I think I’d better start this discussion by clarifying what a ‘cat species’ is. There are around 37 cat species. The number depends on how you classify them (taxonomy) and there is still some discussion on that topic. All bar one are wild cats. One of the species or subspecies is the domestic cat …
Photos: top left and bottom right: copyright Helmi Flick. The other two are in the public domain as assessed.
Update April 2023: Pancreatitis A study reports that Siamese cats are at increased risk of pancreatitis. Cats with pancreatitis rarely display signs of abdominal pain. Cats are good at hiding pain as we know. But cats with pancreatitis vomit and they have “sensitive stomachs”. They might experience nausea. Knowing these things, it may be …
There are extremes of skull variation in cat breeds because of a natural propensity in humans to go too far in this sort of project and because breed standards have to ensure that the breeds are sufficiently differentiated one from another. The slenderising of the Siamese is due to what the breeders believed was …
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 …
This is a picture of a modern Siamese cat. Some people don’t like me using the word “modern” in relation to this cat breed. For them, the elongated face of the Siamese cat combined with the super-slender figure is normal. This is what is expected of the Siamese cat. The world has come to …
Periodontitis appears to be more common in Siamese cats and the family of breeds associated with the Siamese e.g. the Oriental Shorthair. And increased susceptibility also occurs among cats who have repeated viral respiratory infections. Periodontitis progresses from gingivitis and is an infection of the teeth and gums. The supporting structures of the teeth …
What do Siamese cats look like? We don’t know what the definitive Siamese cat looks like. This is a strange state of affairs. For all other breeds bar the Persian, we have a more or less definitive appearance of the cat and it is all written down in the breed standard but for the …
