The Oriental Shorthair evolved from the Siamese cat. In contrast to the Siamese, it has green eyes and a much greater variety of colors. However, they do not differ in any way in terms of their talkativeness and affection.
Profile Oriental Shorthair
An Oriental Shorthair is without question a special appearance. This starts with the head: It is not typically round, but wedge-shaped, with a long, straight nose, large pointed ears and slightly slanted eyes. This alone gives her an oriental look. This is underlined by her elegant, long and very slender body. She is lithe, muscular and has broader shoulders than hips. Not only their legs are long and slender, but also their thin tail, which ends in a fine tip.
The Oriental Shorthair has almost the same pedigree as the Siamese. The only difference is the color. Instead of blue eyes, it has green ones. And instead of a light coat with points, it can be very colorful: The color palette ranges from white, cream, blue, red and chocolate to deep black. Patterns such as smoke, tortie, shaded and tabby are also permitted.
Not only is the color variety of the Oriental Shorthair exuberant, but also its character. They love to be in the limelight like a diva: Their talkativeness and extensive vocalization is almost proverbial. There is always something to comment on, share, demand or complain about. She meows, sings, babbles and purrs. Depending on what she thinks the situation requires. If the bowl is empty, no one is playing with her or the cuddle time is overdue, she does not simply accept it, but the intelligent and at the same time spirited breed will unmistakably point this out.
The care of the Oriental Shorthair is hardly worth mentioning. It has virtually no undercoat and a very short, silky coat. In principle, it is sufficient to rub it with a soft cloth or brush every now and then. This makes the coat shiny and removes loose hair and dander. At the same time, you can take a look at the coat and skin to see if everything is in order. It should be noted that the thin layer of fur only provides limited protection against the cold. In winter, therefore, cozy places and a pleasant room temperature should be provided. If the OKH is allowed outside - which is possible in principle, but not absolutely necessary - make sure that it can return to the apartment at any time when it is cool outside so that it does not catch a cold.
Whether kitten, adult cat or senior - the food for an Oriental Shorthair should always be of high quality and adapted to its age. Cats are carnivores by nature, so the cat food should contain a high proportion of meaty ingredients. Sugar, flavor enhancers and artificial colors and preservatives should not be added to the food.
animonda offers the right food for every stage of your cat's life. Choose between kitten, adult and senior food. The products are specially formulated to meet the particular nutritional requirements of the different life stages of cats. This creates the best conditions for a healthy and long cat life.
The Oriental Shorthair is basically a healthy breed without any particularly noticeable hereditary diseases. Unfortunately, the gene pool is relatively small. This means that there is a risk of disease or immunodeficiency.
In order to produce healthy animals, responsible breeders have genetic tests carried out on their animals and exclude diseased cats from breeding. Look for a reputable breeder who can prove their commitment with health papers.
Despite preventive health care, hereditary diseases can occur. In the Oriental Shorthair, these include various heart and eye diseases. One of these is progressive retinal atrophy. In the medium term, this leads to blindness in the cat. Anemia is also occasionally reported. This leads to a lack of red blood cells, which manifests itself in the form of fatigue and a high respiratory rate.
The Oriental Shorthair and the Siamese share a breed standard for good reason. This is because the Oriental Shorthair originated from the Siamese cat. The reasons for the split-off can be found in the 1920s. Until then, the requirements for the breeding of Siamese were wide-ranging, but there had been constant changes since the first breed standard in 1892. These eventually culminated in the fact that only light-colored, blue-eyed cats with points, i.e. darker markings on the head, paws and tail, were permitted.
The restrictions in the breed standard led to resentment among some breeders - above all Baroness von Ullmann. The English breeder did not bow to the changes and decided to continue breeding in a different direction. To do this, she not only used different colors of Siamese, but also crossed Abyssinian and Russian Blue. This allowed her to create a wide variety of colors, which is still reflected in the Oriental Shorthair breed today. Hardly any one animal is the same as another, which makes a large selection possible for those interested.
The Oriental Shorthair was recognized by the European umbrella organization FIFé in 1959. There is also an Oriental Longhair, which was created as a by-product of the (long-haired) Balinese, which is also descended from the Siamese. Each of the cats is an independent breed, but due to their close relationship, all four share the same breed standard. They only differ in a few individual points.