Picture of a modern chocolate pointed Siamese cat

This is a nice picture of a modern chocolate point Saimese cat. One commenter described this cat as ‘noble’. I can understand the description. This individual has a great face. The chocolate pointing is unusual, I think, in the way it is cleanly delineated. It looks great. The non-pointed areas are snow white which also looks fantastic as it is in complete contrast to the pointing. However under the CFA breed standard it should ivory colored. This person who bred the cat might not be governed by the CFA, however.

Chocolate point modern Siamese with unusual markings and a snow white coat. Photo in public domain.

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The CFA breed standard demands that the chocolate point Siamese should have a body which is ivory coloured with no shading. The pointing should be “milk chocolate colour, warming tone”. The eyes should be deep vivid blue which they are more or less and the nose leather should be cinnamon-pink which it is not. This cat has a beautiful head shape though. It is not bred to extreme like some modern Siamese cats that I have seen. And the ears are not overly large. Too often you see modern Siamese cat over-bred with bat-like ears and extremely elongated faces.

I think this is the way a modern Siamese cat should look. I add the adjective “modern” because that’s the way I see these cats. The original Siamese cat imported into England in the late 1800s looks far more regular in shape, a bit like today’s random read cat i.e. moggies in terms of body confirmation and head shape.

Siamese cats from years ago showing different pointing. Photo in public domain.

However, the breeders wanted to ‘refine’ the genuine Siamese and make it more elegant. They weren’t satisfied with the original so they elongated the animal, making it more slender which they equated to refinement. It kinda works for this cat but with some of them it doesn’t, in my opinion. Under the breed standard the head should be a “long tapering wedge”.

Under the TICA standard they don’t specify the type of white that the body colour should be as they do under the CFA standard. They simply say the emphasis should be on “soundness and clarity of colour, not an individual hue”. TICA does not refer to an elongated head but simply a wedge.

Comments

Picture of a modern chocolate pointed Siamese cat — 2 Comments

Anne on January 26, 2021 at 7:54 pm said:
I like your perspective of the Siamese, modern vs original. I prefer the original, though some of the modern are elegant. I really dislike that The Fancy had redefined what the think the original Siamese is.
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- Michael Broad on January 27, 2021 at 2:24 pm said:
  Thank you Anne for your comment. I agree with you. I think that we have a similar perspective about the Siamese cat. I, too, don’t mind the Siamese cat becoming very slender. It’s just a question, for me, of breeders overdoing it to the point where the cat loses any advantage that selective breeding brings it. There is certainly a very important Red Line which should not be crossed in breeding and I would argue that too many breeders, today, have crossed that line with respect to certain cat breeds. Some breed standards insist that the cat remains like the original or they insist that the cat is balanced and harmonious with no extreme features so these breeds are never bred to extreme. As soon as the breed standard incorporates words which encourage breeding to extreme, breeders take that opportunity because it’s the human condition if you like.
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