Videos Oriental Breed Information
Country of origin -
United States
Alternative Names -
Foreign Type
Breed standards (external links) -
AACE, ACFA, ACF,CFA, TICA,
GCCF, CCA, FIFe
The Oriental Shorthair is a breed of cat. It is also
called a "Foreign Type" cat. This cat combines the
Siamese body with a diversity
of colorings and patterns.
1. Oriental Shorthairs as pets
Oriental Shorthairs are intelligent, social animals who bond
closely to their people. They are inquisitive, friendly, emotional,
demanding and often quite vocal. Oriental Shorthairs have been
likened to a Greyhound or a Chihuahua in appearance. Some people
say they are 'dog-like' in personality, particularly
because they become so attached to people.
2. Description
The Oriental Shorthair is a self-coloured (non-pointed) member
of the Siamese Family. They can be found in solid colors (white,
red, cream, ebony, blue, chestnut, lavender, cinnamon, or fawn),
smoke (white undercoat to any of the above except white), shaded
(only the hair tips colored), parti-color (red or cream splashes on
any of the above), tabby (mackerel/striped, ticked, spotted, and
blotched/classic), and bi-colored (any of the above, with white).
In total, there are over 300 color and pattern combinations
possible. Though in CFA, pointed cats from
Oriental Shorthair parents are considered AOV (Any Other Variety),
in TICA, as
well as in the majority of worldwide Cat Associations, these cats
are considered to be, and compete as, Siamese.
Oriental Shorthairs have expressive, almond-shaped eyes, a
wedge-shaped head with large ears that fit in the wedge of the
head. Their bodies are very elegant yet muscular. When seeing an
Oriental Shorthair, one would never guess them to be as solid as
they are.
The longhaired version of the Oriental Shorthair, Oriental Longhair, simply carries a
pair of the recessive long hair gene.
3. Origins
The Siamese cat was imported to Britain from
Siam (Thailand)
in the later half of the 1800s. According to reports, both pointed
and solid colors were imported. The gene that causes the color to
be restricted to the points is a recessive gene, therefore the
general population of the cats of Siam were largely self (solid)
colored. When the cats from Siam were bred, the pointed cats were
eventually registered as Siamese the others were referred to as
"non-blue eyed siamese" or foreign shorthair. Other
breeds that were developed from the moggies
of Siam include the Havana Brown and
the Korat.
It was not until 1977 that the Oriental Shorthair was accepted
for competition into the CFA. In 1985, the CFA recognized the
bicolor oriental shorthair. The bicolor is any one of the accepted
oriental shorthair color patterns with the addition of white to the
belly, face, and legs/paws.
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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