Anyone who has asked the question "how to identify a cat breed" should know that there are more than one hundred different species of these cute pets registered all over the world. In addition, there are countless different mestizos. There are also many not officially recognized breeds. To start at least a little to understand this diversity, you need a sufficiently large store of knowledge.
How to determine the breed of cat: instructions for action
If it was decided to purchase a kitten of a certain type, then everything will be very simple. Enough to look at the appropriate encyclopedia and remember the distinctive features of the selected breed. If you want to have a cat with a good pedigree, you should contact the bona fide and professional breeders with a good reputation. Such people always value their name and will never try to put a half-blood on their customers or it is simply not clear to whom. It should be remembered once and for all: the pursuit of cheapness is the best way to deceive yourself. That is why you should not look for a good cat in the usual pet market. Of course, a miracle can happen, and the market trader will sell the real Japanese bobtail or khao mani, but this happens incredibly rarely. Most often, the owner of the acquired animal begins to wonder how to determine the breed of cats, to find out what he bought.
What to do if there is a desire to have a cat, but there are not enough funds to purchase it from a professional breeder, and the only thing that remains is to go to the market? Should bring an expert. If there are no such friends, you can always use the help of one of the members of the cat lovers club, which is in any city. Usually smart and kind people work there. They not only know how to determine the breed of cats, but also will gladly help you to get a pet, and perhaps also give some useful tips on caring for them.
If there is absolutely no desire to spend money on the purchase of a cat, you can always go to a shelter and take home a homeless child. In this case, there may also be a desire to find out what kind of pet it is. First, you can try to determine the cat's breed by photo, by viewing the relevant information in the encyclopedia or on specialized resources. Of course, animals are often thrown out onto the street. However, do not forget that the breed is always worth a lot of money, and the likelihood that a homeless child turns out to be thoroughbred is very small. Most often, this is a cross between a representative of "blue bloods" with an unknown courtyard.
If the owner of the animal does not know how to determine the breed of cats, he will always be helped in the veterinary clinic or the club of pet lovers. It should be remembered that there is always time to return the changeling back into the hands of the seller, but you should never drag out with this process. But in other way. All cats, despite their origin, are very intelligent, gentle and graceful animals. Despite their belonging to the breed, they always give their owners a huge amount of warmth and affection. One has only to draw a little attention to them, and it will return a hundredfold, with love and affection.
New family member: “patrician” or “plebeian” lives in your home
Sooner or later, any host begins to be interested in the question of how to recognize the breed of a cat that settled in his house and even managed to establish new rules in it. In cases where the pet was purchased in an elite club, the question of its pedigree does not arise. The aristocrats of the feline world have all the necessary documents confirming their affiliation to the higher feline society. And what about those furry creatures that have unknown parents or pedigree is in doubt? Let's try to figure it out.
We find out the "cat's status" favorite pet
The first thing that quite naturally comes to our mind is to contact cat specialists. Professional breeders of individual cat breeds and veterinarians, who have seen various representatives of domestic cats in their time, have knowledge in this area. It is possible to determine reliably that your new pet belongs to one of the well-known aristocratic feline families, although no one can give you a 100% guarantee.
Rudyard Kipling also remarked that a cat is an “walking by itself” animal. This means that the ancestors of your pet could have passionate romances with representatives of other cat breeds.
There are several specific traits that will surely help you figure out which breed most closely matches the appearance and character of your cat. Appearance, habits and other characteristics of all known feline breeds have long been investigated, classified and collected in the special literature.
For comparison with scientific sources, you will have to make a "portfolio" of a furry friend. Useful pictures of the cat in different angles, full-length, the image of the face, the size and shape of the paws, the structure and fluffiness of the tail. Having collected all the data on your pet and comparing it with the description presented in the atlas-reference book of characteristics, you will receive the first assumptions about the breed of your pet.
We conduct further research
From the very beginning you need to know that for a small kitten you should not try to determine its breed and draw any final conclusions. Like all babies, young cats and cats will naturally change and grow rapidly until they reach 6 months. After half a year, their external data will be formed to a greater or lesser degree.
In some representatives of well-known feline families, the special condition of the breed is a special shape of the ears, others are famous for their short velvet fur, and others must necessarily have a gray-smoky color. There are breeds of cats that have completely no tail, but some tailed cats have no coat at all.
A lot of trouble is brought to the owners by owners of long wool, which can be found everywhere in the house. Such cats and cats require constant care of the fur coat, patient combing. Often they have a personal master hairdresser, because only specially trained people can cope with the guidance of beauty. Some breeds of cats are determined by color, which must be strictly defined. For representatives of such breeds, even small color discrepancies with recognized standards are not allowed.
What to do if it turned out that your cat or cat does not belong to a particular breed? If you bought a baby in the nursery, then this could hardly happen. Clubs professional breeders value their reputation and monitor the purity of the breed, the breeding of which they are engaged. If a kitten appeared at your home in a different way, and its muzzle, ears, paws, fur and tail belong to different types, then it will not be possible to accurately determine its breed. But it is not important. Fluffy and smooth-haired pets give their owners so many pleasant and amusing minutes, they can so softly and rather growl in their hands that it is impossible not to love them the way nature has created them.
Is your cat big?
An ordinary domestic cat has quite average sizes - body length from half a meter to 75 cm, a tail of 30 centimeters and a weight of 4-6 kg in cats and 2.3 - 4.5 in cats.
But there are rocks that do not fit into the usual centimeters and kilograms and claim to be kotogi giants.
How to determine the breed of cat size? Let's just say, it is quite difficult. There are about a dozen breeds of cats, whose body weight exceeds the standard 6 kg, some representatives sometimes weigh 15-20 kg!
Perhaps your pet is one of these giants:
- American Bobtail - breed bred on the basis of wild North American cats
- Kurilian bobtail, a Russian breed, originally from the islands of Kunashir and Iturup
- Chartreuse, a breed that the French name is dog-cats
- Pixybob, the breed artificially bred by Americans, similar to a red lynx
- Norwegian Forest Cat. Males of this breed can weigh 10 kg.
- Turkish van cat, one of the oldest breeds on earth
- Siberian cat
- British cat
- Ragdoll, rag doll
- Maine Coon
- Savannah
Is your cat small?
Pedigree small cats are those cats that weigh less than 3 kg.
But the smallest among the smallest is considered to be a cat-baby (in the literal sense of the word) Fiz Gel of the Munchkin breed. The baby has been around for several years, and she will not outgrow her 15 (!) Centimeters of height.
Having measured the growth of your cat, are you ready to call representatives of the Guinness Book of Records? Let's try to find out the cat breed by photo:
- Munchkin. With such short legs, you don’t look like a catwalk, but small legs have left a big mark on the history and formation of small cat breeds.
- Napoleon (the result of the crossing of munchkins and Persian cats). Usually weighs about 2.5 kg
- Bambino (the result of the crossing of this time, short-legged munchkins and naked Canadian sphinxes). Lower weight bar - 2.2 kg
- Lambkin, a lamb cat with curly hair. Adult lambkin can weigh 1.8 kg
- Skukum (in the ancestors of this breed are already familiar to us munchkins and Laperm cats, the very ones with such long and wavy hair
- Dwelf, hairless breed, created by the formula: Munchkin + Canadian Sphynx + American Curl. The weight of these babies rarely exceeds 3 kg.
- Singapore cat (Singapore), a breed that migrated from Singapore to the USA and then to Europe
- Minskin - no wool, no growth, weighs little
- Kinkalou, a breed of cats is extremely rare. Today in the world there are only a few cats of this type. By the way, for reference - a kinkalow cat sometimes weighs 1.3 kg
- Skiff-tay-dong - the record holder, the smallest breed of domestic cats. Skiff-tay-dong is the first, so to speak, the working name of the breed. To the international community, mini-cats are known as toybob, i.e. toy bobtail
Does your cat have external differences from ordinary cats?
How to find the cat breed by external signs?
Most purebred cats meet the same gold standard: medium paws, medium width chest and rump, and a rounded head that crowns this standard magnificence.
But we are talking about exceptions? So, what exceptional external data brings a simple cat to a thoroughbred?
Ears
- American Curl. These are the only cats in the world whose ears are folded backwards. The bend can reach 180 degrees.
- Ukrainian Levkoy. Hairless or a little fluffy Levkoy is different ... Yes, in fact, this breed is different from everyone, You can also find it on the ears that are literally folded in Levkos.
- Scottish lop-eared. Sometimes it seems that Scots have no ears, but in reality it is a matter of cartilage, which is so deformed that the auricle seems to be folded in half. The degree of bending varies from barely noticeable to almost complete adherence to the head.
- Elf Kat. Americans Karen Nelson and Kristen Lead bred a breed with wonderful ears. Indeed, it is impossible not to notice a cat with such huge patterned ears.
- The poodle is an exotic and artificially bred breed. In the lop-eared representatives of the breed, the ears do not fit the head, while it is believed that the more beautiful the poodle is, the larger its hanging ears.
Short tail
Cats, whose tail is in its infancy (or it is not at all), are expensive. In contrast to artificial cupping in dogs, a cat's short tail is a purebred sign:
- Cymric is a breed with no tail at all. From the word at all. At the same time, Cymriks have short front legs and a kind of jumping walk.
- Manx is another tailless purr. True, not all - according to the standard, the Manxes either have no tail at all or flaunt a very long one.
- Piksibob - mini-lynx was bred in the 80s of the 20th of the last century. The tail of domestic predators is long when there is two centimeters, and when it is 15 cm.
- The Kuril bobtail - a breed in which the genes of the Japanese bobtail and the Siberian cat are mixed, was bred in Russia.
- The American Bobtail shows its temper with a tail that reaches the base of its hind legs.
- Japanese bobtail - a classic representative of cats with short tails. According to the standard, the tail of the Japanese bobtail should, firstly, be no longer than 12 centimeters, and secondly, the tail must be twisted.
Little paws
When the breeders one by one began to breed cats with short legs, there were concerns that in the future such pussies would have problems with mobility or the spine. But time has shown that these suspicions are groundless, since short legs are compensated by greater flexibility of the spine.
Is your cat's paws significantly shorter than the neighbour's paws? You have a choice of several breeds, with most of which you have already met above.
- Skukum - dwarf la perm has a long and wavy coat. Another feature of the breed - pronounced collar. By the way, initially the breed was called poco chino (Little Kucheryashka).
- Dwelf - without wool, without long paws.
- Munchkin
- Napoleon
- Minskin
- Bambino
Does your cat have a special coat?
Remember the hero of the Internet memes cat Colonel, who became famous for his disgruntled appearance? By the way, this cat has the longest hair among cats. 23 centimeters - so much trouble, what is there to rejoice?
But the record among cats - Sophie, whose hairs on average by 26 cm!
Armed with a ruler, choose who your pet looks like:
Wool is very long
- Himalayan cat - Persian-type cat carrying a Siamese-colored gene
- Napoleon Already familiar breed knows how to make “baby face” and conquers thousands of hearts
- Norwegian Forest Cat. The standard wardrobe of this breed is long wool, obligatory sideburns, pants and a winter collar.
- Turkish van. Consider your pet carefully. He's white? And on the left shoulder blade spot? And one more thing on your head? Yes, under your roof belly cat, which was intended to overcome the devilish mouse, gnawing a hole in Noah's Ark
- Turkish angora. Snow-white long-haired beauty comes from Ankara
- Ragdoll
- Persian cat
- Neva Masquerade
- Maine Coon
- Burmese cat. French charming, in our warmed
Wool long curly
“Rex, come to me!” - if your cat has a wavy coat, you can safely call it rex. No, you shouldn't change the nickname, just the majority of curly breeds are just rexes:
- Bohemian Rex. The breed was born in Czechoslovakia, which in itself is amazing. Her ancestors are Persian cats, but unlike ancestors, a Bohemian cat has not only long hair, but also curly
- La Perm. Someone twisted this cat on hair curlers? One gets the impression. Especially luxurious tail
- Silkirk Rex
Short curly
- Herman Rex. The breed was born in East Prussia and conquered connoisseurs of beauty with short hair with “plush” curls,
- Devonshire Rex - the quality and appearance of wool resembles astrakhan fur. Fans of the breed celebrate the amazing devotion of the Devon Rex,
- Cornish Rex. Americans in addition resemble hounds, and in terms of wool quality, Rex rabbits,
- American cruel cat, whose curly hair even mustache.
Hairless cat
Of course, you knew, you suspected that your bald cat is not just so devoid of wool. Of course, there is something in it, let's find out from the photo - what?
- Bambino
- Don Sphynx. Huge ears, baggy skin, expressive eyes - yes, they are representatives of a young bald breed.
- Canadian sphinx
- Peterbald or Petersburg sphinx. Taking something from the Orientals, something from the sphinxes, the St. Petersburg cat turned out to be like no one.
- Ukrainian Levkoy. Breed that can not be confused with anyone. Aliens have seen? Not? Look at the naked levkoy.
Does your cat have a special coat color?
So, above, we learned that it is quite simple to determine the breed by wool, or rather by its quality and quantity, is it possible to determine the breed of a cat by its color?
Siamese color
- Siamese cat. Almond-shaped blue eyes and distinctive color are the gold standard of the breed.
- Balinese cat should be a color point
- Himalayan cat. Blue eyes, light body with darker paws, muzzle, ears and tail, long hair - something hints at Siamese roots
- Neva Masquerade
- Burmese cat. Sacred Burma owner of a special Burmese color - "gloves" with point color
- Ragdoll
- Snow-shu - “snow slipper” with a special V mark on the muzzle
Blue color
Sand color
- The Abyssinian cat is one of those who remembers how our world originated. Reddish undercoat and black ticking is typical of the oldest breed.
- Somalia
Wild color
Коричневый окрас
- Тиффани-шантилли. За свой окрас и характер этих кошек за глаза зовут «Радость шокоголика»
- Гавана браун. Изначально пород называлась «каштановая ориентальная» и в принципе в этом названии зашифрован и окрас
«Ты узнаешь её из тысячи. По словам, по глазам, по голосу…». Please accept our congratulations if, thanks to this material, you learned online what kingdom your purring prince belongs to.
And congratulations if, despite the lack of thoroughbred regalia, the cat or cat remains the most beloved and beautiful!
And a little about the secrets.
The story of one of our readers Irina Volodina:
My eyes were especially frustrating, surrounded by large wrinkles plus dark circles and swelling. How to remove wrinkles and bags under the eyes completely? How to cope with swelling and redness? But nothing is so old or young man as his eyes.
But how to rejuvenate them? Plastic surgery? I recognized - no less than 5 thousand dollars. Hardware procedures - photorejuvenation, gas-liquid pilling, radio lifting, laser facelift? Slightly more accessible - the course is 1.5-2 thousand dollars. And when to find all this time? Yes, and still expensive. Especially now. Therefore, for myself, I chose another way.
Appearance
The sacred burma has medium size, a small head, legs with characteristic “gloves” and “slippers”. The weight of the females of this breed varies on average between 3.5 and 4 kg, and the males reach 8 kg. Other breeds of “gloves” on their paws may be uneven, but this does not apply to the Burmese cat. They have a uniform color, the better.
Wool and color
In long-haired Burmese cats, there is only one type of color - the so-called color-point. However, a great many colors. There are blue, violet, red, cream, chocolate and many others. By the way, kittens of sacred burma are born completely white, and later they begin to get dark.
Representatives of the Burmese breed are sociable, loving. They are also obedient, gentle, calm, intelligent. Mind, these cats are also clearly not deprived. Burmese give their love and affection to their owners and need a caress in return. These cats welcome guests without fear, moreover, even with curiosity, circling around and looking at newbies. Sacred Burma is not too mobile, prefers to sit somewhere on the sofa or on the owner's lap. However, if the cat has a mood, she can play, for example, run after the rustling wrapper on a thread. Cats of this breed rarely give a voice, and their meowing seems more like pigeon cooing.