The hybrid pet is an exciting concept for many, leading many animal lovers to question whether dogs and cats can mate. After all, some dogs are undeniably cat-like and vice versa, and if two breeds as different as Chihuahuas and Mastiffs can have babies, why shouldn’t a similar-looking cat-dog pairing do the same? Though it may seem possible from some angles, dogs are too dissimilar from cats to get them pregnant.
It isn’t only the fact that we’ve never seen a cat-dog hybrid outside of cartoons that tells us this is unlikely, if not impossible. Breaking down their separate genetic backgrounds and physiology is all we need to see that a successful pairing could never work.
Can a Dog Get a Cat Pregnant?
While we know that wolves and dogs can mate and domestic cats can pair with more sizeable wild cats, household cats and dogs are simply too different to produce viable offspring.
Taxonomically, you would have to go as high as their shared order, Carnivora, to find the relationship since they come from different families, genera, and species. One study even found that seals had more in common with dogs than cats, and you can imagine how unlikely a dog-seal pairing would be!
The genetic and anatomical differences between dogs and cats don’t allow successful mating. For starters, dogs have 39 chromosome pairs while cats only have 19 pairs, a significant gap that would make breeding impossible.
The anatomical disparities would also affect the insemination process. For instance, tomcats have penile barbs that induce ovulation in the queen. Since male dogs lack these features, they can’t release a queen’s egg. Even if a dog’s sperm could reach the egg, the genetic differences would likely cause the egg to reject the sperm, and the female wouldn’t be able to carry a litter.
Why Do Dogs Hump Cats?
For dogs, mounting can be a far cry from a reproductive act. While mounting does occur during intercourse between dogs, the behavior can have various emotional or mental causes that have nothing to do with a sexual nature.
Dogs may hump when they feel excited, stressed, or generally overstimulated. You may catch your dog humping your cat as part of their daily play or if a conflict occurs between them and your dog is displaying anxiety.
Cats and dogs also have different mating rituals and communications, traits the other animal won’t pick up or act upon. While their anatomy alone would make intercourse unsuccessful, the two animals wouldn’t attract one another in the first place.
How Hybrids Work
Hybrids of two different species can exist in nature if they are close enough genetically. Generally, animals within the same genus are often close enough to create a cross. Popular examples include horses and donkeys to make mules or tigers and lions to produce ligers.
Both tigers and lions have 38 chromosomes. However, although female ligers can sometimes reproduce, male ligers are usually sterile.
Horses and donkeys can mate and create hybrids despite a difference in chromosome count, creating hybrids with an average number of chromosomes. Mules have 63 chromosomes because horses have 64 and donkeys have 62. Since mules have an odd number of chromosomes, these hybrids cannot properly perform meiosis, the splitting of cells that produce gametes (i.e., eggs and sperm) and are sterile.
Common Cat Hybrids
An extreme example of hybridization that seemingly works is the Savannah cat, a combination of wild servals and domestic cats. Though they belong to the same family, Felidae, they inhabit separate genera. The serval is part of the Leptailurus genus, while domestic cats belong to the Felis genus.
Nevertheless, these species bear the same number of chromosomes and are physiologically similar enough to reproduce. The Savannah cat can also procreate, though males are generally infertile until around the F5 generation.
The same is true for another hybrid, the Bengal cat. The domestic cat and the Asian leopard cat (of the Prionailurus genus) are close enough in body type and genetics to reproduce, but male offspring are also often sterile until later generations.
Final Thoughts
A dog-cat hybrid is an intriguing idea, but it is unlikely to be anything more than a fantasy for avid pet lovers. Cats and dogs diverged over 40 million years ago, developing into the contrasting forms and personalities we adore today. Just as cat people and dog people can be too different to get along, so too do these four-legged friends fill their unique spaces in the animal kingdom as polar opposites that only become more distinct with every new generation.
Featured Image Credit: Africa Studio, Shutterstock
