Videos Ocicat Breed Information
Country of origin -
United States
Breed standards -
AACE, ACFA, CFA, FIFe,TIFA
The Ocicat is a new and still-rare breed of cat which has
spots resembling a 'wild' cat and the temperament of a
domestic animal,
named for its resemblance to the ocelot.
Despite its appearance, there is no 'wild' DNA in the Ocicat's gene
pool. The species is actually a mixture of Siamese and Abyssinian, and later American Shorthairs (silver tabbies)
were added to the mix and gave the breed their silver colour, bone
structure and distinct markings.
The first breeder of Ocicats was Virginia Daly, of Berkley, Michigan, who attempted to
breed an Abyssinian-pointed Siamese in 1964. The first generation
of kittens appeared Abyssinian, but the surprising result in the
second generation was a spotted kitten, Tonga, nicknamed an
'ocicat' by the breeder's daughter. Tonga was neutered
and sold as a pet, but further breedings of his parents produced
more spotted kittens, and became the base of a separate Ocicat
breeding program. Other breeders joined in and used the same
recipe, siamese * aby, and offspring * siamese. Today the ocicat is
found all around the world, popular for its temperament but wild
appearance.
Ocicats are a very outgoing breed. They are often considered to
have the spirit of a dog-in a cat's body. Most can easily be
trained to fetch, walk on a leash and harness, come when called,
speak, sit, lie down on command and a large array of other
dog-related tricks. Some even take readily to the water. Ocicats
are also very friendly. They will typically march straight up to
strangers and announce that they'd like to be petted. This
makes them great family pets, and most can also get along well with
animals of other species. Ocicats make excellent pets for people
who want to spend a lot of time with their cat, but they do require
more attention than cats who aren't so people-oriented.
There are twelve colors approved for the ocicat breed. Tawny,
chocolate and cinnamon, their dilutes, blue, lavender and fawn, and
all of them with silver: black silver (ebony silver), chocolate
silver, cinnamon silver, blue silver, lavender silver and fawn
silver.
Copyright (c) 2008 Kitt Killion Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".
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