Domestic Cat Breeds

Sphynx cat

is a breed of cat known for its lack of coat. It was developed through selective breeding, starting in the 1960s. The skin should have the texture of chamois, as it has fine hairs.

Selkirk Rex

is a breed of cat with highly curled hair.

American Shorthair

is a breed of domestic cat believed to be descended from European cats brought to North America by early settlers to protect valuable cargo from mice and rats.

Pixie-bob

is a breed of domestic cat claimed by breed founder Carol Ann Brewer of Washington State to be the progeny of naturally occurring bobcat hybrids.

Norwegian Forest cat

is a breed of domestic cat originating in Northern Europe. This natural breed is adapted to a very cold climate, with top coat of glossy, long, water-shedding hairs and a woolly undercoat for insulation.

American Wirehair

is a breed of domestic cat originating in upstate New York. As of 2003, though the breed is well-known, it is ranked as the most rare of the 41 Cat Fanciers' Association breeds, with only 22 registered, down from 39 in 2002.

Manx cat

is a breed of domestic cat originating on the Isle of Man, with a naturally occurring mutation that shortens the tail.

Javanese cat

is a breed of domestic cat recognized by the Cat Fanciers' Association as a show cat. It is an oriental-type longhair.

Oriental Shorthair

is a breed of domestic cat that is closely related to the Siamese. It maintains the modern Siamese head and body type but appears in a wide range of coat colors and patterns.

Burmilla

is a breed of domestic cat which originated in the United Kingdom in 1981. It is a cross between the Chinchilla Persian and Burmese breeds.

Scottish Fold

is a breed of domestic cat with a natural dominant-gene mutation that affects cartilage throughout the body, causing the ears to "fold," bending forward and down towards the front of the head, which gives the cat what is often described as an "owl-like" appearance.

Japanese Bobtail

is a breed of domestic cat with an unusual "bobbed" tail more closely resembling the tail of a rabbit than that of other cats. The variety is native to Japan and Southeast Asia, though it is now found throughout the world.

Burmese cat

is a breed of domestic cat, originating in Thailand, believed to have its roots near the present Thai-Burma border and developed in the United States and Britain.

Ragamuffin cat

is a breed of domestic cat. It is a variant of the Ragdoll cat and was established as a separate breed in 1994. Ragamuffins are notable for their friendly personalities and thick, rabbitlike fur.

Cymric

is a breed of domestic cat. Some cat registries consider the Cymric simply a semi-long-haired variety of the Manx breed, rather than a separate breed.

Cornish Rex

is a breed of domestic cat. The Cornish Rex has no hair except for down. Most breeds of cat have three different types of hair in their coats: the outer fur or "guard hairs", a middle layer called the "awn hair"; and the down hair or undercoat, which is very fine and about 1 cm long.

Turkish Angora

is a breed of domestic cat. Turkish Angoras are one of the ancient, natural breeds of cat, having originated in central Turkey, in the Ankara region.

Abyssinian

is a breed of domestic short-haired cat with a distinctive "ticked" tabby coat, in which individual hairs are banded with different colors. It is named after Abyssinia, from where it originated.

Devon Rex

is a breed of intelligent, short-haired cat that emerged in England during the late 1950s. They are known for their slender bodies, wavy coat, and large ears.

Himalayan cat

is a breed or sub-breed of long-haired cat identical in type to the Persian, with the exception of its blue eyes and its point colouration, which were derived from crossing the Persian with the Siamese.

Peterbald

is a cat breed of Russian origin. It was created in St Petersburg in 1994 from an experimental breeding by Olga S. Mironova. They resemble Oriental Shorthairs with a hair-losing gene.

Russian Blue

is a cat breed that comes in colors varying from a light shimmering silver to a darker, slate grey. They develop close bonds with their owners and are sought out as pets due to their personalities, beauty and coat.

Ragdoll

is a cat breed with blue eyes and a distinct colourpoint coat. It is a large and muscular semi-longhair cat with a soft and silky coat. Like all long haired cats, Ragdolls need grooming to ensure their fur does not mat.

Bengal cat

is a domestic cat breed developed to look like exotic jungle cats such as leopards, ocelots, margays and clouded leopards.

Birman

is a domestic cat breed. The Birman is a long-haired, color-pointed cat distinguished by a silky coat, deep blue eyes, and contrasting white "gloves" or "socks" on each paw.

Savannah cat

is a hybrid cat breed. It is a cross between a serval and a domestic cat.

Siberian cat

is a landrace variety of domestic cat, present in Russia for centuries, and more recently developed as a formal breed, with standards promulgated since the late 1980s. They vary from medium to medium-large in size.

Persian cat

is a long-haired breed of cat characterized by its round face and short muzzle.

Balinese cat

is a long-haired breed of domestic cat with Siamese-style point coloration and sapphire-blue eyes.

Snowshoe cat

is a rare breed of cat originating in the United States of America in the 1960s. Snowshoes were first produced in Philadelphia when a Siamese breeder's cat gave birth to three kittens with white feet.

Chartreux

is a rare breed of domestic cat from France and is recognised by a number of registries around the world. The Chartreux is large and muscular with relatively short, fine-boned limbs, and very fast reflexes.

Nebelung

is a rare breed of domestic cat. Nebelungs have long bodies, wide-set green eyes, long and dense fur, and mild dispositions.

LaPerm

is a recognized breed of cat. A LaPerm's fur is curly, 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.

Munchkin cat

is a relatively new breed of cat characterized by its very short legs, which are caused by a genetic mutation.

Turkish Van

is a semi-long-haired breed of domestic cat, which was developed in the United Kingdom from a selection of cats obtained from various cities of modern Turkey, especially Southeast Turkey.

Korat

is a silver-tipped blue-grey, short-haired breed of domestic cat with a small to medium build and a low percentage of body fat. Its body is semi-cobby, and unusually heavy for its size.

Bombay cat

is a type of short-haired cat developed by breeding sable Burmese and black American Shorthair cats, to produce a cat of mostly Burmese type, but with a sleek, panther-like black coat.

Ocicat

is an all-domestic breed of cat which resembles a wild cat but has no wild DNA in its gene pool. The breed is unusual in that it is spotted like a wild cat but has the temperament of a domestic animal.

American Bobtail

is an uncommon breed of domestic cat which was developed in the late 1960s. It is most notable for its stubby "bobbed" tail about one-third to one-half the length of a normal cat's tail.

Somali cat

is often described as a long-haired Abyssinian. The first Somali cats appeared in the litters of Abyssinians as long-haired kittens.

Siamese cat

is one of the first distinctly recognized breeds of Asian cat. Derived from the Wichianmat landrace, one of several varieties of cat native to Thailand.

Maine Coon

is one of the largest domesticated breeds of cat. It has a distinctive physical appearance and valuable hunting skills.

Singapura cat

is one of the smallest breeds of cats, noted for its large eyes and ears, brown ticked coat and blunt tail.

British Shorthair

is the pedigreed version of the traditional British domestic cat, with a distinctively chunky body, dense coat and broad face.

Havana Brown

was the result of a planned breeding between Siamese and domestic black cats, by a group of cat fanciers in England, in the 1950s. Early breeders introduced a Siamese type Russian Blue into their breeding.

Dragon Li

is a Chinese breed of domestic cat originating from nascent Chinese folklore and dynastic culture.

American Curl

is a breed of cat characterized by its unusual ears, which curl back from the face toward the center of the back of the skull.

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.

Tonkinese

are a domestic cat breed produced by crossbreeding between the Siamese and Burmese. They share many of their parents' distinctively lively, playful personality traits and are similarly distinguished by a pointed coat pattern in a variety of colors.

Egyptian Mau

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.

Colorpoint Shorthair

are a variety of domestic cat. Depending on the cat registry, they may be considered a separate breed of cat, or more often a variant of a pre-existing one, if accepted at all.