Mojave Spotted Breed Information
Learn all about Mojave Spotted cats, read about the Mojave Spotted breed information,
find out about the Mojave Spotted Breed Standard, Mojave Spotted behavior and more.
The Mojave Spotted, originally named the Mojave Desert Cat was first
discovered back in 1980 by April Langford. In 1980 the first colony of wild cats
were discovered living under the thick desert shrubbery in deep borrows which
were used for the purpose of sheltering the cats offspring from the harsh desert
weather. It is not known as to how these burrows were dug, possibly by other
wild animals or by the cats themselves. Colony size was never noted but there
were at least 6 adult cats to each colony found.
First colony found in a small town called Hesperia, located in Southern
California.
Each cat that was observed resembled one another down to the very specific
spotted pattern including body structure but color did slightly vary from one
cat to another. Colors ranged from silver, brown, gold agouti & black between
the different colonies. These cats were larger than an average house cat, a
larger bone structure and large paws, lynx like paws in mitten shape, almost
resembling the local wild Bobcat. It is not known as to the possibility of the
two species being related or not but they did seem to resemble one another.
Average litter size was 1- 3 kittens & approximately 1 litter a year. Lifespan
for an average adult cat is unknown.
Study shows these cats survived on a diet of live birds, desert mice, lizards
and insects. Predators are the coyote, mountain lion, dog packs & man. In 1984 a
litter of Mojave Desert kittens were found abandoned beneath a large Juniper
tree, ice cold from the approaching winter, and starving. It seems as though
during colder parts of the year food sources were very low and if the Queen had
trouble finding the food she needed, she would just abandon her young. The first
litter found was rescued and supplemented with a Kitten Milk Replacement {KMR}
formula and raised indoors but would never become tame because of their wild
heritage. After several years the wild cats became more and more scarce.
By 1990 people from all over began to come to the small desert town and the cats
started to slowly disappear. By this time the breeding program to preserve the
Mojave Desert cat had already been underway. It was such a shame to see these
beautiful cats just vanish without a trace, so by taking this into serious
consideration the Mojave wild cat lives to this very day but in the homes of the
people who helped save it. The most important thing to be taken into
consideration in the study of these cats, was the untamable nature of the cat
even when raised in a completely human environment, this was something that
would need immediate attention in order to keep them in captivity.
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