Hey Pet Parents & Pet Lovers,
The time has come and I have gotten my hands on Beau’s DNA results. If you’re new to the blog or haven’t heard about Basepaws here’s a little catchup on our experience:
Our adventure started just before October 22, 2017. I was contacted by a member of Basepaws in hopes of having me review the product. I wasn’t interested at first, because the concept of checking your cat’s DNA sounded weird to me, but after reading Basepaw’s write-up (mentioning that they hope to be able to tell you certain qualities your pet may have or health issues your cat may have in the future) I quickly changed my mind and became interested. I’m always interested in trying to learn everything I can about my cats. I want to make sure I’m on top of their health and have the knowledge and resources I need before anything happens to them.
At initial glances at their e-mail, I thought Basepaws was much further along in their process. My understanding (or I guess assumption) was that they had equipment and samples and that they were going to give a fast result. (Similar to Human DNA tests). But this wasn’t true. Basepaws was truly in its infancy, which is exciting, but it does come at a fairly high cost for a “trial-phase.”
On February 19, 2018, I got an e-mail from Anna at Basepaws. You can read all about it in this post. To summarize, they weren’t able to extract any DNA from Beau’s samples so they asked me if I would like to try again. I said yes, and they also included 3 CatKits for some of our readers. I will say, it’s fantastic that they would give me a replacement, but I did lose some trust in the process when I got that e-mail. Now, I’ll admit I don’t know how many DNA kits don’t work out and I’m not a very science-oriented person, so I might just be ragging on them too hard. But, when you’re going to spend $95 on a product, you would hope that it works… right? This sample was sent on March 20, 2016
On June 16, 2018, I got an e-mail saying that my CatKit was finally sequencing. They said that my delivery would be in about a week. Not much more information about this, but you can read my thoughts on it here.
And finally August 2, 2018, I got the e-mail that the results were here… but I haven’t opened them until this morning. Let’s go over everything I think about Basepaws:
What Basepaws is said to Offer/is Hoping* To Offer
Basepaws uses a lot of asterisks on their website, the thing is… nowhere does it explain what that means. I’ve scoured their site to find out, so if anyone has found out if it means that they are working on the product, let me know. That aside, their website currently states the fact that their CatKits will provide the following information:
Health Information
- Simple Disease Markers*
- Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD)*
- Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM)*
- Comparative Markers*
- Complex Disease Markers*
- Personalized veterinary medicine*
Ancestry Information
- In-Breeding*
- Maternal and Paternal Tracing*
- Breed Index *
- Family tree, Percent of breeds, percent breeds by chromosome*
Features
- Send report to vet*
- Health and wellness assessments*
- Make decision-based on genetically similar cats*
Fun Facts
- Wild Cat Index *
- Predicted weight*
- Traits*
- Predicted user submitted traits*
- Catnip*
A pretty awesome list, eh? The unfortunate thing is, Basepaws has only released the two bolded features which while interesting, don’t really have the information I was hoping I’d get from the kits (at least not as of yet.) I do have faith that they will be able to provide that information but I’m curious when it’s going to happen and how the information will be interpreted for cats who participated before they knew how to understand that DNA. (I hope that makes sense.) I know they promise to update their older customers with the information they discover, however, what if the DNA gets damaged over time or they didn’t collect all the information they needed? Again, I’m not a scientist, but this is a worry as a customer who doesn’t understand DNA.
My Results
| Basepaws included a variety of cats Beau could be (actually 27), but all of them showed as fairly inconclusive making the final answer: he’s domestic. I don’t know if every vet has the same joke, but our vet always jokes around saying that it’s never worth asking what breed your cat is… because it’s always going to end up being “domestic” unless it’s a very clear breed like a ragdoll.
Before I go into my specific results, let me tell you… Basepaw’s system is so confusing. It’s not their website design or navigation, but their graphs, which is the most important part of the site! I honestly don’t understand why they chose to format their results this way, but I’m assuming it’s so they don’t give out specific numbers just in case the results are off… although… I don’t know… Their instructions are as follows: The width of the marker indicates the exactness of our prediction. If your cat does not clearly match a breed, your cat is most likely a Domestic. Okay… is it just me or are you confused about that too? I mean, I get that the more it leans to one side, the more likely it is that your cat is that breed, but when you look down at my results Beau is a lot more likely to be an Abyssinian and a lot less likely to be an Abyssinian… what does that even mean!? It’s funny because their Wild Cat section breaks everything down into percentages… and that’s information I kind of find irrelevant. It’s cool to know that my cat is a “leopard cat”, but how does that information actually help me? |
Oriental Shorthair |
American Shorthair
|
Abyssinian
|
The thing that irks me is the fact that I’ve seen a number of people’s results and their shockingly similar to Beau’s and if they aren’t… well they’re equally as confusing. To this day I haven’t seen anyone with results that show that a cat is absolutely a specific breed. Again, this might be because most of our cats are mixed breeds, but still… you’d think that there were clearer differences.
Basepaw’s Price
Currently priced at $95, Basepaws is a very steep price for an unfinished product. I’m appreciative to have been given the chance to try the product for free, but I don’t think I would purchase this product or try it on my second cat. I’ve also seen many complaints that there are no deals for buying multiple CatKits. It’s a great marketing trick that a lot of companies do, and honestly, it works really well for me. If I know that you’re going to give me a little back for buying more… I’m a happy customer! I know a lot of my readers own multiple cats and this can get mighty expensive if they were going to test all of them!
I would recommend waiting a few more years to see where this company goes before buying a CatKit. Thing is: they have their heart in the right place and are probably working very hard… it’s just not ready for the price that they’re asking for… I do like their tactic of contacting pet blogs to review their product in hopes of raising more awareness and collecting some extra samples along the way. That’s a great choice, however… you might have wanted to get more samples before approaching blogs.
So… do you dislike Basepaws?
In the state it’s in right now, I’m not so happy with it. I will say I’m still very hopeful that they are going to turn this around and be able to provide some amazing information, I just think it’s going to take more time than I originally thought.
I’m personally very interested in the Health section, including the Complex Disease Markers and Simple Disease Markers. The Ancestry stuff doesn’t really interest me too much (since not even human ancestry really interests me.) I will say, they have amazing customer support and have responded fairly quickly to all my e-mails.
Do you think Basepaws is a Scam?
No. I will say, there was some time I thought that they were a scam. I was worried they were collecting a bunch of money and weren’t going to return results. I actually got a fair number of e-mails about the product asking me for updates so folks could get refunds. I’ll tell you the same thing I told them and the same thing that I’ve said throughout this review: I think their heart is in the right place, but they’re not ready. Basepaws needs to be promoted as a startup. They send a lot of update newsletters, but from the beginning, they were telling us that we would have full results between 2-4 weeks. My whole wait time has been over 10 months. 10 MONTHS to get my preliminary results. That’s not a great way to start off this adventure.
What do you think? Have any of my winners gotten their results back yet? Let me know!
Hey, just FYI, after they do the DNA sequencing, that information is all stored digitally. It doesn’t matter if the DNA “goes bad.” They’ll always have the information to cross-reference as new discoveries on new genes come out!
Good information to have! Thanks for the comment!
Interesting. I’ve been curious but reluctant about this sort of thing. We have 3 somewhat newly adopted kittens; 2 are brothers. All are interesting looking cats and I’ve been curious about their breed makeup. However, possibly the biggest reason I would actually do this would be because of my vet experience with our beloved cat who passed from an incurable cancer. When the vet broke the news and broke down treatment options (which really turned out to be no kind of good option at all – and this was before the ct scan that showed the full horrible extent of it all), a lot of what was being said to me was “well, no real research is done on cats.” Most of the treatment was sort of filtered down from dog studies/drug trials and adapted to cats with a kind of “well, let’s just hope this works for cats” attitude. It was a little shocking, really, as they have similar life spans and must certainly be the two most popular pets in the world. I guess I would be open to doing a test like this in order to expand the database of information for cats on some meaningful level, but if it is just fluff info then perhaps it’s not worth it? It was disappointing to me to, and certainly downright heartbreaking at the time, to see the way cats were treated as sort of second class pet citizens in terms of research and information. I understand that dogs are seemingly more cooperative and obvious than cats when it comes to many things, but it also seems to imply researchers think people care more for their dogs than their cats.
In regards to the Abyssinian thing, the first cat to ever have their genes sequenced was an Abyssinian, so I wonder if that is not the “benchmark” for these results and the reason it appears so frequently in everyone’s results?
This was a useful review, particularly in regards to the currently released features, so thanks for writing it!
No problem cat! I know that they’re releasing new information soon, will definitely do a write up on that when they do.
My cat also had 27 possible matches and was very strong in Abyssinian (or very weak?). I read another review that had a strong Abyssinian result. Make me think there is something not right. Unless all stray cats are a make up of 27 breeds, predominantly Abyssinian.
I got an e-mail this week saying they were updating everything, so I’m hoping for the best <3
Here’s my take on Basepaws vs other genetic testing kits. Note: I haven’t used Basepaws (yet), this is just an opinion from reading through websites.
Basepaws actually looks at your cat’s DNA and sequences it. They are, supposedly, trying to find actual genetic markers for various diseases. Since cats are such a hodgepodge of genetics, I imagine this would take time especially if no/little prior research exists. Other wide reaching genetic tests I’ve looked at that claim to tell you things about health are based on *statistics* based on breed. No where do they mention that your pet actually has gene X or mutation Y. I know some genetic testing is available for cats – like the Ragdoll HCM mutation, so hopefully Basepaws has some initial info to work with.
However, like others have stated, it’s difficult for us to know exactly what they’re doing with our money and they’re making tall promises with no guaranteed return of investment. I mean, anyone familiar with cats knows that odds are their cat is just a plain old domestic short/medium/longhair. Breed testing for cats just isn’t the same as dogs. Basepaws would be better served, I think, with increased transparency at this stage. It’s kind of still got the Kickstarter feel to it. Give us numbers – numbers of cats in their database, known genetic markers that they’re working with, anything.
Also, the Alpha Report reads like a gimmick. They should add breeds that are known to be present in domestic populations (i.e. Servals) but leave alone tigers and lions. Nobody’s cat is part tiger and any resemblance in the genetics to tigers is purely coincidental and does not mean your cat is any more related to tigers than a mouse. Other than them both being feline, that is.
So, I dunno. I’ll probably send in a kit for one of my cats. But, I’ll probably write off the $95.
I agree with the transparency, I think that’s what’s caused the biggest problem. I also agree with the breeds present in domestic populations and ignoring the “wild cat” part of it. While I found it interesting to see what they said, it didn’t really benefit me in any way.
that is not the graph that was in the pic on base paws The pic i saw of the graph was like 34% Abyssinian and so on i never would have got this if i new the graph was going to look that heard to read
Yeah, to be honest, I was fairly surprised that this was the way they chose to format the graphs. Sorry about the late response, somehow this got stuck in our spam filter.
we waited for 6 months…i think it’s a scam, just email them saying so. it is a joke, the info they sent me i already knew by going through google. it didn’t say what my cat was…. and i know exactly what he is, was just checking what they were going to send me but also i needed to know percentages of wild… they sent me back that in the future they will improve blah blah blah… total waste of money
Definitely sorry that you spent money on the product. I’m still waiting to see what the health section is going to bring up. I’m hoping something useful comes of it since the breed section was such a huge dissapointment.
I’m still waiting for results.
It’s been 7 months.
When I contact them there
is always a reason for the delay.
His sample is listed as sequencing.
How long has it been sequencing for now?
That really sucks you waited so long. I sent my kitties’ DNA in 6 weeks ago and have just received the emails that they are in for processing. Thanks so much for this post! I’ve been looking everywhere for reviews.
No problem at all Elisa, let me know how it goes for you! Hopefully you get some great results!
I still have not gotten a kit, (that I won in your giveaway), from them…let alone results.
At least I know what breed Pipo is, MOL! (Knowing the breed is also a good way to perhaps predict what issues he may be prone to, esp as he gets older. (He will be 14 at ear’s end.)
Wait you still haven’t gotten the kit at all?
Nope…I haven’t even heard anything from them.
That’s so odd. I was actually the one who mailed out your kit I should still have the receipt. I know Ellen’s was delivered and I’m pretty sure I remember Vicky confirming too (just waiting on results), but I had no clue it never made it to you yet. I sent it out in March so there’s no reason it shouldn’t have made it to you yet. I’m so, so, so sorry if it got lost in the mail 🙁
That’s OK, Johnny, wen I read about your experience with the ambiguity and non-specific results you got, I guess I wouldn’t learn anything new either.
Actually I am way more interested in Dalton’s DNA, and I asked my sons to gift me with a kit to test him, for my birthday, later this year. There are lots of good doggy DNA sites…and I don’t have nor can I truly justify spending about 300$ to see what breeds are in my little rescue pup. Hence the gift request, LOL!
Way back in 2006, when I was sick with stage three cancer, I had some genetic testing done, to the tune of about $3,ooo. OMC!!
Thankfully it was negative so I didn’t have to worry my family members and even more thankfully, I have not had a recurrence:)
Oh my, that’s an expensive doggy test, but it can definitely be worth it! I don’t know if I would be able to justify $300 either though.
I’m so sorry to about the cancer, but I’m so glad you haven’t had a reoccurrence. That gave me huge chills up my body. I’m so, so, so grateful you’re alright.
It kind of blows me away how expensive tests can be, and I get the fact that machinery and the staff to operate them take a lot of funds, but I’m always curious to see how much work actually goes into the analysis and how much money companies profit from the high test prices. (That was the longest run-on sentence I’ve ever written, I hope it makes sense.)
I got almost the same results as you. including that same abyssinian result with the huge marker. all of my cats top results were short hairs and very very different than him. he’s a medium hair with a developing coat towards being an even longer haired cat. we got him about 6 months ago and he was very undernourished. since then his coat keeps evolving as he gets healthier. he’s a tuxedo cat. I contacted them to see if I got the right results for him. they told me they predicted he was a short haired orange cat. LOL. yeah.
I think in time (if they don’t go under) they will be a great resource.. but they need many many many thousands more in their data base to have any relevance at all imo and they seem to be having a hard time processing what they have already. :/
That’s insane lol and insanely off! I agree, they have major potential it’s just… This first beta is very, very disappointing. Let me know what the newer results look like for you!
I’m not sure where my comments are going … but I’m sorry that you waited so long only to be disappointed!
Hey! It’s probably because I haven’t had internet these past few days and haven’t been able to go through and approve comments 🙁 Sorry about that! My internet will be back mid next week!
That is kind of disappointing after waiting for so long!
We’re sorry you’ve been disappointed ! DNA stuff may be complicated, and Basepaws should maybe re-think the way in which the results are given to the customers. Purrs
For sure. 🙂 I think they have great potential. Just wish there was more info sooner 😉
Sorry the results were so disappointing.
Thanks Island Cats, hoping the second round is better!
I would have been really upset if I had paid $95.00 and received that! They won’t make it much further with that info and that pricing IMO.
Honestly, again I hope them the very best, but yes I’m very shocked that these were the first results.
Thanks for saving me $95 or more, Johnny! I owe you!
No problem Greg 🙂
Golly, this doesn’t seem like you’ve gotten any good information at all!
Sadly, no not yet. I’m hoping for better in later releases.
We won a kit from you and I am still patiently waiting for Millie’s results. How disappointing that Beau’s didn’t give you more information.
Let me know when you do, we can compare some of our results! I hope they’re more specific with yours!
Your experience does remind me of the Theranos scandal.
I’ll have to check to see what that’s about!
sorry this didn’t pan out as expected and yes, thankfully you didn’t shell out $95…that is steep
had to laugh at the “vet joke” about all cats being labeled as “domestic” ….
Absolutely agree. I’m really glad I didn’t have to pay for the product. I’m still hoping they come out with more specific results.
I’ve read all your posts on Basepaws and while it sounds just great in the end didn’t produce results and for that high of price the whole thing is either a complete scam which is most likely. Another suggestion to Basepaws since they’re in their infancy lower the price to a reasonable price. Shared on G+.
Agreed, I think the price should be lowered!