Are Pet DNA Tests Accurate? What Dog and Cat Owners Need to Know

At-home pet DNA tests can be interesting, but their results should not be treated as absolute truth. Medical exams and genetic tests can create both a false sense of security and unnecessary alarm, says veterinarian Amanda Chambers. If a test identifies your pet as a carrier of a genetic disease, share the results with your veterinarian and schedule a follow-up visit.

What Pet DNA Tests Can—and Cannot—Tell You

After speaking with Richardson, we found that the main limitations of home DNA testing kits include:

• Results can vary depending on the size and diversity of a company’s genetic database.
• Most kits test only known genetic markers rather than an animal’s complete genome.
• Genetic data on cats is less developed than data on dogs.
• Misinterpreting results can lead to unnecessary concern.

Wisdom Panel claims that its cat breed results are more than 98 percent accurate and its dog tests are more than 99 percent accurate. However, three DNA kits tested on my cats produced significant differences, particularly in their breed-ancestry results. One reason may be that the companies use different sample sizes and metrics to identify breeds.

Why Cat Breed DNA Results Can Be Especially Uncertain

The biggest challenge for cat owners is that most cats cannot be identified as a specific breed through a home DNA test. Unless a cat is purebred, 95 percent of cats do not belong to a recognized breed.

Cats have complex and ambiguous genetic backgrounds. Because many cats share similar genetic traits while having different physical characteristics, a test may identify breeds with the closest markers in a company’s database. In practice, these tests cannot determine a cat’s breed composition with certainty. They can only show similarities to traits associated with breeds represented in the company’s data pool.

Based on my research, breed identification appears to be more accurate for dogs. Dog DNA data is more diverse, and dog breeds have become more clearly defined after centuries of diversification. Dogs can also mutate rapidly, changing genes over just a few generations. Cats, by comparison, are not as different genetically from their Egyptian ancestors.

A Test of Pet DNA Produced Inconsistent Results

A 2023 CBS report sent dog and human DNA samples to several home-testing companies and received mixed results. The dog’s results ranged from 65 percent German Shepherd to just 29 percent German Shepherd. The human DNA was identified as a mix of Bulldog, Border Collie, and Cane Corso.

There is currently no single, comprehensive way to determine a pet’s complete genetic makeup or ancestry. Humans naturally like to organize animals into categories, but breeds are largely human-made classifications based on appearance. Pet DNA tests can be fun, but their results should be interpreted cautiously—especially when it comes to cats.

Are At-Home Pet Allergy Tests Accurate?

I recently tested two cats for allergies and food intolerances with a similar at-home kit. The 5Strands Pet Food and Environmental Intolerance Test costs $100 and requires owners to mail a fur sample to a laboratory. Results arrived by email within seven days.

According to the report, both cats had strong intolerances to common ingredients in their diets, including several types of fish and chicken meal. The results caused me to worry about my cats’ health and discomfort.

Further investigation found that hair and fur samples are not an accurate way to measure allergies or intolerances. Research suggests that kits making these claims perform no better than chance and often produce inconsistent or incorrect results.