UNDERSTANDING MITTEN AND PATTY PAWS
Updated: Sep 12
Two polydactyl Maine Coons can have the same number of toes and completely different feet. The difference lies not only in what can be seen, but in how the digits and underlying bones are arranged.
Polydactyl Maine Coon paws are commonly described in two familiar ways: mitten and patty.
The terms are useful because they describe two recognisable external forms. They are not, however, complete descriptions of the anatomy beneath the fur.
Radiographic research in Maine Coons has shown that polydactyly can affect much more than the number of visible toes. Additional digits may differ in size, position and completeness. Skeletal structures may be separate, fused or divided. Variation can also extend into the carpus and tarsus, the regions corresponding broadly to the wrist and ankle.
This means that two paws which appear similar from above may not be constructed in exactly the same way underneath.
What is a mitten paw?
The terminology was already in use among breeders when researchers undertook the major clinical study of polydactyly in Maine Coons.
In that study, a mitten paw was described as having an additional digit that is shorter than the ordinary digits and positioned separately from them. The distance between the additional digit and the first ordinary digit is greater than the distance between the ordinary digits themselves.
Visually, this can create the impression of a thumb positioned beside the main paw.
In some cats the effect is striking. In others it is considerably more subtle.
TICA accepts the mitten form within the Maine Coon Polydactyl standard. The current standard also recognises that a mitten paw may appear to turn outward slightly.
The important point is that mitten describes arrangement, not a particular toe count.
A six toed paw can be mitten shaped. A paw carrying a different permitted number of toes may show the same general configuration.
What is a patty paw?
A patty paw has a different visual structure.
In the terminology used in the clinical study, the additional digits are more continuous with the main row of toes. They are similar in length to the ordinary digits, and their spacing follows the spacing of the other digits more closely.
The result is usually a broader looking foot rather than a distinct thumb like projection.
TICA accepts the patty form as well.
Again, the term describes configuration rather than number.
Two cats can therefore have exactly the same number of toes while one presents a pronounced mitten and the other a broad patty configuration.
Toe count alone cannot tell us which type of paw we are looking at.
What mitten and patty paws actually describe
This distinction is important.
Mitten and patty give us a useful language for what can be seen externally. Radiographs show that the skeletal anatomy beneath a polydactyl paw can be considerably more complex.
The largest clinical study devoted specifically to the phenotype examined 70 Maine Coons, including 48 polydactyl cats from four breeding lines in Europe, Canada and the United States.
The researchers documented considerable variation not only in the number and conformation of additional digits, but also in the structure of the carpus and tarsus.
Some additional digits were complete.
Others were incomplete.
Some structures were fused.
The study also recorded additional carpal and tarsal bones, fusion between skeletal elements and absence of the radial sesamoid bone in some cats.
The visible paw was therefore only one part of the phenotype.
A complete additional digit is not the same as an incomplete one
An extra toe is not always simply another conventional toe added to the side of the paw.
Radiographs in the Maine Coon study revealed a remarkable range of structures.
Researchers documented complete additional digits of normal size, smaller complete digits, additional structures containing only one or two phalanges, small metacarpal buds and even an additional claw without an associated phalanx.
Some incomplete additional digits of the forepaw were associated with fusion and forked metacarpal structures around the dewclaw region.
This is one reason why a visible toe count can oversimplify the anatomy.
Two structures that both appear externally to be additional toes may not have the same skeletal construction.
For an owner, that distinction will often have little everyday significance beyond becoming familiar with the individual paw and every claw it carries.
Scientifically, however, it tells us something important.
Polydactyly is not simply the production of identical spare digits.
It is variation in limb development.
Front paws and hind paws do not always tell the same story
A normal feline forepaw and hind paw do not begin with the same number of digits.
A standard forepaw normally carries five digits, while a standard hind paw carries four.
Polydactyly therefore develops against two different anatomical starting points.
In the Maine Coons studied, the resulting patterns varied considerably.
Some cats carried additional digits only on the forepaws. Others had them on all four paws.
The study also documented four cats with visible additional digits only on the hind paws. Interestingly, these cats also had unusually long first digits on the forepaws and altered carpal conformation, illustrating again that visible toe count does not necessarily describe the whole limb phenotype.
The front and hind feet should therefore be considered individually rather than assuming that one paw predicts the arrangement of another.
Lineage can influence the pattern that appears
One of the most interesting findings from the clinical research was that cats from the same breeding line often shared certain morphological tendencies.
Among the 31 polydactyl cats from the Canadian line, sixteen showed one additional digit on each forepaw and two additional digits on each hind paw.
Thirty of the thirty one appeared patty footed on all four paws. One cat presented mitten paws at the front and patty paws at the rear.
Polydactyly between the right and left limbs was also often symmetrical in this line.
The American lines showed different patterns.
One contained both complete and incomplete additional forepaw digits, while another showed greater heterogeneity, including numerous incomplete digits and more asymmetry between the left and right limbs.
These findings should not be converted into permanent rules for cats from a particular country or pedigree.
The study examined particular breeding populations.
What it demonstrates is something more useful: polydactyly has sufficient variation for familial patterns to become visible within breeding lines.
Later genetic research in Maine Coons has reinforced the wider picture that the genetic basis of polydactyly within the breed is heterogeneous rather than represented by one identical molecular explanation in every line.
Symmetry is preferred, but nature does not always produce symmetry
One polydactyl paw may mirror its partner remarkably closely.
Another cat may express the trait differently on opposite sides.
Both occur.
TICA's current Maine Coon Polydactyl standard states that symmetrical expression is preferred.
Preferred is the important word.
It does not mean that asymmetry prevents a cat from being polydactyl.
Nor does it mean that every polydactyl Maine Coon will naturally develop matching paws.
Clinical research confirms that asymmetrical expression exists within the breed.
Symmetry can therefore be considered when evaluating the paw.
It is not what defines the biological trait.
More toes are not preferred
Polydactyl paws naturally attract attention, and toe counting can very easily become a competition.
The TICA standard takes a more measured position.
Additional toes may occur on the forepaws, hind paws or both. Mitten and patty forms are accepted. Symmetry is preferred, and the maximum permitted number is seven toes on any individual foot.
The standard also explicitly recognises variable expression, from a single additional dewclaw to additional toes on each foot.
Most importantly, it gives no preference to more additional toes over fewer, provided the expression remains within the permitted maximum.
A seven toed paw is therefore not automatically superior to a six toed paw.
Seven is a limit.
It is not an ideal.
The number describes one aspect of the phenotype. Quality belongs to the complete cat.
A broad paw does not prove a larger limb
The appearance of a polydactyl paw can be deceptive.
Because some configurations produce a very broad foot, it has sometimes been suggested that polydactyl Maine Coons also possess larger limb bones.
The available clinical research did not support that assumption.
Researchers compared the radius, one of the principal bones of the forelimb, between polydactyl and nonpolydactyl Maine Coons.
No difference in radius size was found in kittens at three months of age or in adult females. Adult males were not analysed in that part of the study, so the result should not be extended beyond the population actually examined.
The conclusion is therefore quite specific.
A broad polydactyl paw should not automatically be interpreted as evidence that the entire limb skeleton is larger.
The paw can be wider because its structure is different.
Those are not the same thing.
The carpus and tarsus matter too
Much of our attention naturally falls on the toes because that is where polydactyly is easiest to see.
Radiography showed that variation could extend further into the limb.
The carpus contains the small bones forming the wrist region of the forelimb.
The tarsus performs the corresponding role in the hind limb.
In the Maine Coons studied, researchers documented changes including additional carpal and tarsal bones, fusion between bones and loss of the radial sesamoid bone in some cats.
This matters because it changes the way we understand the phenotype.
Polydactyly is not necessarily an alteration confined to the end of a toe.
The developmental change responsible for the visible extra digits can also influence the organisation of a wider part of the paw.
Does structural variation mean there is a welfare problem?
Descriptions of fused bones, incomplete digits and altered skeletal structures can sound alarming when removed from their clinical context.
The study's conclusion was considerably more measured.
Despite the broad variation in digit number, digit conformation and the structure of the carpus and tarsus, the researchers reported no apparent detrimental consequence for feline welfare in the population they examined.
Only one of the 48 polydactyl cats in the study displayed lameness. A piece of bone was subsequently identified in the carpus and surgically removed, after which the lameness resolved. The researchers specifically stated that there was no proof that the lameness was related to polydactyly.
That finding deserves both reassurance and restraint.
It does not prove that every possible polydactyl configuration in every individual cat can never develop a clinical problem.
Nor does it establish what happens across an entire lifetime.
The authors specifically noted that studies involving cats older than five years would be necessary to understand fully how the phenotype might evolve with ageing.
The available evidence therefore supports reassurance.
It does not justify exaggeration in either direction.
Why a breeder should look at the whole paw
Counting toes is easy.
Understanding the paw requires more.
A breeder can assess the visible arrangement of the additional digits, compare corresponding feet, identify every claw, observe how the kitten moves and consider the paw as part of the complete animal.
What cannot always be determined simply by looking is the exact skeletal arrangement underneath.
That does not mean that a healthy polydactyl kitten requires routine radiography.
The researchers used radiographs because their purpose was to characterise the phenotype scientifically.
The practical lesson for breeders is different.
Do not assume that every additional digit is structurally identical simply because it looks similar from the outside.
And do not allow the drama of an unusual paw to replace assessment of the whole Maine Coon.
What a prospective owner is actually seeing
For somebody meeting a polydactyl Maine Coon for the first time, the paws can be extraordinary.
A mitten may create the impression of a substantial thumb.
A patty configuration can make the entire foot appear remarkably broad.
One kitten may possess almost perfectly matching paws, while another expresses the characteristic differently from side to side or between front and rear.
Those differences describe phenotype.
By themselves, they do not establish that one kitten is genetically better, healthier or more valuable than another.
The more useful questions are whether the paws function normally, whether every claw can be identified and cared for, and whether the kitten has been evaluated as a complete Maine Coon rather than selected principally for an impressive toe count.
Mitten and patty are the beginning of the description
Mitten and patty give us a language for what we see.
Mitten describes the more separated additional digit.
Patty describes the broader and more continuous arrangement.
Neither term tells the entire anatomical story.
Clinical research in Maine Coons has revealed complete and incomplete additional digits, differences between forepaws and hind paws, symmetrical and asymmetrical expression, and variation extending into the bones of the carpus and tarsus.
TICA's standard reflects that visible diversity by accepting both mitten and patty configurations and by recognising variable polydactyl expression without rewarding the greatest possible number of toes.
The result is a characteristic that cannot be understood properly by toe count alone.
A polydactyl paw is not simply a standard paw with more of the same.
It is an individual anatomical expression of altered limb development.
And once that is understood, the extraordinary variety seen in Maine Coon paws begins to make considerably more sense.
Buba Ayers
Founder & Breeder, Tycoon Manor
Sources and further reading
Hamelin A, Begon D, Conchou F, Fusellier M, Abitbol M. Clinical characterisation of polydactyly in Maine Coon cats. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery. 2017;19(4):382 to 393. DOI 10.1177/1098612X16628920.
Hamelin A, Conchou F, Fusellier M, Duchenij B, Vieira I, Filhol E, et al. Genetic heterogeneity of polydactyly in Maine Coon cats. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery. 2020;22(12):1103 to 1113. DOI 10.1177/1098612X20905061.
The International Cat Association. Maine Coon Breed Group, MC and MCP. Current breed standard, revised 1 May 2025.
