Mary Allen
The Oriental Shorthair has charm and grace – and a loose tongue: it babbles, coos, sings, moans, squawks, and screeches. Find out everything about the origin, character, nature, keeping and care of the cat breed Oriental Shorthair / Longhair in the profile.
The Appearance Of The Oriental Shorthair
The ideal Oriental is slender, and elegant, with long, tapering lines, while being lithe and muscular. The body should be of medium size. The head should be wedge-shaped and straight, the wedge starts at the nose and leads to the ears, without a “whisker break”. Even the long, straight nose must not show a stop. The almond-shaped eyes are slightly slanted towards the nose and are a lively, bright green. The oriental stand on long, fine legs with small oval paws. The tail is very long and thin, even at the base, ending in a fine point.
The fur is always short, fine, close-lying, and without an undercoat. Solid, i.e. monochromatic, Orientals can be dressed in monochrome, blue, chocolate, lilac, red, cream, cinnamon, and fawn. All tortoiseshell variants are possible, as are all tabby variants. Relatively new inbreeding is the Smoke Orientals, which are allowed to show solid color and tortoiseshell. Silver tabby is also allowed, in all colors such as tortoiseshell. Four tabby variants are possible: brindle, mackerel, spotted, and ticked.
The Temperament Of The Oriental Shorthair
The Oriental Shorthair has charm and grace – and a loose tongue: it babbles, coos, sings, moans, squawks, and screeches. Like the Siamese, she is very talkative and always expects an answer. She is extraordinarily cuddly, extremely playful, and devoted to humans. She needs a lot of attention and demands it. But she is also very docile. She even learns to walk on a leash, often with joy. The Oriental Shorthair is spirited and playful for life.
Keeping And Caring For The Oriental Shorthair
Orientals hate being alone. That is why they are not only closely associated with humans, but also with other pets, especially conspecifics. You should definitely be offered these. Keeping more cats would make the oriental very happy. The bond that this cat has with her human is so intense that she would rather go with them than stay behind. Although she really appreciates a balcony or garden, she is also happy as an indoor cat. The short coat of this breed is very easy to care for. Occasional rubbing with a soft cloth makes it shine.
Disease Susceptibility Of The Oriental Shorthair
The Oriental Shorthair shows no breed-specific signs of illness. Of course, like all other cats, she can also fall ill with regular diseases. These include diseases of the upper respiratory tract and bacterial infections in the stomach and intestines. To limit the risk, the Oriental should be vaccinated against diseases such as cat flu and cat disease. If the cat is allowed to run free, there is an increased risk of parasite infestation. However, here there are special collars and means. The vet knows what to do. When the Oriental Shorthair is allowed to roam freely, it must also be vaccinated against rabies and feline leukemia.
Origin And History Oriental Shorthair
The history of the Oriental Shorthair is, in its beginnings, that of the Siamese. After all, probably only a single gene differentiates the two breeds. While the Siamese is part-albino, resulting in their distinctive light coloring, Orientals come in many different colors. When the Siamese came into fashion and it was decided in 1920 that only blue-eyed cats with points could be registered as Siamese cats, the more colorful variant was initially forgotten. Committed breeders, however, managed to prevent the Orientals from disappearing.
Baron von Ullmann in England was the first to breed the Oriental Shorthair. A breed was to be created that was similar to the Siamese in appearance and character but had different coat colors. For example, Siamese and Russian Blue were crossed into slender short-haired cats. After initial difficulties, the new breed was officially recognized in 1972.
Did You Know?
Incidentally, the fact that only one gene separates the blue-eyed Siamese from their green-eyed Oriental relatives was already used in Germany in the early 1930s. Then the Dresden breeder Schwangart surprised the cat world with monochromatic, slender cats; They called the exotic fans “Egyptians” and spoke of “Schwangart’s slim-type”.