British Shorthair Cat is very Sweet-Natured and Devoted to its Owners

British Shorthair Sweet-Natured Cat 

British Shorthair is a pedigreed breed of old British domestic cat with a distinctively heavy physique, solid coat, and wide face. The most acquainted color variant is ‘British Blue’. 

The cat has a solid blue-gray coat, copper-eyes, and a medium-sized tail. This breed has also been produced in extensive color varieties and designs comprising tabby and color-point.

British Shorthair is one of the earliest cat breeds originating from ‘European’ domestic cats which were imported to Great Britain by the occupying Romans in 1^st century AD. Now the breed has become very famous pedigreed breed in its native country.

British Shorthair Personality

British Shorthair is comparatively a strong and big cat with a wide chest, healthy thick-set legs with rounded and medium-sized paws, and a blunt-tipped tail. The cat has a reasonably large and rounded head, small muzzle, and wide cheeks. 

The eyes are big and rounded with deep coppery orange color in “British Blue” breed and it may vary in colors depending on the coat color. The ears are large and widely-set.

The “British Blue” variant can sometimes be mixed up with “Grey-Scottish Fold”. However, Shorthair breed can be identified by seeing its pointy triangle ears; while the “Grey-Scottish Fold” has softer and folded ears.

Growth and Weight

British Shorthair cats have a slow growth rate to get maturity as compared to various other cat breeds. They reach full physical development at the age of 3 years. The average weight of males ranges between 4.1 kg to 7.7 kg (9 lb to 17 lb), whereas, the females between 3.2 kg to 5.4 kg (7 lb to 12 lb).

British Shorthair Colours and Coat

The coat of ‘British Shorthair’ cat is very dense. It doesn’t have an undercoat. Therefore, the texture is plush instead of woolly or fluffy. Albeit “British Blue” remains the most acquainted color variety, the British Shorthairs have also been bred in various other colors and designs. 

The most accepted colors by all official standards include Black, blue, white, red, cream, silver, and golden. More recently the color patterns: ‘cinnamon’ and ‘fawn’ (either solid or in color-point, tabby, shaded and bicolor) have also been accepted. 

The GCCF, FIFe, and TICA also recognize chocolate color in the CFA standard, however, disallowed its dilute lilac color.

Tabby designs comprise: ‘classic tabby’, ‘mackerel tabby’, ‘spotted and ticked tabby’, whereas, non-Tabby designs contain: ‘tortoiseshell’, ‘bi-color’, ‘van patterns bi-color and white’, ‘smoke’, and ‘tipped & color-pointed’.

British Shorthair Temperament

British Shorthair cat has a good appearance and comparatively calm temperament. It is a tolerant and distinguished breed rather than active and playful. 

The breed is very sweet-natured and devoted to its owners which make the cat a favorite domestic pet. Due to its calm nature, British Shorthair tends to be safe around the children as well as other pets and does not like to be picked up or carried. The breed needs slight grooming and takes well to being kept indoors.

History

The origins of “British Shorthair” is more probably date back to the 1^st century AD which makes the cat one of the most ancient breeds in the world. It is believed that occupying Romans first brought ‘Egyptian Domestic Cats’ to Great Britain. 

These cats were then reproduced with the local European wild-cats. Over the centuries, their obviously isolated offspring were developed into typically large and healthy cats, with a short but dense coat.

The selective breeding was started in the 19^th century with a view to producing unusual blue-grey variant which is known as ‘British Blue’ or ‘English type’. The new “British Shorthair” was presented at the first-ever show of cats in 1871; held at Crystal Palace (London) and conducted by Weir. The breed gained great initial popularity from this show.

With the newly introduced ‘Persian’ and other ‘Long-haired’ breeds in 1890, British Shorthair had dropped its popularity. Resultantly it's breeding stock had become very scarce by World War I.

After the war, Governing Council of the Cat Fancy (GCCF) planned to accept only 3^rd generation Persian or British Shorthair crosses to uphold the breed standard. This also reduced pure-breeding stock by World War II when ‘Persian’ and ‘Russian Blue’ breeds were introduced again into the mix. 

The breeders of British Shorthair also worked with “French Chartreux” which is another old breed to reproduce ‘true British type’. By the late 1970s, a unique British Shorthair breed had attained proper recognition from CFA (Cat Fanciers' Association) and TICA (The International Cat Association). 

The breed, once again, was more famous pedigreed breed in its native country.

Also see: Beautiful Pictures of British Shorthair Kitten

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