Breeding
The only allowable outcross breeds from the Sphynx Cat in the CFA (Cat Fanciers Assoc.) are now the American Shorthair and Domestic Shorthair (src:Wikipedia). Although the Sphynx Cat Club in the UK says that permitted outcrosses are the Domestic Shorthair (moggie) and Russian Blue. Is this a difference in policy between USA and UK? Please leave a comment.
It is clearly feasible to breed more varieties of hairless cats but it seems that this is resisted for 3 reasons. First, the gene that makes this cat almost hairless is not a mutation that is naturally beneficial to the cat. Secondly, the breed, in terms of appearance, is not obviously attractive to humans and there are probably health issues if crossing with certain other breeds. Since writing this I have changed my mind a bit about the Sphynx Cat, however (see introduction).
The breed has been crossed with a dwarf cat (the founding dwarf cat) the Munchkin, to produce the Bambino (named after the Italian word for a baby). The Bambino is essentially a short legged Sphynx. There is also the Dwelf, which is a cross between a Munchkin, Sphynx and an American Curl – short, hairless with ears that curl at the tips. More recently a couple of breeders have developed a cat breed they call the “Elf””. Click on the link to read about the Elf Cat, an extremely rare cat. Generally, due to careful breeding the Sphynx is robust with few health or genetic problems.
My research indicates that there are no (not absolutely sure though) health problems associated with this genetic mutation (that produces hairlessness) and that the breeding program has not has health consequences due to close breeding. However, it can be hard to find details about health, for obvious reasons.
The Shynx is a strong cat. It would seem to me that the breeding program has had as an objective the enhancement of the Sphynx like face, which on occasions may (and this is just my personal opinion) have gone too far (compare with the Ultra Persian and Modern Siamese). The author of the Wikipedia entry says that the current Sphynx breed in Europe and America is descended from 2 lines of mutations (a) Dermis and Epidermis (great names) – Pearsons of Wadena MN USA and (b) Bambi, Punkie and Paloma – 1975 Toronto.
Other hairless cats are the Don Sphynx and Peterbald.
When I initially commented I appear to have clicked the -Notify me when new comments are added- checkbox and from now on
each time a comment is added I get four emails with the exact same comment.
Perhaps there is a means you can remove me from that service?
Cheers!
Hi there. The default is that a person receives replies to their comment. That is what should happen. You shouldn’t have many replies because very few people comment on this page. Not sure how you stop that. I’ll check it out. It is a plugin for WordPress.
I wish I could have one. The gray ones seem to look nicest. I love all cats.