Domestic Cat Breeds
The Toyger is a cross between a striped domestic shorthaired cat and a standard Bengal tabby. Breeding began in the 1980s but only in 2007 was the Toyger allowed into full championship status. The breed was created by Judy Sudgen to inspire people to c...
The Serengeti is a breed that is still in development, but bred to produce a cat that looks like a Serval without having any wild cat blood. It is a cross between a Bengal cat and an Oriental cat. The Serengeti is a spotted cat with very large ears...
The Savannah is a cross between the Serval, an African wild cat and a domestic cat, typically the Egyptian Mau or another spotted breed. The Savannah, being one of the largest domestic breeds of cat, may weigh 10 to 40 pounds but are typically not much...
A Chausie is a hybrid between the Jungle Cat and a Domestic cat, typically the Abyssinian. A Chausie can weigh 15 to 30 pounds with the males being larger than the females. Their breeding began in the 1960s or 1970s to provide a safer alternative to ha...
The Bengal is a hybrid breed of cat bred to have the markings of a wildcat but the temperament of a housecat. The Bengal is reminiscent of and named after the Asian Leopard Cat (Prionailurus bengalensis); the Bengal Tiger species is completely unrelate...
The Sphynx is a hairless-looking rare breed of cat, which is, despite popular belief, not hairless. The skin of the Sphynx feels quite silky; it is covered with a very fine, soft down which is hard to perceive by seeing or feeling. The Sphynx may have ...
The Scottish Fold is a breed of cat most easily recognized by its ears. The ear cartilage contains a fold so that the ears bend down towards the front of the head. Some cats today have multiple folds that cause their ears to lie completely flat against...
The Selkirk Rex has very curly hair and whiskers, but unlike other rex cats the hair is of normal length and not partly missing. Also unlike other rex cats the Selkirk's gene for curls is dominant. The breed originated in Montana in the late 1980s ...
The Pixie-Bob is a domestic breed of cat. According to folklore, it is the offspring of a domestic cat and a bobcat, but DNA testing has failed to prove this. The Pixie-Bob has a large body (about 50% larger than most domestic cats), large feet, and a ...
The Peterbald is a breed of cat which originated in Russia, with elegant and slim builds. Peterbalds have a distinctive head, almond-shaped eyes, a straight profile and large set-apart ears. They slightly resemble Oriental Shorthair cats. They were...
The Munchkin is a fairly new breed of cat with a lot of controversy surrounding it. The breed is created by a mutation that causes achondroplasia, or hypochondroplasia, which results in the cats having abnormally short legs. The breed originated when a...
The Manx is a breed of cat distinguished by little to no tail. The short-to-nonexistent tail comes from a naturally occurring mutation of the spine. The cat originated on the Isle of Man (thus the name), and is called "stubbin" in the Manx language. T...
The LaPerm is a rex breed of cat from the US with curly fur "“ the tightest curls on the throat, base of the ears, and the belly of each cat. It comes in many colors and patterns and is not related to any other rex breeds, because a dominant gene cau...
The signature trait of the Japanese Bobtail is its short stubby tail that resembles the tail of a rabbit more so than that of a feline. The tail is a genetic mutation caused by a recessive gene. These cats are the cats of legends in Japan. The Japa...
The German Rex is a medium sized breed of domestic cat with slender legs. The breed has large ears, a round head, curly whiskers and a curly, short coat of any color. The German Rex has a fairly heavy body. As a breed it is a friendly and lively cat an...
The Devon Rex was discovered in Devon, UK in 1960 near a disused tin mine. They were initially thought to be related to the Cornish rex, however testing proved otherwise. The Devon Rex has only awn hair and down with no guard hair, giving them a sparse...
The Cornish Rex is a breed of cat that is very distinguishable from other cats, because it has no hair except for down. Most breeds of domestic cat have three different types of hair in their coat, yet the Cornish Rex only has an undercoat, thus not sh...
The American Wirehair originated in upstate New York, and although well known, they are ranked as the rarest of the 41 breeds in the Cat Fancier's Association. The first Wirehair was a random mutation in a littler of six produced by two barn cats. Mrs....
The American Curl gets its name from its unusual ears, which curl back from its face toward the center of the back of the skull. The breed originally was the result of a spontaneous mutation which occurred when two longhaired kittens, one white and one...
Tonkinese (or "Tonks" are a medium-sized short-haired cat breed that is a cross between Siamese and Burmese. These cats are distinguished by points like the Siamese and Himalayans. Some claim that this breed's appearance is similar to the original appe...
