British Shorthair

The British Shorthair is the pedigree version of the landrace of British domestic cat, with a distinctively stocky body, thick coat, and broad face. The most familiar colour variant is the "British Blue", with a solid grey-blue coat, copper-coloured eyes, and a medium-sized tail. The breed has also been bred in a wide range of other colours and patterns, including tabby and colourpoint.

It ranks among the oldest known cat landraces. This ancient British landrace was selectively bred into one of the first pedigreed cat breeds at the end of the 19th century, and today holds full recognition status in all major cat registries. It remains the most popular pedigreed breed in its native country, as registered by the UK's Governing Council of the Cat Fancy (GCCF). Half of all kittens registered with the GCCF each year are British Shorthairs, making it the most popular pedigree cat in the UK.

History

Researchers are not sure how cats first reached the British Isles. In many other parts of Europe, cats became common at the same time as the spread of the Roman Empire. However, it appears that housecats reached the British Isles before the Romans did.

Cat shows

thumb|Champion black classic tabby Xénophon (1892–1903), a famous early British Shorthair stud

First introduced to Britain by the Romans, the British Shorthair was one of the domestic cats originally bred for its hunting prowess. In the last 150 years, breeding has emphasised physical qualities. The British Shorthair breed debuted – along with a wide range of other selectively bred felines – in the first organised cat show arranged by Harrison Weir at London's Crystal Palace in 1871. British Shorthairs remained the premiere pedigree at cat shows up until 1895.

Shortly after the British Shorthair exhibit in the Crystal Palace show, the popularity of British Shorthair increased. The public began searching for breeders of British Shorthairs with various character and colour traits, all in the pursuit of "exoticness". From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, certain British Shorthairs would occasionally earn notoriety or decorated titles in Cat Competitions. At least partially to alleviate this, British Shorthair breeders mixed Persians, Russian Blue, Burmese, and Chartreux into their bloodlines. According to the GCCF's 2024 registry data, it is once again the most popular pedigreed breed in its native country, accounting for about half of the annually registered kittens. And it has held the title of the UK's most popular cat breed for decades. In the 2024 statistics of FIFe, one of the major global cat registries, the breed ranked at position 2 out of 54 breeds in popularity, comprising 16.9% of their total registered kittens that year, which translates to 16.278 cats.

Description

Appearance

thumb|right|A fully mature male, showing the characteristic heavy jowls, copper-coloured eyes, and unique "crisp" texture of the typical British Blue coat.

alt=A cat smiling which being scratched behind the ear|thumb|A British Blue male, showing the classic "[[Cheshire Cat smile" for which the breed is renowned.]]

The British Shorthair is a large, powerful-looking cat with a broad chest, sturdy, thick-set legs, and rounded paws. The body is muscular and well boned, supported by medium to short legs and finished with round, medium-to-large feet. The tail is medium in length, thick at the base and tapering to a rounded tip, measuring roughly two-thirds of the body length.

The head is large and distinctly rounded, with a short muzzle, full cheeks—especially pronounced in mature males—and a short nose with a gentle profile. The chin and muzzle complement the circular head shape, while the neck blends into the cheeks, creating the impression of little or no visible neck. The ears are small to medium in size, broad at the base and set widely apart. The eyes are large, round, and level-set; eye shape is considered more important than colour. In the British Blue they are typically deep copper-orange, while other coat varieties may show different eye colours.

thumb|Side profile of a black golden tipped male, showing the typical short-nosed muzzle

Coat, colour, and patterns

The British Shorthair's coat is one of the breed's defining features. It is very dense and straight, and even in length. All base colours can be affected by the silver and golden genes in the smoke, shaded and tipped variants. These coat colours are present in either a solid or one of the four acknowledged tabby patterns (classic, mackerel, spotted, and ticked tabby). All colours and patterns also occur in the variants resulting from the combination with colourpoint, bicolour (white spotting) and/or tortoiseshell. others such as the GCCF treat it as a variant of the British Shorthair, which may be referred to as simply 'British'.

Health

A UK study looking at veterinary records found a life expectancy of 9.58 years for the British Shorthair and British Longhair compared to 11.74 years overall. Swedish insurance data puts the median lifespan of the breed at >12.5 years. 82% of British Shorthairs lived to 10 years or more, and 54% lived to 12.5 years or more.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) can be a problem in the breed. A Danish prevalence study with more than 329 cats showed that 20.4% of males and 2.1% of the females had HCM, with an additional 6.4% of males and 3.5% of females judged to be equivocal. HCM testing of males used for breeding is now mandatory for breeders organised under the Danish FIFe member, Felis Danica.

The breed is thought to be at high risk of polycystic kidney disease (PKD).

A study of over 190,000 patient records in England found the British Shorthair to be less than half as likely to acquire diabetes mellitus as either moggies or the overall cat population; 0.24% of British Shorthairs were diagnosed with the condition compared to 0.58% for both non-pedigree cats and the overall prevalence.

Commemoration

In 2022, the British Shorthair was one of eight cats featured on a series of UK postage stamps issued by the Royal Mail.

Breed gallery

File:British Shorthair, Classic Tabby.jpg|Black silver classic tabby

File:Jack Flash blue bicolour.jpg|Blue bicolour adult male

File:Spiritland British Shorthair Silver Shaded (cropped).jpg|Black silver shaded male

File:Silver & white kittens (7687774432).jpg|Black silver tabby and black silver tabby point kittens

File:British Shorthair (4-28-2023) (cropped).jpg|British Blue female

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References

External links

The Interest Group Cat's Healthy Hearts Association (IG HGK)