Exotic Shorthair breed standard (some pointers)

Exotic Shorthair Breed Standard is a bit of a mouthful and the standard a bit “technical” but breed standards do tell us exactly how this breed of cat is meant to look, so it’s important. Although it makes it much easier to read the standard with great cats superbly photographed to look at at the same time.

The breed standard referred to this time is from the American Cat Fanciers Association. We know that the founding breeds for this “hybrid” cat, the Persian and American Shorthair are both rounded, chunky type cats. There is one word that dominates the breed standard and which tells us the kind of appearance targeted, and the word is “round”. This not the full standard but most of it and my words are used as well as quotes from the standard.

Note: This is a video from another website. Sometimes they are deleted at source which stops them working on this site. If that has happened, I apologise but I have no control over it.

The Exotic Shorthair Breed standard immediately reinforces this by saying that the head should be “round and massive”. The skull should have great “breadth” (definition: the measure or dimension from side to side; width). The breeding programme is designed to meet that with the squashed (Ultra) Persian’s face, in which the elements of the face are more or less in a straight line, adding to the unnatural roundness of the head. The American Shorthair itself has a round enough head but this goes one step further. You can see this extreme roundness in the first slide of Abbe, for example.

The neck should be short, with full cheeks (see the cat called, Divinity, for example) and powerful jaws. The ears should be small with rounded tips and be set low on the head and far apart. All this is to reinforce the impression of roundness (almost like the Scottish Fold).

The eyes in the cats photographed are noticeably large and round. This is exactly as it should be (“large, round and full….”). Look particularly at the eyes of “Sweet Charity” the kitten on the right of the two kittens. The body is cobby (chunky), with a “deep chest”. The back should be level with the floor (presumed to mean parallel with the ground). Divinity shows this aspect well.

The legs should be short, thick and strong. The paws are large and round. All the requirements lead towards one goal as can be seen, namely a very solid rounded and cobby cat.

Perhaps it goes without saying that the coat should be dense and plush and of even length over the body. This coat is easier to maintain than the Persian’s.