siamese facts

[ronss]

i found a great article on siamese cats, scientific classification

Scientific Classification of a Siamese Cat | eHow.com

Siamese cats belong to a subfamily that includes lyxes, cheetahs and ocelots. its hard for me to see how cheetahs and ocelots relate to the siamese cat.

Siamese cats belong to its own subspecies. Other breeds of cat are not included in this subspecies....whatever this means?

[yingying]

The whole artical except the last paragraph (species and subspecies) is actually applicable to all household cats. If you remove the word "Siamese", the statments in the artical are still valid

The last paragraph is Siamese specific, because "breeds" is actually more or less the same as "subspecies". For example, Siamese is F. catus siamensis and Persian is F. catus persica. So yes, no other breeds of cat is included in Siamese subspecies, because they are not Siamese! But that doesn't make Siamese special. Other breeds have their own subspecies.

However, note that not all cat breeds has a subspecies name associated. Some breeds are too new to have a taxonomic name proposed. Some breeds are too closely related to be considered separate subspecies (for example, if a breed is estabilished by crossing other two similar breeds, then all three may fall in the same subspecies). Also moggies don't have subspecies, because they are not of a certain breed.

[bluemilk]

I did some research on 1 of my sisters new kittens,it's actually a chocolate POINT meezer. Do they differ from other siamese cats? They'd be considered a variation,right?

[yingying]

I'm a bit confused here Bluemilk. Do you know (s)he is a Siamese (with paper to proof), or do you think (s)he is a Siamese because of the look-alike?

If the kitten is a purebreed Siamese, I think technically (s)he is no different than other purebreed Siamese. Choc point is not from the original line, possbily introduced somewhere by crossing with another breed. But because the percentage of that other breed is so low (after 4 generations it will be less than 5%), choc point is no different than traditional colored Siamese.

But if the kitten is not purebreed, then they are not of the same subspecies because of the potiential large difference in DNA.

[rhythmicgoldfish]

Originally Posted by yingying

I'm a bit confused here Bluemilk. Do you know (s)he is a Siamese (with paper to proof), or do you think (s)he is a Siamese because of the look-alike?

If the kitten is a purebreed Siamese, I think technically (s)he is no different than other purebreed Siamese. Choc point is not from the original line, possbily introduced somewhere by crossing with another breed. But because the percentage of that other breed is so low (after 4 generations it will be less than 5%), choc point is no different than traditional colored Siamese.

But if the kitten is not purebreed, then they are not of the same subspecies because of the potiential large difference in DNA.

not true siamese come in four traditional colors: seal, blue(dialute of seal), chocolate, and lilac(dialute of chocolate) many registries also include red/cream/apricot BUT they are not considered original to the breed

[kwarendorf]

This site has examples of the 4 primary Siamese colorations.

Fairy Dust Siamese - Colors

[yingying]

Are choc and lilac that natually occur to those "original Siamese", i.e., the ancestors? I'm not familiar about Siamese history, but I know in Birman only seal and blue are original colors. And people get the diluted gene from other cats to create choc and lilac, then the lynx, and more recently red factors. There are still Birman breeders who stick with only seal and blue for the "original line". Not sure about Siamese.

[Dave_ph]

Cats 101 and Wikipaedia for colorpoint shorthairs

Cats 101: Colorpoint Shorthair : Video : Animal Planet


Colorpoint Shorthairs are the first cousins of the Siamese and the Cat Fanciers' Association is the only registry that recognizes them as a standalone breed. In all other registries, they are part of the Siamese and Oriental breeds. These cats are distinguished by their elegance in sixteen different "point" colors beyond the four Siamese colors. The Colorpoint Shorthair shares body style, personality, coat length, and pointed color pattern with the Siamese, but in the untraditional colors of red, cream, tortoiseshell, and lynx (tabby) points. Two separate schools of thought exist about the Colorpoint Shorthair: those who think that since these cats are pointed like a Siamese, they should be considered Siamese, and those who deem the Colorpoint a Siamese hybrid. In fact these cats were initially created by hybridizing Siamese with American Shorthairs, the same hybridization that created the Oriental breed of cats.

The effort to produce a Siamese-style pointed cat in colors other than the traditional four began in England and in America in the 1940s, carried out by breeders who used foundation crossings between the Siamese, Abyssinian, and the red domestic shorthair. The American Shorthair also became part of the matrix. Initially, the Colorpoint breeders experienced setbacks and failures; in the effort to achieve the proper colors in the proper places, the Siamese body type was often sacrificed. The breeding was further complicated by the difficulty of working with the red coloration because it is a sex-linked color.