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If you’re a pet owner, you know that if you have male and female unaltered dogs or cats, you can wind up with litters of puppies or kittens, respectively. Spaying and neutering will enable you to have these animals around without worrying about surprise future offspring.
But what if you have an unaltered male dog and an unaltered female cat or vice versa? Can cats mate with dogs?
The simplest answer to this question is no, cats cannot mate with dogs or produce any offspring. This can be something that pet owners worry about, so let’s look at why this is not possible.
My Dog Is Mounting My Cat
You may look over one day and see your dog mounting your cat. Humping is a behavior in dogs that has many reasons behind it.1 This doesn’t necessarily mean your dog is trying to mate.
Stress, excitement, trying to dominate, and just being playful are all potential reasons for your dog to be doing this. While it’s a sexual behavior when mating, it doesn’t always mean there’s a sexual drive behind it.
What if They Mate, Anyway?
Dogs and cats don’t really try to mate with one another, but you may be wondering why a hybrid species can’t be created from the pairing of the two.
Interspecies mating has occurred in the past.2 A famous example of this is the mule, which is part donkey and part horse. Another example is the liger, a combination of a lion and a tiger.
Cats and dogs are different species of animals. While some species can mate and produce hybrid species, cats and dogs don’t share similar DNA.
Chromosomes
DNA is found in cells bound into units called chromosomes. For hybrid embryos to be formed, the parental species need to be genetically similar to each other, they also need to have either the same or a very close number of chromosomes in their DNA. The new DNA can be formed because even though the parental DNA was from two different species, they resembled each other closely enough to work. Every living organism’s chromosomes are organized in pairs and each parent will contribute with half of the genetic material of the embryo.
Species that are closely related, such as tigers and lions, have the same number of chromosome pairs. Producing hybrid offspring is possible. This is why dogs can breed with wolves because both have 78 chromosomes, tigers can breed with lions because both have 38 chromosomes, and horses with 64 chromosomes can breed with donkeys who have 62 chromosomes.
Even if cats and dogs figured out how to physically mate, they would never be able to produce offspring. Dogs have 78 chromosomes or 39 pairs, while cats have only 38 or 19 pairs. Dogs and cats don’t have the same number of chromosome pairs, so producing viable offspring isn’t possible.
Mating
Dogs and cats have different mating signals and behaviors that aren’t recognized by each other. Female dogs and cats go into heat at different times. The two species have different ways of communicating and don’t express much interest in mating with each other. Their reproductive organs differ, too. A dog’s sperm is unable to fertilize a cat’s egg and vice versa.
Cats have barbed penises that enable them to stick to the female cat while mating. These barbs could cause harm to female dogs that aren’t made to accommodate them. Moreover, females of both species are only receptive to males of their species and during a certain period of their cycle commonly referred to as heat.
Kittens and Puppies
While cats can’t give birth to dogs and dogs can’t give birth to cats, there are stories of these animals accepting each other’s offspring as their own.
Female dogs have been known to accept and care for rejected or abandoned kittens. The motherly instinct takes over, and they welcome the kitten into their litter. This can also be true for mother cats that welcome puppies, but depending on the breed of dog, a cat may not be able to produce the amount of milk that they require.
It’s best if the kitten or puppy can nurse from their natural mother for at least the first 24 hours to get the necessary colostrum. This is a fluid produced by lactating mothers after the first few days of birth. This fluid is filled with antibodies to protect newborns against pathogens in the environment.
That said, the nutrients, vitamins, and minerals necessary for puppies and kittens can not be provided from the milk of a very different animal. While some may be able to survive while nursing from animals of a different species, they are likely to suffer deficiencies as the milk produced by each species has a specific composition value to support the healthy development their offspring require.
Conclusion
Cats and dogs cannot mate with each other, even if it looks like they’re trying to do so. Their breeding behaviors, heat cycles, and different DNA prevent them from being able to produce healthy, viable offspring.
Hybrid species can be created when the animals have similar DNA to each other, such as lions and tigers. If these two animals breed, they can create offspring. Cats and dogs are too different to work.
Even though they can’t produce a hybrid species, mother dogs and cats have been known to accept orphaned or abandoned puppies and kittens and do their best efforts to raise and care for them as their own.
- Related Read: Can Wolves and Dogs Mate? What Science Says
Featured Image Credit: Africa Studio, Shutterstock
