Colorpoint Shorthair

Weight: 5 - 9 pounds
Life span: 12 - 15 years
CFA rank: 29

Breed History | Background:

Viewed as the colorful first cousin of the popular Siamese breed for its 16 different point colors compared to only four colors recognized in the Siamese.
Breed created in the post-World War II years, circa 1948, in both North America and Great Britain as a way to introduce different color points to the popular Siamese by cross breeding them with red domestic shorthairs and later, with American Shorthairs and Abyssinians.
The CFA, the world’s largest breed registry, first approved the Colorpoint Shorthair for registration in 1964 and a decade later, for CFA championship status. Other cat associates have accepted the Colorpoint Shorthair as part of the Siamese breed.

Cat Look:

Features a silky coat that is a variation of white and free of any markings.
Markings on the ears and face come in more than a dozen colors, including red, cream, red lynx, blue lynx, seal lynx, cream, lynx, chocolate lynx, chocolate tortie, seal tortie and seal tortie lynx.
The body is long, lean and muscular.
The triangular face features almond-shaped blue eyes.

Behavioral concerns:

Extremely athletic and likes to perch on high places.
Tends to bond closely to one or two people.
Sensitive in nature and can become persistent attention-seekers.
This is an on-the-go active breed drawn to mentally-stimulating toys and learning tricks and basic commands.
Thrives in busy households and loves to carry on “chats” with people.

Grooming:

Its short, silky coat requires minimal maintenance and yields little shedding.
Running a quick comb once a week is ample to remove dead hair in the coat.
You can run a chamois cloth across the coat to bring out its silky shine look.
A fastidious groomer, the Colorpoint Shorthair rarely requires bathing. If you do bathe this breed, allow its coat to dry in a warm place and avoid using a blow dryer on its coat.

Suggested Nutritional Needs:

Benefits from high quality diets due to its muscular body and low-percentage of body fat.
Monitor daily food portions to ensure this active cat stays at a healthy weight.
Be on the alert for any sudden weight loss since this breed rarely tops 10 pounds.
Provide fresh water daily.

Medical conditions seen:

Fun Facts:

Depending on geography and cat association, this breed is known by a variety of names. In North America, it is called Colorpoint Shorthair, however, in Europe, this breed is known as the Himalayan. The Traditional Cat Association (TCA), founded in 1987, regards this breed as Traditional Colorpoint Siamese.
This silky breed is often regarded as a “Siamese of a different color” for its distinctive red point, lynx point and tortie point markings.
Parti-color Colorpoint Shorthairs are usually always female because the color red is carried on the sex-linked X chromosomes.

Glossary