs.

5. Munchkin is just a normal cat like any other “brother”.

Contrary to what many people think, for example, ” Gene mutations are probably not normal!” “, Munchkin cats have absolutely no problems with their bones or spine because of their short legs. Testing conducted on the oldest living Munchkin cat in 1995 showed that he did not have any bone or joint problems. The only limitation of Munchkin cats is their short legs, which prevents them from jumping as high as their long-legged brothers .

6. The cat’s name “Munchkin” is still a mystery

According to speculation, Munchkin cats were probably named after the dwarfs in the movie The Wizard of Oz. However, another theory is that one of the first people to raise Munchkin cats – LaFrance, gave several of these cats to cat appraiser Pflueger. Later, Pflueger’s daughter named these cats ” Mushroom the Munchkin “, and from there, the name ” Munchkin ” was born.
Another story: when the short-legged cat along with Pflueger appeared on “Good Morning America”, the host asked for the cat’s breed name, and Pflueger immediately said “Munchkin” as a way to honoring the classic novel and film – “The Wizard of Oz”

7. The Munchkin cat is a very controversial cat breed

These cats were first discovered in 1983. Many articles wrote that one day, a girl named Sandra Hochenedel found a short-legged cat living under a trailer. The cat – later renamed ” Blackberry ” and her litter of kittens, all have very chubby, short, extremely adorable legs.
More controversy arose when people thought that Munchkin cats were deformed animals. Experts say they can have health problems if not properly cared for. In addition, many breeders still hope to turn Munchkin cats into a normal cat breed because appraisal agencies do not recognize this species as a real cat breed. Some records also say that Munchkin cats can be bred with all other cat breeds without causing any harm.

8. The coat of Munchkin cats has many different patterns and colors

The Munchkin’s most prominent feature is its bowed legs and leg length that is only half that of a regular cat. In addition, their body parts and behavior are completely normal. This breed is medium sized and comes in a variety of colors, patterns, and fur lengths

9. Munchkin is the shortest cat in the world that has ever existed

In 2013, the Guinness Book of Records recognized Lilieput – a speckled Munchkin cat from Napa, California – as the smallest cat in the world. “Uncle” is only about 13.34 cm tall from the bottom of his feet to the top of his shoulders.