Mau Mew: Domestic Cats with Spots

The Savannah, Bengal and Egyptian Mau are three domestic cat breeds with spots. The first two are wild cat hybrids. The third is not. The Egyptian Mau is said to have descended from the African wildcat and is the only naturally spotted cat, it is claimed.

The spots on the Bengal cat are both pure spots and rosettes. Rosettes are broken spots of various types e.g. donuts (doughnuts) and arrow heads.

The Savannah cat has the purest of spots in my opinion as the wild cat ancestor is a serval and that wildcat has pure (meaning simple and direct) black/dark brown spots. The wild cat ancestor of the Bengal cat is the Asian leopard cat, which has a slightly more elaborate spotted coat.

There are other cat breeds that have spots. An example is the rare Serengeti cat.

Many other cat breeds have are allowed by the cat associations to have a spotted coat. These spotted coats are of various types. Just as an example, the picture below by Helmi Flick, shows a Exotic Shorthair with a cream spotted coat. See more spotted tabby cats and other types of tabby cat on this page.

Photo copyright Helmi Flick

Of the random bred cats both feral and domestic, the tabby cat has spots. There are three types of tabby cat: classic, mackerel (striped) and spotted. The tabby cat is probably the most common cat coat type. The tabby cat is not a breed as you probably know.