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.
BREED STANDARD FOR ORIENTAL SHORTHAIRS (except the Foreign White)
GENERAL TYPE STANDARD
The Oriental should be a beautifully balanced animal with head and ears carried on a slender neck and with a long svelte body supported on fine legs and feet, with a slender, whipped tail, free from abnormalities. The body, legs, feet, head and tail should all be in proportion, giving a well balanced appearance. The expression should be alert and intelligent. The cat should be in excellent physical condition.
Head & Neck: Head long and well proportioned with width between the ears and narrowing in perfectly straight lines to a fine muzzle and forming a balanced triangle with no break or pinch at the whiskers. The head and profile should be wedge shaped, neither round nor pointed, avoiding exaggerated type. In profile the nose should be straight, free from any stop or dip, and the chin should be strong with a level bite. The tip of the chin should line up with the tip of the nose in the same vertical plane. The neck should be long and slender.
Ears: Large, pricked and wide at the base with their setting continuing the lines of the wedge.
Eyes: Oriental in shape and slanting towards the nose with good width between. No tendency to squint.
Body: Medium in size. Long and svelte with a tight abdomen, firm and well muscled throughout.
Legs & Paws: Legs long and slim. Hind legs higher than the front legs. Legs to be firm and well muscled. Paws small and oval.
Tail: Long and tapering. Not blunt ended and free from any abnormality of the bone structure.
Coat: Very short and fine in texture. Glossy and close lying. Even and sound throughout in adults and free from any flakes of dead skin.
SCALE OF POINTS FOR ALL ORIENTALS EXCEPT THE FOREIGN WHITE
Eye Colour: Any shade of green, the more vivid the better, with no flecks of contrasting colour.
Coat Colour: Rich warm red, level in colour. Tabby markings may be evident, especially in kittens, and should not penalise an otherwise good cat. Hair red to the roots. No white hairs.
Nose Leather, Eye Rims & Paw Pads: Pink. Note: "Freckles" may appear on nose, pads, lips, eye rims and ears. Slight freckling in a mature cat should not be penalised.
Withhold Certificates or First Prizes in Kitten Open Classes for:
Eye Colour: Any shade of green, the more vivid the better, with no flecks of contrasting colour.
Coat Colour: Cool toned cream, level in colour. Tabby markings may be evident, especially in kittens, and should not penalise an otherwise good cat. Hair cream to the roots. No white hairs.
Nose Leather, Eye Rims & Paw Pads: Pink. Note: "Freckles" may appear on nose, pads, lips, eye rims and ears. Slight freckling in a mature cat should not be penalised.
Withhold Certificates or First Prizes in Kitten Open Classes for:
Eye Colour: Any shade of green, the more vivid the better, with no flecks of contrasting colour.
Coat Colour: Hot cream with a soft metallic sheen which becomes more noticeable with maturity. Tabby markings may be evident, especially in kittens, and should not penalise an otherwise good cat. Hair coloured to the roots. No white hairs.
Nose Leather, Eye Rims & Paw Pads: Pink. Note: "Freckles" may appear on nose, pads, lips, eye rims and ears. Slight freckling in a mature cat should not be penalised.
Withhold Certificates or First Prizes in Kitten Open Classes for:
Eye Colour: Green with no flecks of contrasting colour.
Coat Colour: Dark brownish grey (for blue based) or a warmer brownish grey (for lilac/fawn based), coloured to the roots. No white hairs. All caramels should display a metallic sheen irrespective of their colour base, but it maybe less evident in kittens.
Nose Leather, Eye Rims & Paw Pads: Browish grey.
Withhold Certificates or First Prizes in Kitten Open Classes for:
Eye Colour: Green with no flecks of contrasting colour.
Coat Colour: The base colour in all Oriental Torties should be coloured to the roots and free from tabby markings. This base colour is patched and/or mingled at random with shades of red/cream/apricot which may show tabby markings. The head, body, tail and all four legs need not be evenly patterned but all must show some break in colour. Presence or absence of a blaze is immaterial.
Nose Leather, Eye Rims & Paw Pads: Plain or patched, in accordance with the base colour and/or pink.
ORIENTAL TORTIE (BLACK) (37e): Jet black with shades of dark and/or light red.
BLUE ORIENTAL TORTIE (37g): Light to medium blue with shades of cream and/or pale cream.
CHOCOLATE ORIENTAL TORTIE (37h): Rich warm chestnut brown with shades of dark and/or light red.
LILAC ORIENTAL TORTIE (37j): Frosty grey with a distinct pinky tone with shades of cream and/or pale cream.
CINNAMON ORIENTAL TORTIE (37m): Warm cinnamon brown with shades of dark and/or light red.
CARAMEL ORIENTAL TORTIE (37p): Dark brownish grey (for blue based) or a warmer brownish grey (for lilac/fawn based) with shades of apricot, showing a metallic sheen.
FAWN ORIENTAL TORTIE (37y): Warm rosy mushroom with shades of rich and/or paler cream.
Withhold Certificates or First Prizes in Kitten Open Classes for:
Eye Colour: Green with no flecks of contrasting colour. In Red and Cream Smokes the eye colour may be less intense.
Coat Colour: Any colour accepted in Oriental Shorthairs with a near-white undercoat, which should be approximately one third to two thirds of the total hair length in adults. The degree of contrast on the head and face should match the body as closely as possible and too much silver giving the appearance of clear tabby markings is undesirable. Some faint ghost tabby markings may be evident on the body, especially in kittens, but distinct tabby markings in adults are undesirable.
Nose Leather, Eye Rims & Paw Pads: In accordance with the basic colour.
Withhold Certificates or First Prizes in Kitten Open Classes for:
Eye Colour: Green with no flecks of contrasting colour. In Red and Cream Shaded the eye colour may be less intense.
Pattern: The Oriental Shaded is an agouti cat in which the dark colour is restricted to the ends of the hairs; this darker portion of the hair may vary from tipping to medium-heavy shading but must not extend to more than half the hair length on the sides in adults. Heavier shading may or may not be apparent on the back. The tabby pattern, which may be Ticked, Spotted, Mackerel or Classic, may show clearly on the surface of the coat in kittens but should become less distinct as the lighter under-colour extends up the hair shaft with maturity. The more heavily shaded adults may still show some superficial broken tabby pattern, especially on the back and sides; this pattern may be more noticeable in standard varieties than in silver varieties. Cats with a classic pattern may appear darker because the pattern area is greater. The head, legs and tail may show tabby markings of varying clarity depending on the degree of shading.
Coat Colour: Shaded or tipped with any colour accepted in Oriental Shorthairs. The shading should be the same colour as the pattern area of the equivalent colour of Oriental Tabby; in Silver colours the shading may be reduced in intensity. The under-colour should be free from ticking. In Standard colours it should be pale warm toffee coloured in Black, Chocolate and Cinnamon Shaded, cream in Red Shaded, cool toned beige in Blue, Lilac and Caramel Shaded, pale mushroom in Fawn Shaded and near white in Cream and Apricot Shaded. In Silver colours the under-colour should be as pale a silver as possible. Tarnishing, i.e. discolouration of the silver, is undesirable.
Nose Leather, Eye Rims & Paw Pads: As in the equivalent colour of Oriental Tabby.
Withhold Certificates or First Prizes in Kitten Open Classes for:
Clear dense tabby markings on the body in adults.
White areas of fur extending to the throat or muzzle in standard colours only.
General: The tabby pattern is formed by markings of the solid pattern colour on a background of agouti hairs. The pattern colour in Standard Tabbies should be that of the equivalent coloured Oriental Self or Tortie. In Silver Tabbies the pattern colour may lack warmth and this should not be penalised. The pattern colour in Spotted, Classic and Mackerel Tabbies should match on head, body, legs and tail. There should be no speckling of agouti hairs in the markings and a pattern which consists of dark agouti on a light agouti background is incorrect and must be penalised. In Ticked Tabbies the pattern colour on head, legs and tail should match the ticking colour on the body.
In Standard Tabbies the markings should be dense to the roots and in Silver Tabbies they should extend well down the hair. The markings should show good contrast with the ground colour but in dilute colours the contrast between the markings and the ground colour is less than that required in non-dilute colours. In Tortie Tabbies the distribution of tortie markings is immaterial.
In Silver Tabbies tarnishing, i.e. discolouration of the silver ground colour, is undesirable.
Head Markings: On the forehead there should be a letter "M" extending to form a beetle shaped "scarab" marking running back between the ears. There should be unbroken lines running from the outer corners of the eyes and there should be pencillings on the cheeks. Thumb prints on the ears are desirable. In Ticked Tabbies the head markings may be reduced in intensity and/or extent or absent. The Oriental Tabby has a tendency to white in the immediate area of the lips and lower jaw. It is a serious fault if this extends to the throat and/or muzzle in Standard Tabbies but silvery white colour on the throat and/or muzzle in Silver Tabbies is not a fault.
Leg Markings: The legs should be barred in Classic and Mackerel Tabbies, barred and/or spotted in Spotted Tabbies. The barring should extend from the body marking to the toes. In Ticked Tabbies the bars may be reduced in intensity and/or extent or absent. The pattern colour should extend well up the back of the hind legs.
Tail Markings: Ringed in Spotted and Mackerel Tabbies, wider rings in Classic Tabbies. In Ticked Tabbies the rings may be reduced in intensity and/or extent or absent. There should be a solid tip of the pattern colour except in Red, Cream and Apricot tabbies where the tip may be pale.
Body Markings:
Spotted Pattern: On the neck and upper chest there should be broken or unbroken necklaces, the more the better. Lines running from the top of the head down the back of the neck should break into spots on the shoulders and along the spine. Kittens may show a rather solid spine line but evidence of breaking into spots is desirable. A solid spine line in adult cats is a serious fault. The spots may vary in size but should be round and evenly distributed. Spots should not run together into a broken Mackerel striped pattern in any part of the coat.
Classic Pattern: On the neck and upper chest there should be unbroken necklaces, the more the better. One of the lines running from the top of the head down the back of the neck should extend to the shoulder markings which should be shaped like a butterfly when viewed from above; both upper and lower wings should be clearly defined in outline with dots inside this outline. On the back there should be a line running down the spine from the butterfly to the tail and there should be a stripe on each side of this, running parallel to it. These three stripes should be separated from each other by stripes of the ground colour. On each flank there should be a large solid oyster or blotch, which should be surrounded by one or more unbroken rings. The ground colour and markings should be evenly balanced except on the belly which should be predominantly lighter with spotted markings. The markings on each side should match as closely as possible.
Mackerel Pattern: On the neck and upper chest there should be unbroken necklaces, the more the better. One of the lines running from the top of the head down the back of the neck should extend as a narrow unbroken line to the base of the tail. On either side of this should be a broken spine line from which the narrow lines which form the Mackerel Pattern run vertically down the body; these lines should be as narrow and numerous as possible. Ground colour and markings should be evenly balanced.
Ticked Pattern: On the neck and upper chest there may be a necklace, broken or unbroken. The body should be free from spots, stripes or blotches, except for darker dorsal shading. The lighter belly may show tabby markings. The coat should be evenly ticked with the pattern colour, with double, or preferably treble, ticking. i.e. two or three bands of each colour on each hair.
COLOUR DESCRIPTION FOR ALL TABBY PATTERNS
Eye Colour: Green with no flecks of contrasting colour. In Red and Cream Tabbies the eye colour may be less intense.
Nose Leather: As in the equivalent self or tortie colour or pink rimmed with the self or tortie colour.
Eye Rims & Paw Pads: As in the equivalent self or tortie colour. Note: In Red and Cream Tabbies "Freckles" may appear on nose, pads, lips, eye rims and ears. Slight freckling in a mature cat should not be penalised.
Oriental Shorthairs are intelligent, social animals who bond closely to their people. They are inquisitive, friendly, emotional, demanding and often quite vocal.
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.
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.
Patterns
Solid
Coat color is the uniform across the entire cat. Each hair shaft should be the same color from shaft to tip and be free of banding and tipping.
The bicolor pattern is created by the addition of a white spotting gene to any of the other accepted colors/patterns. The cat will have white on its belly, legs and an inverted V on the face.
Shaded Pattern
A Shaded cat will have a white undercoat with the tips being colored.
Smoke Pattern
The hair shaft will have a narrow band of white at the base which can only be seen when the hair is parted.
Parti-Color
A parti-color is essentially a patches of red/cream. patches may be well defined blotches of colour to merled. This colour is referred to as Tortoiseshell coat pattern in non-pedigreed cats.
Oriental Breed Colours and Numbers.
Non-agouti Oriental Breeds
Non-agouti: Oriental Selfs, Torties and Smokes
Oriental Selfs
Oriental Smokes (Non-Self)
Foreign White
35
Oriental Black
37
Black Oriental Smoke
42
Oriental Blue
37a
Blue Oriental Smoke
42a
Havana
29
Chocolate Oriental Smoke
42b
Oriental Lilac
29c
Lilac Oriental Smoke
42c
Oriental Red
37d
Red Oriental Smoke
42d
Oriental Cream
37f
Cream Oriental Smoke
42f
Oriental Apricot
37fn
Apricot Oriental Smoke
42fn
Oriental Cinnamon
37k
Cinnamon Oriental Smoke
42k
Oriental Caramel
37n
Caramel Oriental Smoke
42n
Oriental Fawn
37r
Fawn Oriental Smoke
42r
Oriental Torties (Non-Self)
Black Oriental Tortie
37e
Black Tortie Oriental Smoke
42e
Blue Oriental Tortie
37g
Blue Tortie Oriental Smoke
42g
Chocolate Oriental Tortie
37h
Chocolate Tortie Oriental Smoke
42h
Lilac Oriental Tortie
37j
Lilac Tortie Oriental Smoke
42j
Cinnamon Oriental Tortie
37m
Cinnamon Tortie Oriental Smoke
42m
Caramel Oriental Tortie
37p
Caramel Tortie Oriental Smoke
42p
Fawn Oriental Tortie
37y
Fawn Tortie Oriental Smoke
42y
Agouti Oriental Breeds
Agouti: Oriental Tabbies and Shaded
Colour
Spotted Tabby
Classic Tabby
Mackerel Tabby
Ticked Tabby
Shaded
Brown (Black)
38
41
44
45
43
Blue
38a
41a
44a
45a
43a
Chocolate
38b
41b
44b
45b
43b
Lilac
38c
41c
44c
45c
43c
Red
38d
41d
44d
45d
43d
Tortie
38e
41e
44e
45e
43e
Cream
38f
41f
44f
45f
43f
Apricot
38fn
41fn
44fn
45fn
43fn
Blue Tortie
38g
41g
44g
45g
43g
Chocolate Tortie
38h
41h
44h
45h
43h
Lilac Tortie
38j
41j
44j
45j
43j
Cinnamon
38k
41k
44k
45k
43k
Cinnamon Tortie
38m
41m
44m
45m
43m
Caramel
38n
41n
44n
45n
43n
Caramel Tortie
38p
41p
44p
45p
43p
Fawn
38r
41r
44r
45r
43r
Fawn Tortie
38y
41y
44y
45y
43y
Black Silver
38s
41s
44s
45s
43s
Blue Silver
38as
41as
44as
45as
43as
Chocolate Silver
38bs
41bs
44bs
45bs
43bs
Lilac Silver
38cs
41cs
44cs
45cs
43cs
Red Silver
38ds
41ds
44ds
45ds
43ds
Tortie Silver
38es
41es
44es
45es
43es
Cream Silver
38fs
41fs
44fs
45fs
43fs
Apricot Silver
38fns
41fns
44fns
45fns
43fns
Blue Tortie Silver
38gs
41gs
44gs
45gs
43gs
Chocolate Tortie Silver
38hs
41hs
44hs
45hs
43hs
Lilac Tortie Silver
38js
41js
44js
45js
43js
Cinnamon Silver
38ks
41ks
44ks
45ks
43ks
Cinnamon Tortie Silver
38ms
41ms
44ms
45ms
43ms
Caramel Silver
38ns
41ns
44ns
45ns
43ns
Caramel Tortie Silver
38ps
41ps
44ps
45ps
43ps
Fawn Silver
38rs
41rs
44rs
45rs
43rs
Fawn Tortie Silver
38ys
41ys
44ys
45ys
43ys
Descriptions of Tabbies, Shaded and Smokes
Ticked Tabby has a salt & pepper appearance with striping on legs, face, belly and tail tip. Spotted Tabby has stripes that appear as spots. Mackerel Tabby has vertical, gently curving stripes on the side of the body. The stripes are narrow and may be continuous or broken into bars or spots on the flanks and stomach. Often an M shape appears on the forehead. Mackerels also feature a peppered nose, where black spots appear along the pink tip of the nose. It is the most common tabby pattern. Classic Tabby has a similar M pattern on the head but the body markings are different having a swirled pattern. The legs and tail are more heavily barred. Shaded will have a white undercoat with the tips being coloured, making them look almost faded. Smoke will have a narrow band of white at the base which can only be seen when the hair is parted.
If you love siamese, you will love the shorthaired orientals, who have the same personality and body shape, with green eyes (except the foreign white) but come in a wide range of colours and patterns.
es may be well defined blotches of color to merled. This color is referred to as Tortoiseshell coat pattern in non-pedigreed cats.