Oriental shorthair

The oriental Shorthair is actually a Siamese with a completely colored coat on. It is actually a “designer” Siamese:). This breed came into being around the fifties, firstly with English breeders who wanted to breed a Siamese type cat, with the corresponding character, however completely colored. In order to achieve this both purebred cats and “normal” cats were crossed. The first oriental Shorthaired cats were the Havana's*, uniform chocolate colored cats. However, human being would belie its nature if she wouldn’t develop more colors; after all there cannot be variation enough.    

Nowadays, the oriental Shorthaired cat exists in many colors and patterns, really everything is possible.
 
The most occurring colors are black, chocolate, blue, lilac, red and cream, but cinnamon and fawn also occur more and more. Uniform, tabbies, tortoises, tortoisetabbies (also called torbie), bicolor and everything with or without silver. Tabbies occur in the patterns ticked, spotted, mackerel and blotched. Tortoises are uniform colored cats mixed with red or cream spots. The variations are (almost) endless! Complete white cats also occur, they usually have green eyes or are odd-eyed (1 green and 1 blue eye) but 2 blue eyes also occur.

NB:
It isn’t true that oriental White cats suffer from deafness more than the well-known Foreign White (white Siamese).
The good breeders who occupy themselves with oriental White will have their cats tested (in those countries in which this is possible) by means of the official BAER test in order to prove that the audition of their cats is ok and that they don’t essentially deviate in the statistics from the statistics of the Foreign White.
  
*Although the name Havana is still used in Europe for the uniform chocolate colored cat, this name is actually nowadays reserved for the Havana Brown, an American cat, moderate oriental type which only occurs in this color.

The oriental Shorthaired type is identical to the Siamese, namely rangy, tubular, muscled body on high, elegant paws with oval feet. A long whip tail, which at least reaches the shoulders, completes the body. The head is wedge-shaped with large, slantingly positioned ears, a complete straight profile and a solid chin. The eyes are almond-shaped and are positioned slantingly.    

The desired eye color for the oriental Shorthair is emerald green, but unfortunately not every cat has this, the color sometimes approaches yellow. The fur must be short and smooth.
 
  
The fur care is very simple. In general they keep themselves clean, only in the moulting season we can sometimes give them a hand, although we do this more for ourselves (less hairs in the house) than for the catsƒº. The oriental long-haired cat is also ¡¥low maintenance¡¦ cat, although he has a longer fur than the short-haired cat. There isn¡¦t an undercoat, so tangles don¡¦t occur. Although most oriental cats like fur care, it isn¡¦t necessary. The only thing they need is some combing now and then if they loose more hairs and/or add a bit of sheen by cleaning them with a natural shammy or fluid towel. Of course a show cat might require more care, but it remains few. The character of the oriental Shorthaired cat is identical to the character of the Siamese and of the Balinese and the oriental long-haired cat. Some people think that the character of the long-haired varieties is milder than the character of short-haired ones, but there isn¡¦t any proof.

I haven¡¦t experienced it, but the character of course also depends on individual factors. In general the oriental cat is a very affectionate and active cat.

They are very people-oriented; in general they aren’t shy and wish to pleasure their owner. Fetching is one of the thing which can be taught easily; many cats are already able to fetch without being taught. They will not get bored easily; they can perfectly amuse themselves but prefer a cat mate. Especially if the owner isn’t home a lot we advise to take another cat. This will not be a problem since people get addicted to this breed. If they have one….usually more will follow….a lot of breeders started this way. Of course the second cat doesn’t necessarily have to be an oriental type although a more active breed (or “normal” cat”) is preferred. The oriental loves cuddling; they love to lie on your lap or on your shoulder. If they get the chance they will sleep in your bed, lie on your lap the whole evening and interfere in everything.

They sometimes look like children and you therefore must learn some tricks. Door handles upright, childproof locks on kitchen cabinets, just of number of things you have to consider. Usually, people don’t mind and love to live with such an amazing cat. A thing which might cause problems is their high fertility. oriental cats are known for the fact that they are sexually mature early and are very on heat. For people who love these cats this can be solved by having castrated them on a young age, this can already take place at the breeder’s. In this way you will not have a spraying cat which causes sleepless nights because of the noise he produces when he is on heat. This isn’t a disadvantage. On the internet you will find many articles nowadays concerning early castration.