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Most people have seen a dog with stubby legs before. Dachshunds, Corgis, Bulldogs, etc. are all familiar sights. But did you know that there are short-legged cats, too? Meet the Munchkin. No one told them they’re too short to ride. These furry racecars are very new to the cat fancy, but they made a big splash from the very beginning. It wasn’t exclusively in a positive way. What’s the big deal with these little cats? Let’s start at the beginning.
Journey to Munchkinland
No one knows exactly when the first short-legged cat was born. They may have been around for the entire history of domestic cats. The first time they were described, however, was 1944, in England (2, 6, 7, 9, 10). Veterinarian Dr. H. E. Williams-Jones recorded four generations of short-legged cats (2, 7, 10). Interestingly, this feline family had short forelegs but normal-length hind legs (2, 9, 10). Like many other pedigrees, these so-called Kangaroo Cats went extinct during World War II (2, 5, 7, 10).
Short-legged cats were spotted in various locations throughout the twentieth century, however (2, 5-7, 10). Sometimes they would have four short legs, sometimes just the front legs (2). These cats were just a curiosity, mostly among stray and feral populations, until the right cats met the right people. Sandra Hochenedel was a music teacher living in Rayville, Louisiana (5, 7, 8). In 1983, she rescued two pregnant stray cats that had been cornered by a dog (5, 8). She noticed that both queens were rather unusual–they had very short legs.
Hochenedel named the gray queen Blueberry and the black queen Blackberry (2, 5). She gave away Blueberry and kept Blackberry, who gave birth to a litter of both wildtype and short-legged kittens (2, 5, 7, 9). Hochenedel gave one of the kittens, a short-legged tom named Toulouse, to her friend Kay LaFrance in Monroe, Louisiana (2, 5, 10). Blackberry had a few more litters before disappearing (2, 5).
LaFrance kept her cats intact and free-roaming, and Toulouse soon began to sire a sizable population of short-legged cats in Monroe (5). Seeing the little cats proliferate and survive on their own, Hochenedel and LaFrance wondered if they had a new breed on their hands. They named the cats Munchkins after the diminutive people in The Wizard of Oz (1, 5, 8). They wrote a breed standard, established a breeding program, and recruited other breeders (5). The Munchkin was publicly unveiled in 1991 at the INCATS TICA cat show in Madison Square Garden (5). The response was mixed, and TICA refused a request to recognize the breed the same year (5). However, in 1994 TICA changed their mind and accepted the Munchkin into their New Breed Development program (5, 6, 10). TICA accepted Munchkins for Championship status in 2003 (1, 5, 6, 10).
A handful of other cat fancy organizations have accepted the Munchkin since TICA, but the other major groups still refuse to recognize it (5, 8). Some have gone out of their way to ban the Munchkin and any breed like it (5). The Fédération Internationale Féline (FIFe) made an addition to their rules forbidding “showing as a breed characteristic a dominant gene resulting in shortened limbs and legs and other physical defects, for example, the Munchkin” (5). It could not be more clear which breed they had in mind. The Munchkin is a breed that cat fanciers don’t seem to find much middle ground on.
Characteristics
Appearance
The defining characteristic of Munchkins is, of course, the legs. Their legs are about three inches shorter than the average cat’s (1). The upper and lower parts of their legs are about the same length (5). The hind legs are often a little longer than the front legs, and Munchkins can be slightly bow-legged (7). There is such a thing as a long-legged Munchkin, believe it or not. Long-legged cats born in Munchkin breeding programs are called non-standard Munchkins. Their short-legged peers are standard Munchkins.
The short legs are the result of a spontaneous genetic mutation. The mutation in the UGDH gene causes abnormal limb development (9). Munchkins end up born with shorter, thicker long bones in their legs (3, 5, 8, 9). The UGDH mutation is a dominant trait, which means that kittens only need to inherit it from one parent to have short legs (1, 4-10).
In the case of Munchkins, they only can inherit it from one parent. While the short legs may be a dominant trait, the same mutation is also recessive lethal (1, 4, 7, 9). This means that if a kitten inherits the mutation from both parents, it dies before birth. This is why Munchkins have small litters and all Munchkins have both long- and short-legged kittens.
To avoid any kittens inheriting the mutation from both parents, standard Munchkins are usually bred either to non-standard Munchkins or to Domestic Shorthair/Longhairs. This has made the Munchkin a very diverse breed. They can be any color or pattern with short or long fur. However, they still have to conform to a breed standard to be a Munchkin. They are not just short cats. They should have a medium-boned body with a back that slopes gently upward toward the tail. The head is a rounded wedge with high cheekbones and a flat forehead. The eyes are wideset.
Munchkins will carry their tail upright when in motion. It should taper to a rounded tip and be the same length as their body. Both shorthairs and longhairs have moderate, resilient fur, much as you would expect for cats recently descended from random-bred strays.
Personality
People often think that Munchkins are sluggish because of their stubby legs, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Munchkins are extroverted and energetic! They love to play, explore, and run like crazy, just like most cats. If a Munchkin wants to check out something that’s a teeny bit beyond their sight, they will sit up on their haunches like a rabbit to get a better look. They are perfectly capable climbers. The short legs do prevent them from jumping as high as other cats, but they can and do jump. And when a cat has a will, they will certainly find a way, so don’t assume they can’t get on top of something.
These sociable cats pretty much like to hang out with anybody. They fit well into homes with children and other pets. In busy households, though, it’s important to keep in mind that Munchkins have a tendency to hoard small objects. If your favorite watch has gone missing, and everyone says they didn’t take it, you might want to check the cat bed. Munchkins are an intelligent breed, so if thievery has become a problem, perhaps some food puzzles or other enrichment activities might help keep your kitty’s mind occupied. Then again, cats will be cats.
Caring for Your Munchkin
You might expect Munchkins to need a lot of accommodations due to their stature, but they usually don’t. Regular food and water bowls should do fine (7). There might be instances when they would appreciate pet stairs to get up somewhere high, but that really depends upon your furniture. Munchkins are low-maintenance when it comes to grooming, too. Probably the most important thing is that they have plenty of space to run and play. These cats can work up a lot of speed and take corners like it’s nothing (1, 5, 7, 8). A cluttered floor is no fun for a Munchkin.
Health Concerns
There has been a lot of debate about whether breeding Munchkins is ethical because it perpetuates a deformity. After all, dog from breeds with similar mutations frequently suffer painful health problems. There are cases of short-legged cats that have deleterious effects as a result of their deformity as well (2, 3). With Munchkins, however, this doesn’t seem to be the case.
Munchkins don’t usually have the musculoskeletal problems that short-legged dogs do because the feline spine is built differently than the canine (10). And while Munchkins have a form of dwarfism, the mutation they have doesn’t cause the conditions that other forms of dwarfism often do (4).
Munchkins do have a higher risk of lordosis than other cats (2, 7). Lordosis of the spine–not to be confused with the she-cat mating position also called lordosis–is a condition where the spine curves too far inward. It is often painful and may even put pressure on the internal organs. Conversely, Munchkins have an elevated risk of pectus excavatum as well (2, 7). Pectus excavatum occurs when the breastbone is sunken into the chest, compressing the chest cavity.
As pedigreed cats go, though, Munchkins are quite healthy. The large amount of Domestic Shorthairs and Domestic Longhairs, cat fancy language for “mutts,” in the gene pool probably has a lot to do with that. After all, most if not all Munchkins can still trace their family tree back to Blackberry and Toulouse, two random-bred cats roaming Louisiana on their stubby legs.
Fun Facts
- The shortest living cat, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, is a Munchkin named Lilieput. She is a tortoiseshell from Napa, California, and she stands 5.35 inches (13.34 cm) at the shoulders. (1)
- Paris Hilton has two Munchkins, or “low-rider kitties” as she calls them. Their names are Shorty and Munchkin. (1)
- Munchkins have been bred with other pedigreed cats to create unofficial “Munchkinized” breeds. There are are now short-legged cats with curly hair, hairlessness, curly ears, and smushed faces. One line has been bred to resemble the jaguarundi wild cat. (2)
Works Cited
- Braaksma, H. and Guthrie, C. (2021, April 25). Munchkin. Daily Paws. https://www.dailypaws.com/cats-kittens/cat-breeds/munchkin
- Hartwell, S. (2005). Short-legged cats. Messy Beast. http://messybeast.com/shortlegs.htm
- International Cat Care. (2018, October 3). Munchkin. https://icatcare.org/advice/munchkin/
- Lyons, L. A., Fox, D. B., Chesney, K. L., Britt, L. G., et al. (2019). Localization of a feline autosomal dominant dwarfism locus: A novel model of chondrodysplasia. https://doi.org/10.1101/687210 [Retrieved from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory bioRxiv database]
- Munchkin. (n.d.). Petfinder. https://www.petfinder.com/cat-breeds/munchkin/
- Munchkin. (n.d.). Vetstreet. http://www.vetstreet.com/cats/munchkin
- Munchkin cat: Story in a nutshell. (2019, August 16). Basepaws. https://basepaws.com/blogs/news/munchkin-cat-breed
- Sorocco, E. (2017). 11 things to know about the munchkin cat. Catster. https://www.catster.com/cats-101/about-the-munchkin-cat
- Struck, A., Braun, M., Detering, K. A., Dziallas, P., et al. (2020). A structural UGDH variant associated with standard munchkin cats. BMC Genetics, 21. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12863-020-00875-x
- The International Cat Association. (2018, August 13). Munchkin breed. TICA. https://tica.org/breeds/browse-all-breeds?view=article&id=857:munchkin-breed&catid=79
Published July 11, 2021
