List of cat breeds

Domestic cats have been diversified by humans into breeds and domestic and wild hybrids. Many such breeds recognized by various cat registries. Additionally, there are new and experimental breeds, landraces being established as standardized breeds, distinct domestic populations not being actively developed and lapsed (extinct) breeds.

As of 2023, The International Cat Association (TICA) recognizes 75 standardized breeds, ^[1] the Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA) recognizes 45, ^[2] the Fédération Internationale Féline (FIFe) recognizes 50, ^{[3] [4]} the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy (GCCF) recognizes 45, ^[5] and the World Cat Federation (WCF) recognizes 69. ^[6]

Inconsistency in a breed's classification and naming among registries means that an individual animal may be considered different breeds by different registries (though not necessarily eligible for registry in them all, depending on its exact ancestry). For example, TICA's Himalayan is considered a colorpoint variety of the Persian by the CFA, while the Javanese (or Colorpoint Longhair) is a color variation of the Balinese in both the TICA and the CFA; both breeds are merged (along with the Colorpoint Shorthair) into a single "mega-breed", the Colourpoint, by the World Cat Federation (WCF), who have repurposed the name "Javanese" for the Oriental Longhair. Also, "Colourpoint Longhair" refers to different breeds in other registries. There are many examples of nomenclatural overlap and differences of this sort. Furthermore, many geographical and cultural names for cat breeds are fanciful selections made by Western breeders to sound exotic and bear no relationship to the actual origin of the breeds; ^[7] the Balinese, Javanese, and Himalayan are all examples of this trend.

The domestic short-haired and domestic long-haired cat types are not breeds, but terms used (with various spellings) in the cat fancy to describe random-bred, non-pedigree "moggy" or "household" cats by coat length, ones that do not belong to a particular breed. Some registries such as the Cat Fanciers' Association allow for domestic short hairs and domestic long hairs to be registered for the purpose of outcrossing. ^[8] They should not be confused with standardized breeds with similar names, such as the British Shorthair and Oriental Longhair.

Breeds

Breed	Location of origin	Type	Body type	Coat type and length	Coat pattern	Image
Abyssinian [9]	Unspecified, but somewhere in Afro-Asia, likely Ethiopia [10]	Natural	Semi-foreign	Short	Ticked tabby
Aegean	Greece	Natural	Moderate	Semi-long	Multi-color
American Bobtail [11]	United States [12]	Mutation of shortened tail	Cobby	Semi-long	All
American Curl [13]	United States [12]	Mutation	Semi-foreign	Semi-long	All
American Shorthair	United States [12]	Natural	Cobby	Short	All
American Wirehair	United States [12]	Mutation	Normal	Rex	All
Aphrodite Giant	Cyprus	Natural	Lean and muscular	All	All
Arabian Mau	Arabian Peninsula	Natural	Moderate and muscular	Short	All
Asian	United Kingdom	Crossbreed between the Burmese and Chinchilla Persians	Moderate	Short	All without white and without siamese pointing
Asian Semi-longhair	United Kingdom	Crossbreed between the Burmese and Chinchilla Persians	Moderate	Semi-long	All without white and without siamese pointing
Australian Mist	Australia [14]	Crossbreed between the Abyssinian, Burmese, and Australian short-haired cats [14]	Moderate	Short	Spotted or marbled
Balinese	Developed in United States; [12] foundation stock from Thailand	Mutation of the Siamese	Semi-foreign	Long	Colorpoint
Bambino	United States [14]	Crossbreed between the Munchkin and Sphynx [14]	Dwarf	Short	Black + white hairless
Bengal	Developed in United States, [14] but created in Asia	Hybrid of the Abyssinian and Egyptian Mau ×  leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis)	Large	Short	Spotted, marbled, or rosetted
Birman	Developed in France; foundation stock from Burma (Myanmar) [12]	The original Birman was crossed with the Siamese and the Persian to create the Birman of today.	Cobby	Semi-long	Mitted colorpoint
Bombay	United States and Burma (Myanmar)	Crossbreed between the Black American Shorthair and Sable Burmese	Cobby	Short	Solid black
Brazilian Shorthair	Brazil	Natural	Normal	Short	All
British Longhair	United Kingdom (England) [12]	Natural	Cobby	Semi-long	All
British Shorthair	United Kingdom (England) [12]	Natural	Cobby	Short	All [15]
Burmese	Burma (Myanmar) [12]	Natural	Semi-foreign or semi-cobby	Short	Solid and Tortoiseshell [16]
Burmilla	United Kingdom (England) [12]	Crossbreed between the Burmese and the Chinchilla Persian	Semi-cobby	Short	Solid with Shaded Silver and Silver Tipped patterns
California Spangled	United States [12]	Crossbreed between the Abyssinian, American Shorthair and British Shorthair	Moderate	Short	Spotted tabby
Chantilly-Tiffany	United States	Natural	Cobby	Long	Solid, classic tabby, spotted tabby and ticked tabby
Chartreux	France [12]	Natural	Muscular; cobby	Short	Varying shades of blue
Chausie	United States	Hybrid of the Abyssinian ×  jungle cat (Felis chaus)	Normal	Short	Solid black, black grizzled tabby and black ticked tabby
Colorpoint Shorthair	United Kingdom (England)	Crossbreed between the Abyssinian, Siamese and short-haired cats	Foreign	Short	Colorpoint
Cornish Rex	Cornwall, England, United Kingdom	Mutation	Foreign	Rex	All
Cymric, Manx Longhair or Long-haired Manx [a]	Isle of Man, United States, and Canada [b] [12]	Mutation of the Manx (shortened tail)	Semi-cobby	Long	All
Cyprus	Cyprus	Natural	Lean and muscular	All	All
Devon Rex	Buckfastleigh, Devon, England, United Kingdom	Mutation	Semi-foreign	Rex	All
Donskoy or Don Sphynx	Russia	Mutation	Semi-foreign	Hairless	Solid
Dragon Li or Chinese Li Hua	China	Natural	Normal	Short	Ticked tabby
Dwelf	United States	Crossbreed between the American Curl, Munchkin and Sphynx	Dwarf	Hairless	All
Egyptian Mau	Egypt [12]	Natural	Moderate and muscular	Short	Spotted tabby
European Shorthair	Continental Europe [12]	Natural	Moderate	Short	All
Exotic Shorthair	United States [12]	Crossbreed between the American Shorthair and Persian	Cobby	Short	All
Foldex [17]	Canada	Crossbreed between the Exotic Shorthair and Scottish Fold	Cobby	Short	All
German Rex	Germany [12]	Mutation	Semi-foreign	Rex	All
Havana Brown	United Kingdom (England); foundation stock from Thailand	Crossbreed between the Siamese and black short-haired cats	Semi-foreign	Short	Solid brown
Highlander	United States	Crossbreed between the Desert Lynx and Jungle Curl	Moderate	Short/long	All
Himalayan or Colorpoint Persian [c]	United States and United Kingdom [12]	Crossbreed between the Persian and Siamese	Cobby	Long	Colorpoint
Japanese Bobtail	Japan [d] [12]	Mutation of shortened tail	Moderate	Short/long	All
Javanese or Colorpoint Longhair [e]	Developed in United States [12] and Canada; foundation stock from Southeast Asia	Crossbreed between the Balinese (with some Colorpoint Shorthair), Oriental Longhair and Siamese	Oriental	Long	Colorpoint
Kanaani	Israel [14]	Hybrid of short-haired cats ×  African wildcat (Felis lybica)	Semi-foreign	Short	Solid black, chocolate spotted tabby or cinnamon spotted tabby
Karelian Bobtail	Ladoga Karelia, Russia [18]	Natural, mutation of shortened tail [19]	Medium [20]	Short/long [21]	All, except pointed
Khao Manee	Thailand [14]	Natural	Moderate	Short	Solid white
Kinkalow	United States	Crossbreed between the Munchkin and American Curl	Dwarf	Short	All
Korat	Thailand [12]	Natural	Semi-foreign or semi-cobby and muscular	Short	Solid blue
Korean Bobtail	Korea	Natural, mutation of shortened tail	Moderate	Short/long	All
Korn Ja or Konja [ citation needed ]	Thailand	Natural	Small	Short	Solid black
Kurilian Bobtail or Kuril Islands Bobtail	Kuril Islands, North Pacific [14]	Natural, mutation of shortened tail	Semi-cobby	Short/long [14]	All
Lambkin	United States [12]	Crossbreed between the Munchkin and Selkirk Rex	Dwarf	Rex	All
LaPerm	United States [12]	Mutation	Moderate	Rex	All
Lykoi	United States	Mutation	Moderate	Sparse haired	Black roan
Maine Coon	United States [12]	Natural, crossbreed	Large	Semi-long/long	All excluding chocolate and colourpoint
Manx	Isle of Man [12]	Mutation of shortened tail	Moderate	Short/long	All
Mekong Bobtail	Developed in Russia; foundation stock ultimately from Southeast Asia [14]	Mutation of shortened tail	Moderate	Short	Colorpoint
Minskin	United States [14]	Crossbreed between the Munchkin, Burmese, Devon Rex, and Sphynx	Dwarf	Hairless	All
Minuet	United States	Crossbreed between the Persian and Munchkin	Dwarf	Short/long	All
Munchkin	United States [12]	Mutation of dwarf cat	Dwarf	Short/long	All
Nebelung	United States [14]	Natural, mutation	Foreign	Semi-long	Solid blue
Neva Masquerade (colorpoint Siberian) [f]	Russia [14]	Crossbreed between the Siberian and a colorpoint cat [23]	Cobby [14]	Long [14]	Colorpoint
Norwegian Forest cat	Norway [12]	Natural	Cobby	Long	Chocolate or orange and white bicolor
Ocicat	United States [12]	Crossbreed between the Abyssinian, American Shorthair and Siamese	Large	Short	Spotted tabby
Ojos Azules (extinct)	United States [12]	Crossbreed	Moderate	Short	All
Oriental Bicolor	Developed in United States and United Kingdom, later in Continental Europe; foundation stock ultimately from Thailand	Color variety of the Oriental Shorthair	Oriental	Short	Bicolor
Oriental Longhair [g]	Developed in United States and United Kingdom; foundation stock ultimately from Thailand [12]	Crossbreed between the Oriental Shorthair and long-haired cats	Oriental	Semi-long	All; if colorpoint is considered to be a separate breed, it is called the Javanese
Oriental Shorthair [g]	Developed in United States and United Kingdom; foundation stock ultimately from Thailand [12]	Crossbreed between the European Shorthair and Siamese	Oriental	Short	All
Persian (modern)	Developed in United States and Europe; foundation stock from Greater Iran [12]	Mutation of the Traditional Persian	Cobby	Long	All but colorpoint
Persian (traditional)	Greater Iran [12]	Natural, but some crossbreeding with the Turkish Angora	Cobby	Long	All but colorpoint
Peterbald	Russia	Crossbreed between the Donskoy, Oriental Shorthair and Siamese; before this, it was between the Balinese and Javanese	Oriental	Hairless, velour, brush, or straight coat	All
Pixie-bob	United States [12]	Mutation (falsely claimed to be a hybrid of the domestic cat and the bobcat (Lynx rufus) early on)	Medium	Short	Spotted tabby
Ragamuffin or Liebling (obsolete)	United States	Crossbreed between the Ragdoll with limited out-crossing to the Himalayan, the Persian, and other long-haired cats	Cobby	Long	All
Ragdoll	United States [12]	Behavioral mutation in a crossbreed, presumed to be between the Persian or Turkish Angora and the Birman or Burmese	Cobby	Long	Colorpoint, mitted, or bicolor
Raas	Raas Island, Indonesia	Natural	Moderate	Short	Solid blue, solid cinnamon, or cinnamon colorpoint
Russian Blue	Russia [12]	Natural	Moderate, Oriental	Short	Solid blue
Russian White, Russian Black and Russian Tabby	Developed in Australia; foundation stock from Russia	Crossbreeds between the Russian Blue and short-haired cats from Siberia, Russia	Moderate	Short	Solid white, solid black and tabby
Sam Sawet	Thailand	Color variety of the Thai	Moderate	Short	Solid
Savannah	United States [14]	Hybrid of the domestic cat x  serval (Leptailurus serval) [24]	Large	Short	Spotted
Scottish Fold	United Kingdom (Scotland) [12]	Mutation of the bones and cartilage of the ears	Cobby	Short/long	All
Selkirk Rex	United States in 1988 [12]	Mutation/crossbreed between the American Shorthair, Persian, Himalayan, Exotic Shorthair and British Shorthair	Large and cobby	Short/long (longhair, sometimes in early generations, can appear to be semi-long)	All
Serengeti	United States	Crossbreed/hybrid between the Bengal and Oriental Shorthair	Oriental	Short	Spotted
Siamese (modern) (for traditional, see Thai )	Developed in United States and Europe; foundation stock from Thailand [12]	Mutation of the Thai	Oriental	Short	Colorpoint
Siberian or Siberian Forest Cat (for colorpoint, see Neva Masquerade )	Siberian Tundra, Russia.	Natural	Cobby [14]	Long [14]	All; except chocolate, lilac, cinnamon, and fawn [22]
Singapura	Developed in United States; foundation stock from Singapore [12]	Possibly a mutation of a crossbreed (excluding the Munchkin), solving why they are so small	Small	Short	Ticked tabby
Snowshoe	United States [12]	Crossbreed between the American Shorthair and Siamese	Moderate	Short	Mitted colorpoint
Sokoke	Kenya [14]	Natural	Moderate	Short	Ticked tabby
Somali	United States, Canada	Mutation	Cobby	Long	Ticked tabby
Sphynx	Canada, Europe [12]	Mutation	Oriental	Hairless	All
Suphalak	Thailand	Natural	Moderate	Short	Solid reddish-brown
Thai or Traditional, Classic, or Old-style Siamese; Wichien Maat [h]	Developed in Europe; [14] foundation stock from Thailand [12]	Natural	Moderate	Short	Colorpoint
Thai Lilac, Thai Blue Point and Thai Lilac Point	Thailand	Color varieties of the Korat	Moderate	Short	Solid lilac and colorpoint (blue point and lilac point only)
Tonkinese	Canada, United States [12]	Crossbreed between the Burmese and Siamese	Oriental	Short	Colorpoint, mink, or solid
Toybob	Russia	Mutation	Dwarf	Short	All
Toyger	United States [14]	Crossbreed/hybrid between the Bengal and short-haired cats	Moderate	Short	Mackerel tabby
Turkish Angora	Turkey [12]	Natural	Semi-cobby	Semi-long	All
Turkish Van [i]	Developed in United Kingdom; foundation stock from Turkey [14]	Natural	Semi-cobby	Semi-long	Van pattern
Turkish Vankedisi (white variety of Turkish Van) [i]	Developed in United Kingdom; foundation stock from Turkey [14]	Natural	Svelte	Long	Solid white
Ukrainian Levkoy	Ukraine	Crossbreed between the Donskoy and Scottish Fold	Moderate	Hairless	Solid gray
York Chocolate	New York, United States	Natural	Moderate	Long	Solid chocolate, solid lilac and solid taupe or any of these colors with white

See also

• Animal show
• Animals in sport
• Felidae – the entire cat family
• Felinae – the subfamily of all smaller cat species
• Lists of breeds
• List of experimental cat breeds
• List of cat registries
• List of individual cats
• Selective breeding
• Wildcat – the ancestor of the domestic cat

Explanatory notes

1. The Cymric is often classed as a long-haired variety of the Manx rather than a separate breed, e.g. as the "Semi-longhair Manx Variant" in GCCF.
2. There may be some dispute to the exact origins of the Cymric. The specific dominant autosomal gene (M) that causes the short tail of the Cymric was found in the cats living on the Isle of Man in the Irish Sea; however, the breed itself was developed by a Canadian breeder named Blair Wright and an American breeder named Leslie Falteisek in the 1960s from the Isle of Man population.
3. Some registries, such as CFA and TICA, classify the Himalayan as a colorpoint variety of the Persian. Others classify it as a long-haired sub-breed of the Siamese. WCF has combined the Himalayan, the Colorpoint Shorthair and the Javanese/Colorpoint Longhair into a single breed, the Colourpoint.
4. Due to artifacts and prints dating from as early as the 11th century found in many Eastern countries, there is some likelihood these cats may have originated in China, then were brought to Japan. However, the first known importation of Japanese Bobtails was from Japan in the 1960s.
5. "Colorpoint Longhair" has multiple meanings and "Javanese" has been used for at least one other breed; WCF uses the "Javanese" name for the Oriental Longhair (not colorpointed). WCF has also merged the colorpointed Javanese/Colorpoint Longhair, the Himalayan and the Colorpoint Shorthair of other registries into a single breed, the Colourpoint. In CFA and TICA, and some other registries, the Javanese/Colorpoint Longhair has been merged back into the Balinese as a breed division.
6. The Neva Masquerade is classified as a separate breed in several (inter)national registries, such as FIFe. ^[22] However, other registries classify the Neva Masquerade as a natural colorpoint variety of the Siberian cat.
7. In some registries, including the CFA, the Oriental Shorthair and Oriental Longhair are a single breed, the Oriental, with two divisions (shorthair and longhair).
8. Thai is a recently established new name for the original, rounder-faced, thicker-bodied Siamese.
9. The Turkish Van breed, and especially its "Turkish Vankedisi" variant, are often confused with the Van cat (Van kedisi in Turkish), a landrace (not breed) of cats native to the Lake Van region of Turkey. The Turkish Van and recent "Vankedisi" coat pattern have no known connection to cats from this region, but they are often confused due to the name similarity and incorrect claims sometimes made by breeders.

References

1. "Browse All Breeds". The International Cat Association . Retrieved 12 June 2025.
2. "CFA Breeds". CFA.org. Cat Fanciers' Association. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 4 February 2022.
3. "Breeds". Fédération Internationale Féline. Retrieved 12 June 2025.
4. "FIFe List of Breeds". FIFeWeb.org. Fédération Internationale Féline. Archived from the original on 19 February 2010. Retrieved 25 March 2023.
5. "Analysis of Breeds Registered". GCCFCats.org. Governing Council of the Cat Fancy . Retrieved 25 March 2023.
6. "WCF Breeds Recognized". WCF.info. World Cat Federation . Retrieved 25 March 2023.
7. Somerville, Louisa (2007). The Ultimate Guide to Cat Breeds. Edison, New Jersey: Chartwell Books. p. 44. ISBN   978-0-7858-2264-6. There is a lot of confusion surrounding the use of this name in the cat world, although it is always used to describe cats of distinctly Oriental type. It has been adopted simply because of the tradition which has grown up for using the names of countries and islands from south-eastern Asia for other Oriental breeds, such as the Siamese and Balinese.
8. "Registration Certificate". Catalog.CFA.org. Cat Fanciers' Association . Retrieved 31 December 2023.
9. "Abyssinian at a Glance". TICA.org. The International Cat Association. 13 April 2020. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
10. "Abyssinian Profile", Catz Inc.. Retrieved 4 October 2009
11. "The American Bobtail Breed". 13 April 2020. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
12. Paragon, Bernard-Marie; Vaissaire, Jean-Pierre; et al. (2005) [2001, 2003]. The Royal Canin Cat Encyclopedia. Paris: Royal Canin / Aniwa Publishing. This is a four-volume work, but all entries are alphabetical by breed, so volume and page number citations are superfluous.
13. "The American Curl Breed". 28 January 2020. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
14. Baggaley, Ann; Goddard, Jolyon; John, Katie (2014). The Cat Cncyclopedia: The Definitive Visual Guide (1st American ed.). London: Dorling Kindersley. ISBN   978-1-4654-1959-0. OCLC   859882932.
15. "British shorthair breed standard" (PDF). GCCFCats.org. Governing Council of the Cat Fancy.
16. "Burmese breed introduction". TICA.org. The International Cat Association . Retrieved 28 March 2023.
17. "The Foldex". showcatsonline.com. Archived from the original on 24 April 2014. Retrieved 6 June 2015.
18. "Карельский бобтейл". zoomir.ru. Archived from the original on 10 July 2019. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
19. "Кот и пёс / Kaži da koiru". Республика. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
20. "Karelian Bobtail Shorthair". World Cat Federation. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
21. "Karelian Bobtail Longhair" (PDF). World Cat Federation. Retrieved 2 October 2024.
22. "Breed standards Category 2 – Siberian and Neva Masquerade" (PDF). FIFeWeb.org. Fédération Internationale Féline. 1 January 2023. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 August 2022. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
23. World Cat Congress (2017). The Royal Canin Cat Encyclopedia (2nd ed.). Royal Canin. This is a revised one-volume edition, and was only available through RC retailers.
24. "Savannah Breed". TICA.org. The International Cat Association. 13 August 2018. Retrieved 4 February 2024.