Donskoy — questions to ask before paying a deposit
A responsible breeder will have these readily available. Deflection is a red flag.
Hypotrichosis (hairlessness)
Donskoy's hairlessness is a single-gene, autosomal incomplete-dominant trait, catalogued by OMIA as disease-related. It is molecularly distinct from Sphynx hairlessness: KRT71, the gene responsible for the Sphynx mutation, has been explicitly ruled out as the cause in Donskoy, and no causal gene for the Donskoy trait has yet been identified. As the defining trait itself rather than a discrete disease, it carries secondary management needs typical of hairless cats generally (skin fold care, sunburn and temperature-regulation sensitivity), though those have not been documented specifically for Donskoy by a source in the approved list and are not asserted as confirmed findings here.
Ask to see: No DNA test exists or is possible while the causal gene remains unidentified.
OMIA:001866-9685: Hypotrichosis, Don Sphynx in Felis catus (domestic cat), Online Mendelian Inheritance in Animals (OMIA), University of Sydney (https://www.omia.org/OMIA001866/9685/)