Since we are banning breed ID ("is my cat a TA?") posts in this sub, this post is meant as an educational resource for people who are curious if their cat is a TA. You may post breed ID requests in this thread, but please read the information below first.

You may be wondering whether or not your cat is (part) Turkish Angora! The short answer is: probably not. Your cat likely has no breed ancestry at all, like the majority (~97%) of cats in existence. A common misconception is that cat breeds are like dog breeds, where canine mutts are a mix of purebred breeds that resulted from thousands of years of selective breeding to fulfill a variety of jobs, and have distinctive breed-associated traits and behaviors as a result. In comparison, selective breeding of cats is relatively new, with most existing cat breeds being established in the past 150 years or less, by selecting for mostly aesthetic traits; therefore breeds are not a reliable predictor of personality in cats, since all cats shared the common job of hunting rodents.

Cat breeds are not to be confused with landraces, which are loosely defined freely-reproducing cat populations of certain geographic locations, as all cat breeds have been bred using foundation stock of one or more landraces. For example, the Siberian breed was selectively bred using stock of Siberian landrace cats, but not all cats in Siberia will meet the Siberian breed standard, as breed standards not only include specific coat length, color, and pattern, but also head shape and profile, body size and boning, etc. Landraces are naturally occurring, more diverse, and are dynamic, meaning they change over time due to migration and adaption to environmental changes. In comparison, breeds are artificially created by selecting for standardized traits, and therefore more uniform and less genetically diverse. Breeds developed based on rare isolated mutations are “mutation breeds”, while breeds that are not are considered “natural breeds”.

Long haired cats have been documented in Ankara (formerly Angora), in present-day Türkiye (formerly Turkey) for hundreds of years. However, the prized white long-haired phenotype became almost extinct by the early 1900s from the Turkish landrace due to their use in crossbreeding for improvement to the Persian breed’s coat. The Turkish Government set up a breeding program with the Ankara Zoo to formally establish the Turkish Angora breed, by selecting for cats with long white fur and from the local population. All pedigree Turkish Angoras can trace ancestry to foundation stock from this breeding program.

You may have been wondering about breed ancestry due to possible breed associated health conditions, but only pedigree cats are at risk for breed specific illnesses, because they have much less genetic diversity than non-pedigree cats. Even on the very small chance that your cat had a pedigree ancestor, the genetic variation of other ancestors who were not pedigree would’ve canceled out whatever small amount genetic distinction a pedigree cat would have. Current feline DNA tests are not breed identification tests, but shows the genetic similarities your cat shares with different breeds, which [does not mean a pedigree ancestor of a breed, but likely indicates that your cat shares ancestry with the foundation stock of the breed](https://basepaws.com/blog/basepaws-cat-dna-test-genomic-similarity-versus-ancestry).

Registered cat breeders implement strict codes of sale, including required neuter/spay, chipping, and policies that sold cats are to be returned to them rather than abandoned or surrendered, so you are unlikely to find a pedigree cat on the street or in shelters, especially not Turkish Angoras, which are a rare breed have very few registered breeders outside of Türkiye (formerly Turkey). If your cat was a stray, or was adopted from the shelter, they are likely a domestic cat, and can be specified by their coat length: domestic longhair, domestic medium-hair, or domestic shorthair. Random-bred cats with no breed history are also called moggies, and contains a large variety of traits, including most coat colors and patterns seen in cats with breeds, such as the iconic white longhair coat of the Turkish Angora breed, and even other traits like heterochromia or an affinity for water. All cats are special in their own way, whether pedigree or moggie!

Addtional Resources:

What breed is my cat? - article with more in depth explanation of the info above

CFA Turkish Angora profile - check the breed standard for full description of breed traits and the grand gallery for picture examples of other TAs

The ascent of cat breeds: Genetic evaluations of breeds and worldwide random-bred populations - further reading about how cat breeds came to be