Siamese Cat Breed - Overview and History

Dog Breeds

The Siamese Cat Breed is perhaps the most recognizable of all purebred domestic breeds. It has been treasured for centuries because of its winning personality and beautiful, exotic, aristocratic physical characteristics.

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Introduction

The Siamese is perhaps the most recognizable of all purebred domestic breeds. It has been treasured for centuries because of its winning personality and beautiful, exotic, aristocratic physical characteristics. These are slender, graceful cats with finely-chiseled muzzles, elegant necks and long, svelte bodies. Their hind legs are noticeably longer than their front legs, and their paws are small and oval-shaped. The tail of the Siamese is long, quite slender and tapered and must have no trace of a kink. This is a very fine-boned, refined animal that should exude breed type in appearance and confidence in attitude. They have been described as “living art,” with their combination of great beauty with acute intelligence, sociable curiosity and loving nature.

Siamese have almond-shaped eyes that slant downward inwardly towards their noses and upward at the outer side towards their large, pointed, widely-set ears. Their captivating eyes are uniformly a bright, startling sapphire blue. They have wedge-shaped heads with a slight Roman nose and an alert, uniquely wise facial expression. Siamese have a pale base coat color with darker points on the face/mask, tips of the ears, legs, feet and tail. Their coat is short, fine and glossy. It is low-maintenance and quite easy to care for. Most Siamese kittens are born pure white, with the darker colors showing up gradually as they mature. Siamese do not exhibit their full mature coat color and markings until they are at least one year of age.

Interestingly, the change in skin pigmentation and hair color is temperature-sensitive and occurs mostly on areas of the cat’s body that are the coolest. As a result, Siamese cats living in cooler climates tend to develop darker coats and points sooner than do those living in warmer climates. Only four so-called “pure” colors of Siamese are recognized in the United States. These include the Lilac (Frost) Point Siamese, the Blue Point Siamese, the Chocolate Point Siamese and the Seal Point Siamese. The other colors of the same breed are referred to as Colorpointed Shorthairs and include the Cream Point, Red Point earlier called the Orange Point), Blue Tortie Point, Chocolate Tortie Point, Seal Tortie Point, Red Lynx Point, Seal Lynx Point, Cream Lynx Point, Lilac Lynx Point, Blue Lynx Point, Chocolate Lynx Point, Lilac Tortie Lynx Point, Blue Tortie Lynx Point, Chocolate Tortie Lynx Point and Seal Tortie Lynx Point. In the United Kingdom, new color varieties are becoming acceptable, such as the Seal Smoke Point, the Fawn, the Cinnamon and the Caramel. Some Siamese (and Colorpointed Shorthairs) have what are known as “ghost tabby markings” on their mask, legs and/or tail. The Lynx Point Siamese were first described as “Shadow-Pointed,” and then later as the Lynx Point. In Great Britain, they are now known as Tabby Point Siamese.

Most breed fanciers and authorities prefer a great deal of contrast between a lighter body color and darker but matching points. The deeper and more intense that the blue eye color is, the better.

History

While the exact origin of the Siamese is unclear, it is unquestionably a cat that originated in Thailand, formerly known as the country of Siam, perhaps as far back as the 1300’s. The Seal Point Siamese was described in a 15th-century manuscript of cat poems that was discovered in Siam, which seems to confirm that the breed was already well-established by that time. Called Cat Book Poems, and dating from 1350 in Ayudha, the ancient capital of Siam, this manuscript pictures a pale-coated cat with dark points. The Seal Point Siamese became known as the Royal Cat of Siam and could only be obtained by special favor of the King. Legend has it that one of these cats was put in each tomb of deceased royal family members to assist in the passing along of their souls. If the cat was found to have escaped from the tomb through ceiling holes or other escape routes, believers felt confident that the soul of their relative had successfully transmigrated from the burial chamber to the afterlife.

Siamese cats were described by a German explorer, Peter Simon Pallas, as early as 1793. This was one of the very first domestic breeds exported from Asia to Europe. The first breeding pair reportedly reached England in the 1870s or 1880s, as a gift from Siam to the English ambassador. They were seen in British cat shows almost immediately thereafter, although some experts believe that they made their debut in Europe in 1871 at the Crystal Palace Cat Show in London. Other Siamese were gifted by the Royal Court of Siam to British and American diplomats around the end of the nineteenth century, and they were seen in American cat shows in the very early part of the twentieth century. Some reports suggest that the first Siamese came to America in 1879, as a gift to the wife of President Rutherford Hayes from the US Consul in Bangkok. The early examples of this breed were much stockier and had rounder heads and faces than today’s Siamese. They were referred to as Traditional Siamese, Apple Heads, Opals or Thai Siamese and had much smaller ears, a pronounced squint and often a kinked tail.

The Seal Point is the most traditional color of the Siamese, first reportedly seen in Europe in the 1880s. It is also the darkest in terms of body color. The first Lilac Point Siamese may have been a cat exhibited in 1896 in Britain that was described as being “not quite blue,” and therefore was disqualified from finishing the competition. The traditional Blue Point Siamese began to acquire a strong following among cat fanciers in the 1930s, which continues to this day. The Red Colorpoint Shorthair caused some controversy when it was first exhibited at cat shows in Great Britain in 1934, because they did not conform to a traditional or even recognized Siamese coloration. Chocolate Point Siamese were not recognized fully in the show ring until sometime in the 1950s. The Lilac Point was recognized around 1955. The Seal Lynx Point reportedly occurred from an accidental breeding of a Seal Point female in 1960, which resulted in one kitten from the litter having tabby markings. Lynx Point Siamese were recognized in Britain in 1966.

While the Siamese has historically been one of the most popular of all pedigreed cats, it has lost some of its popularity to the newer modern breeds that have descended from it in recent years. The British GCCF and CA recognize all pointed, short-haired cats of Asian type as Siamese, as does the FIFe. The Cat Fanciers’ Association of the United States only recognizes the four original naturally-occurring colors.

Health Predispositions

This is a long-lived and healthy domestic feline breed with a life expectancy averaging 15 years or more. Crossed eyes were once a common trait in Siamese cats, but this trait has almost been eliminated due to selective and conscientious breeding practices by responsible breeders. Siamese tend to mature rather earlier than most cats. Females can become sexually active by six months of age, although most breeders would not breed a female of any breed until much later. As with other breeds, Torties are almost always female.

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