How good is your Siamese cat in terms of that all important appearance? A cat’s appearance is very important to many purebred cat owners. It certainly is to the breeder who sold the cat. Personality is a factor too but this page addresses appearance.
You like the appearance of the Siamese cat and their character: loyal and talkative. Okay, but how good is your Siamese cat compared to what the experts demand in their standard? Perhaps what I should say is how good is the breeder from whom bought the cat because it is they who should ensure that what they arrange to be created is high quality when measured against the breed standard.
As the modern Siamese cat is the de facto standard today, in a picture below, I have picked out some key standards against which you can measure your cat. The full standard is online as I am sure you know.
The modern Siamese is incredibly slender for a domestic cat; some believe overly slender. My personal feeling is that the Siamese breed standard has driven cat breeders to create ever more slender and elongated cats but we have thankfully reached the limit of slenderness!
I’d say that this is the way cat association breed standards work. Breeders selectively breed to the very limit and a bit beyond the limit of the standard, sometimes, to ensure that their cat certainly meets the breed standard and wins at cat shows.
Multiply this mentality across many Siamese cat breeders and throughout many cat shows, over many years, and you end up with the breeders breeding beyond the standard, meaning more extreme than stated in the standard.
But, that said, here is the breed standard set against two classic Siamese show cats – photographed by Helmi Flick (please respect her copyright) – in a picture with the key below the picture.
1. Ears – Strikingly large. This applies to the modern Siamese. This feature of over-sized ears is exclusive the contemporary Siamese and not the other varieties of this cat breed.
2. Head – The wedge (I think they mean triagular shape) starts at the nose and flares out in straight lines to the tips of the ears forming a triangle…..
3. Skull – flat in profile, long straight line is seen from the top of the head to the tip of the nose. This is rather extreme. All cats naturally have a ‘break’ in the line at the nose but the standard states: a continuation of the forehead with no break.
4. Eyes – almond shaped.
5. Body – long and svelte (slender and elegant – Siamese breeders are keen on elegance as it was the reason for modifying the shape – see the evolution/history).
6. Paws – dainty, small and oval.
7. Coat – short, fine textured and glossy.
8. Legs – long and slim.
Thanks Lisa for your useful information. Much appreciated. I remember Martyn Stucki who ran A1 Savannahs in Oklahoma saying much the same thing. There is some unethical behavior in cat breeding it seems to me. They want to make fast buck and not do it properly.