There are plenty of examples of hybridization—the offspring of two animals from different species—in the animal kingdom, but a dog-cat hybrid is not among them. Dogs and cats cannot breed with one another and produce offspring because they’re genetically different.
In this post, we’ll clue you in on why dogs cannot get cats pregnant and introduce you to some fascinating hybrid animals.
The Genetic Explanation
The first reason dogs and cats can’t produce offspring together is that the chromosome gap is simply too wide. Chromosomes, DNA-containing coiled structures located in the cell nucleus, are DNA. They contain the genetic code, which is passed on from parents to their offspring. This determines physical traits that the animal will inherit. Cats have 19 chromosomes, while dogs have 39.
Though it’s possible for different species to breed and produce hybrids, the species that do so are very closely related genetically and this just isn’t the case for cats and dogs. It’s impossible because the DNA is different and there is a large distance between the chromosomes.
To give an example, the coywolf is a hybrid produced by interbreeding between wolves, coyotes, and dogs—species that are all genetically…
