Types of cat Breeds
Abyssinian Cat Breed Traits The Abyssinian is a ticked or agouti breed. The distinctive coat appearance comes from the combination of colors on each hair shaft.
American Bobtail Cat Personality While the breed is still developing, breeders say that Bobtails are playful, energetic, and friendly, and possess an uncanny intelligence for Houdini-type escapes from closed rooms and fastened cages.
The American Curl is one of the youngest cat breeds. It was born of a natural genetic mutation that first appeared in Shulamith, a stray black kitten with long, silky hair and, strangely, ears that curled backward.
The Cat Fanciers Association recognized them as a breed in 1906. To differentiate them from randombred cats, also known as domestic shorthairs, the pedigreed felines were given the name American Shorthair in 1966. The cats are recognized by all registries.
The American Wirehair achieved full recognition from the Cat Fanciers Association in 1978. In The International Cat Association, the breed is considered a type of American Shorthair. American Wirehairs are also recognized by the American Cat Fanciers Association, the Canadian Cat Association, and the World Cat Federation.
Balinese Cat Personality. Balinese cats are smart, sweet, and fun to be around. Like the Siamese, they are known for their ability to communicate vocally, sometimes nonstop, and therefore this breed is not for everyone.
The Bengal is a domestic cat breed developed to look like exotic jungle cats such as leopards, ocelots, margays and clouded leopards.
Before he died, however, he had impregnated the female, and her kittens helped to establish the breed in Europe. It was recognized in France in 1925 as the Sacre de Birmanie, from which comes the current breed name, Birman. The cats were first imported to the United States in 1959 and were recognized by the Cat Fanciers Association in 1967.
Bombay Cat Personality. If an aloof, independent cat is what you're craving, this breed isn't for you. Bombays are attached to their family, and tend to love the entire family rather than bond with only one person. Fanciers say they are particularly good with children.
British Longhair Breed History. The British Longhair is essentially the British Shorthair with longer fur, but it is considered a newer breed. Between 1914 and 1918, cat lovers started crossing British Shorthair cats with Persians, thereby creating the British Longhair breed, showcasing all of the unique coat features of a Persian and the temperament of a British Shorthair.
The British Shorthair is native to England. With the rise of cat shows during the Victorian era, cat fanciers began to breed the cats to a particular standard and keep pedigrees for them. At the earliest cat shows, British Shorthairs were the only pedigreed cats exhibited. All others were simply described by coat type or color.
Burmese Cat Personality Breeders and fanciers report that Burmese are amusing, playful, and super-smart, the perfect interactive cats for home, office, shop, any place where people are in need of love and entertainment.
The Burmilla is another example of the accidental creation of a new cat breed. The unplanned mating between a Burmese and a chinchilla Persian in England in 1981 produced four black shaded female kittens with short, thick coats. The breeder realized how attractive such a breed could be and went on to develop what became known as the Burmilla.
The Chartreux may be one of The Cat Fanciers’ Association’s oldest new breeds. Chartreux history is steeped in legend, even though the breed was only advanced to championship status in 1987. Recent research has proven that the origin of these cats was in ancient Persia.
The Colorpoint Shorthair is a combination of the Siamese and other Shorthaired cats, primarily the American Shorthair. This combination resulted in a cat with the pointing of the Siamese, but with colors not allowed in the Siamese cat.
The American Cat Fanciers Association and the Canadian Cat Association recognized the Cornish Rex in 1963, followed by the Cat Fanciers Association in 1964. The breed is now recognized by all cat registries.
Cymric Cat Breed Traits. Cymrics come in a variety of tail lengths. The tail types are broken into four classifications: rumpy, rumpy-riser, stumpy, and longy. Since the tailless gene is dominant, all Cymrics that possess the Manx gene will have one of the four tail types.
The Devon Rex naturally has a very fine coat, but those with less hair than normal for the breed are considered to be hypotricotic. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a form of heart disease that is inherited in some cat breeds such as the Maine Coon.
Egyptian Maus are a small- to medium-sized short-haired cat breed. Along with the Bahraini Dilmun cat, they are one of the few naturally spotted breeds of domesticated cat. The spots of the Mau occur on only the tips of the hairs of its coat. It is considered to be a rare breed.
The Exotic Shorthair is a breed of cat developed to be a short-haired version of the Persian. The Exotic is similar to the Persian in many ways, including temperament and conformation, a flat nose and face with the exceptions of the short dense coat.
The Havana Brown’s distinctive color extends even to his whiskers. He is the only cat with a breed standard that spells out whisker color: brown, of course, complementing the coat color. Looking out from all that minky-brown richness are vivid green eyes with an oval shape.
The Cat Fanciers Association recognized the Himalayan as a distinct breed in 1957, but in 1984 the CFA Board of Directors decided to reclassify the Himalayan as a color variety of the Persian.
The Japanese Bobtail is a medium-sized cat that has both longhair and shorthair varieties. Males are bigger than females. They are long, slender cats with highly developed muscles that enable them to jump great heights.
Javanese Cat Breed Traits. The Javanese's standard is almost identical to the Siamese's and to the standards of the related breeds: Balinese, Color-point Shorthair, Oriental Shorthair, and Oriental Longhair. The main differences lie in the color schemes and hair lengths.
The Korat is possibly the cat in the fancy that most closely resembles its original look – more than any other breed. Comparing a Korat from the earliest pictures to one from today, one finds little to no difference in the cats. For more information, please contact the Breed Council Secretary for this breed.
The LaPerm is a recognized breed of cat. A LaPerm's fur is curly (hence the name "perm"), with the tightest curls being on the belly, throat and base of the ears. LaPerms come in many colors and patterns. LaPerms generally have a very affectionate personality.
The Maine Coon Cat Breed: No breed has a monopoly on love and affection, but there's got to be some good reason that the Maine Coon has clawed his way up from near ...
Manx Cat Breed Traits The Manx is one of the most challenging cats to breed because of the Manx gene. Homozygous Manx kittens (kittens that inherit the Manx gene from both parents) die in vivo early in their development.
Munchkin Cat Breed Traits. Because of the small gene pool, outcrossing will need to occur for many years to keep the breed healthy. For that reason, the conformation may vary in these early years as new genes are introduced. Any domestic longhair or shorthair that is not a member of a recognized breed is an acceptable outcross.
The International Cat Association gave the cats New Breed status in 1987 and full recognition in 1997. Nebelungs can be outcrossed to Russian Blues. The Nebelung is also recognized by the Cat Fanciers Federation and the Traditional Cat Association.
About the Norwegian Forest Cat Known as the Skogkatt in its native Norway, the Norwegian Forest Cat is a large, semi-longhaired cat whose rugged appearance fits its name. Despite the hardy facade, this breed is very much a homebody that enjoys the company of other pets and particularly their human companions.
Never before was there such an effort to breed an entirely domestic cat which can offer the spotted beauty of the wild cats while maintaining the lovely, predictable disposition of the domestic cat. The Ocicat originates from interbreeding of Abyssinian, Siamese, and American Shorthair and is the only spotted domestic breed selectively bred to emulate the cats of the wild.
Cats with Siamese points were used in Siamese breeding programs, but the non-pointed cats became the basis for a new breed: the Oriental. When the cats began to be imported into the United States in the 1970s, crosses with American Shorthairs produced yet more colors and patterns.
The Persian is an old breed. To those who love this elegant cat, it will come as no surprise that the longhaired beauty originated in the cradle of civilization: Mesopotamia, which was later known as Persia and is now modern-day Iran.
The Peterbald cat is a very new breed developed in 1994 when a breeder in St. Petersburg, Russia crossed a Don Sphynx cat with an Oriental Shorthair cat. The result was a cat with varying amounts of hair, wrinkly skin and dextrous front paws like the Don Sphynx, and the vocal personality and long, exotic body style and head shape closer to the Oriental.
The International Cat Association (TICA) officially recognized the Pixie-Bob as a breed in 1994. It took the American Cat Fanciers Association (ACFA) up until 2005 to follow suit and accept the Pixie-Bob as a recognized breed. Breeders are still hoping that the Cat Fanciers Association (CFA) will soon start accepting the Pixie-Bob as a breed as well.
Get information about the Ragdoll cat including facts, history, personality traits, and what it's like to live with this breed of cat. Javanese Cat Breed Facts and Personality Traits | Hill's Pet Get information about the Javanese cat including facts, history, personality traits, and what it's like to live with this breed of cat.
The Ragdoll is a pointed breed, which means that the body is lighter in color than the points (the face, legs, tail and ears). The Ragdoll cat is carefully bred to produce large affectionate animals in three patterns, two with white (mitted and bi-color) and one with no white (colorpoint).
The Russian Blue is not known to be related to the other three short haired solid blue breeds: Thailand's Korat, France's Chartreux, and Britain's British Blue (now called the British Shorthair). The four breeds have distinct differences in coat, type, and personality, although the Korat, Chartreux, and Russian Blue share a similar silver-blue sheen.
The Savannah was developed after a domestic cat crossed with a serval — a medium-size African wild cat — gave birth to a kitten on April 7, 1986.
The Scottish Fold comes in a number of colors and patterns, including solid, tabby, tabby and white, bicolor and particolor. Eye color depends on coat color. For instance, white and bicolor cats can have blue eyes or odd eyes (each eye is a different color).
Newman called the new breed Selkirk, after her stepfather, making it unique among cat breeds in being named for a person. She added Rex to indicate that the coat was curly. To maintain genetic diversity and to give the cats a more pleasing appearance, she and other breeders outcrossed them not only to Persians but also to Exotics, American Shorthairs and British Shorthairs.
Due to its popularity, the breed has been used in the matrix of many modern cat breeds, including the Ocicat, Himalayan, Burmese, Tonkinese, Snowshoe, and myriad Oriental breeds (Oriental Shorthair, Oriental Longhair, Colorpoint Shorthair, Colorpoint Longhair, Balinese, and Javanese).
Siberian Cat Breed Traits The Siberian is one of the largest breeds of domestic cat. Breeders note that Siberian males range between 17 and 26 pounds and the females range between 13 and 17 pounds.
The Singapura breed as we know him in North America has made the Guinness Book of World Records (as the smallest breed of domestic cat), has had an entire advertising campaign centered around him (to promote tourism in the Republic of Singapore), and has had the dubious distinction of being the center of a cat controversy.
While the Snowshoe is a distinct breed, the cats are still sometimes bred back to Siamese or Oriental Shorthairs to maintain their traits. It’s not easy to produce kittens with the desired markings, so the breed is uncommon, despite the ubiquity of Grumpy Cat.
Somali Cat Breed Traits Like the Abyssinian, the Somali is a ticked or agouti breed. Like the Abyssinian, Somalis are susceptible to gingivitis, tooth decay, and the renal disease amyloidosis. Like the Abyssinian, Somalis are susceptible to gingivitis, tooth decay, and the renal disease amyloidosis.
Sphynx Cat Personality. According to the French breed standard, the Sphynx is part monkey, part dog, part child, and part cat. The breed does seem to possess some personality traits of each, despite what geneticists might say about such a combination.
The Tonkinese Cat is recognized by the Cat Fanciers Association (CFA), the world's largest cat organization. It is a relatively uncommon pure-bred or "pedigreed" domestic cat breed. The Tonkinese comes in various shades of brown, cream, blue and red, either solid or with darker points.
The Turkish Angora is a small to medium-size cat, weighing 5 to 9 pounds. Personality Beautiful and elegant on the surface, the Turkish Angora can surprise an unsuspecting owner with his athleticism and intelligence.