Here are 14 facts on the Peterbald cat listed succinctly for mobile photo users! A lot of visitors to this site see it on their cellphones. They want quick facts, I believe. If you are not one of those please click here for a fuller page.
- The Peterbald is both a hairless and non-hairless cat. When 90% hairless the Peterbald is covered with an extremely fine fuzz, a bit like the skin of a peach or apricot.
- The idea for the creation of the Peterbald, a hybrid, came from the fact that some breeders felt that the Don Sphynx (the Russian version of the Sphynx) were two heavy boned and large. Therefore, they cross-bred the Don Sphynx with an Oriental-type cat (slender cat).
- The early development of the breed took place in St Petersburg, Russia in around 1993-94.
- This is an Oriental-type breed by which is meant the cats are slender with elongated faces and slender bodies such as you see with the contemporary Siamese and Oriental shorthair.
- The head is wedge-shaped; the ears are large and the eyes are almond-shaped.
- This cat is active and extremely friendly.
- Not all Peterbald cats are completely bald with a ‘fuzz’ for a coat. There’s a range of coat types for this breed which get progressively hairier namely: bald, flock, velour and brush. They are all within the breed standard.
- The bald cat is 100% hairless and they feel like warm rubber with a slightly sticky feel.
- The flock cat is 90% hairless with short down-like hair which is sparse.
- The velour cat is 70% hairless and the hair is from 1 mm to about 3-5 mm long.
- The brush cat has curly, wiry hair and the whiskers are always curly. The length of the hair varies across the body and at the extremities and down the tail the hair is longer. Sometimes there is hair loss during the first two years of the cat’s life.
- Breeders recommend that you bathe your Peterbald regularly as their skin picks up dirt because the sebaceous glands deposit oils on the skin’s surface because it has nowhere to go. These oils would normally go onto the hair strands. The oils are combined sweat and saliva resulting in a crusty residue on their skin
- The Peterbald is not hypoallergenic because they still deposit their saliva onto their bodies and it is the Fel D1 protein in saliva which is the allergen causing an allergic reaction in about 10% of people.
- The Peterbald is accepted by The International Cat Association (TICA). There is a TICA breed standard for this cat.
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