Fascinating Facts About Polydactyl Cats You Should Know

In this guide

A polydactyl cat is simply a cat born with extra toes, and if you have ever spotted one with what looks like a mitten or a thumb on its front paw, that is exactly what you were looking at. The condition is more common than most people realise, and far less mysterious than the internet sometimes makes it sound.

The genetics behind the extra toes

Most cats have five toes on each front paw and four on each back paw, eighteen in total. Polydactyly comes from a genetic mutation, inherited as a dominant trait, which means a kitten only needs to inherit the gene from one parent to be born with extra toes. The mutation affects a region of DNA involved in limb development, and it can produce anywhere from one extra toe to several, occasionally giving a paw a distinctly wide, spread-out look nicknamed a snowshoe paw.

Where the extra toes tend to show up

The front paws are affected far more often than the back paws, and it is rare, though not impossible, for a cat to have extra toes on all four. The placement varies too: extra toes on the inside of the paw give that classic thumb-like appearance, while extra toes on the outside create a broader, mitten-like paw. Some polydactyl cats can grip objects with a dexterity that looks almost human, a party trick that has made them minor celebrities online.

A famous literary connection

Polydactyl cats are often called Hemingway cats, after the writer Ernest Hemingway, who kept a six-toed cat named Snow White at his home in Key West, Florida. Her descendants still live at what is now the Hemingway Home and Museum, and the nickname stuck worldwide, even though the trait itself has nothing to do with any single bloodline and turns up in ordinary mixed-breed cats everywhere, including plenty of desi cats across Indian neighbourhoods.

Caring for a cat with extra toes

Polydactyly on its own rarely causes health problems, and most cats with extra toes live completely normal, active lives. The one practical difference is nail care. Extra toes mean extra claws, some of which may not touch the ground during normal walking and so do not wear down naturally the way the others do. These claws are more prone to overgrowing or curling into the paw pad if left untrimmed, so a polydactyl cat needs its nails checked and trimmed a little more often than a standard cat, with particular attention to any toe tucked slightly out of the way where dirt or litter can also collect between the extra digits.

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