Cats of rare breeds: name and description. The rarest cat breeds in the world

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Cats… such wayward, mysterious and even slightly mystical creatures. It is no coincidence that they are preferred to start as pets. Of course, cats require careful care, but in return you can get a lot of affection, and most importantly, an absolutely equal position with all family members.

The cat in human history

After all, these pets will not tolerate humiliation, they only allow a person to love themselves and take care of their cat person. Even in ancient manuscripts about the life of high-ranking people, one can find mention of their beloved cats.

In ancient Egypt, there was even a goddess Bast with a cat's head, responsible for femininity, beauty and home. The Egyptians built tombs for their soft-footed pets.

Time passed, but a person's love for cats did not go away, it only got stronger. People learned how to breed new breeds, learned how to preserve old species. Breeders try to surprise their customers, offer them new, unusual felines. Let's analyze the rarest cat breeds with photos and titles.

Which breeds are rare?

What does the term "rare breed" include? it is a mistake to assume that these rocks appeared recently (although, for the most part, this is true). Some cats of rare breeds have been carefully guarded by breeders for centuries and have come down to us from ancient times.

Although, most often, unusual felines are still a selection product, brought to perfection. Indeed, every person, including a geneticist, has his own idea of beauty. Someone likes fluffy purring homebodies, and someone dreams of domesticating a wild cat, leaving the agile disposition and habits of a predator. This is how cats of rare breeds are bred (we will present a photo of each of them in the article).

It should be said right away that the average breeder is not capable of breeding such a breed, crossing, for example, a Thai cat and an Angora. This is considered a gross violation of the rules. Cats of rare breeds are bred for years - this is a rather complicated technology.

What are they for? Breeders have two goals: aesthetic and financial. Agree that a cat with eyes of different colors looks very unusual, and how a short-legged pet touches everyone. Tailless, not covered with hair, with bizarre ears, they look like a miniature leopard - there are a lot of options. And of course, you will have to pay generously for the pleasure of having an unusual pet in the house.

The rarest cat breeds are far from cheap (starting price $20,000). But there are an unusually large number of people who want to have such pets. For some breeds evenqueues are forming.

Kao mani

So, let's start listing rare cat breeds. We will acquaint readers with photographs and their names. Let's talk about the history of the breed, character traits, care and predisposition to diseases.

Cat with unusual eyes - kao mani. It differs from its relatives in that it has a different color of the cornea: green and blue. In English-speaking countries, these beauties are also called "diamond eye" - diamond eye.

This breed comes from Thailand. Even in the texts of the XIV century, a description of these boiling white cats is mentioned, which, by the way, only royal people had the right to start. Surprisingly, Tao Mani became known to the general public only in 2009.

These curious, highly intelligent cats have a slender, muscular body, covered with a white, well-fitting coat that is fairly short. Tao Mani have a very characteristic genotype, so not every pure white cat with multi-colored eyes will belong to this breed. By the way, the multi-colored eyes may be absent. Quite frequent are individuals with the same, green, color of the iris. They are bred in Thailand and a few US states.

These cats need the company of both humans and their own kind. Communication is essential for them. They do not shy away from strangers, they are tolerant of children.

Tao-mani - can boast of excellent he alth. The weakest point is the ears. There are individuals who are deaf in one of the ears, although breeders carefully monitor this: they cross only cats that are he althy in bothear.

Turkish Van

Another rare cat breed in the world is the Turkish Van. Its uniqueness is determined primarily by the love of water. Turkish Vans are excellent swimmers, they like to run in shallow water or catch small fish at shallow depths.

This is not the only distinguishing feature of the breed. Turkish vans are large, medium-length wool. In addition, it is completely devoid of undercoat - this explains the love of the breed for water. The characteristic color is pure white with red-chestnut spots at the base of the ears, the tail of the same color. It is not uncommon for there to be a bright spot on the shoulder as well.

The cat's body is like that of a real swimmer: a muscular chest, powerful paws (moreover, the front paws are noticeably longer than the hind ones), and the tail is shaped like a brush. Determining a male and a female is quite simple: males are an order of magnitude larger.

The Turkish Van is a breed that gets along well with people, they are brilliantly trained, very playful. There are no problems with walking either: it can be either a harness, which Turkish vans quickly get used to, or an aviary, or free range with the owner.

Munchkin and Napoleon

Munchkins are very rare cat breeds. This is a kind of dachshunds of the cat world. The legs of these cats are disproportionately short in relation to the body.

Their standing position is also interesting: they lean on the base of the tail and hold their front legs in front of them. In this kangaroo-like position, Munchkins can stay for quite a long time.

The uniqueness of these unusual cats is that short legs -not the fruit of the labor of breeders, but a natural genetic mutation.

Thus, the breed came out of quite ordinary domestic cats, in the genotype of which a special dominant gene of “short-legged” appeared. This explains the variety of shades, colors and lengths of wool.

Munchkins are not in good he alth, it is quite difficult for them to survive in their natural environment.

Napoleon is the name of rare breeds of cats that appeared by crossing the Munchkin and the Persian. A characteristic feature in addition to short legs is dwarfism. The maximum weight of the Napoleons is only two kilograms.

Serengeti

Serengeti - another cat of rare breeds. Their population in the world has only a few hundred copies! They brought the Serengeti to the USA. The pioneer breeder wanted to present to the world such a breed, which, repeating the external qualities of the African serval, would be absolutely handmade and domestic. Years of searching have come to fruition: the result is a graceful, extraordinarily beautiful cat.

Surprisingly, there is not a single wild serval gene in the Serengeti genotype. However, she is remarkably similar to him in appearance. But the disposition is homely, calm, friendly. Cats have a muscular body, long legs and powerful paws. Coloring is allowed black or smoky with pronounced rounded spots (horizontal stretching is allowed) or black with barely noticeable spots. Another feature is a large wedge-shaped head, resembling a headwild feline. Moreover, this sign appears already at birth.

Serengeti are smart, graceful, very stubborn natures. These cats will not tolerate the appearance in the house of someone more important than them. They are the center of everything. Another feature is unsurpassed talkativeness and sociable spirit.

The most common disease in the breed is urolithiasis.

Caracal

Very rare breeds of cats include caracals. Yes, these are not cats at all, but real wild lynxes, only small in size (compared to other representatives of the species). In the wild, caracals live in the steppes and savannahs (hence the name "steppe lynx").

These cats differ from the usual lynx in color: the coat is thick, rather short, brick-colored (sometimes sandy), characteristic spots are only on the muzzle.

Caracal in Turkish means "black ear" - it really is. His ears are crowned with charming black tassels. These cats are very fit, muscular, with very long legs.

At home, the life expectancy of a caracal reaches 18 years. However, having decided to get one, you need to be aware that these are by no means domestic purring cats - wild predatory habits remain for life.

Toyger

Want to have a pet tiger in miniature? Then toyger is what you need. Its literal translation from English is "toy tiger". The only thing is that these kittens cost decently: from 10 thousand dollars. What is unique about toygers?Its coloring, contrasting in everything. The most important thing is tiger black stripes, moreover, they are monophonic, devoid of any color transitions. They stand out in contrast against a reddish-brown background. The tips of the paws and tail are always black. The body is lean and muscular. By the way, do not overfeed the toyger - this is one of the mistakes of the owners. The front paws are crowned with thick, powerful pads.

Toygers are very social cats, they get along well with children. They lend themselves well to education and training. At the same time, toygers are quite calm and accommodating, they will not require constant games, much more these cats of rare breeds like to sit in the hands of the owner.

Ashera

A very scandalous story is connected with the appearance of this breed, and its "creator" is still wanted by the police. The fact is that in 2007, specialized (and not only) publications began to dazzle with information that “the rarest breed of cats in the world” was bred. These extraordinarily intelligent and loyal soft-footed creatures are also completely hypoallergenic.

However, after a series of genetic examinations, it was found that the Ashera is nothing more than a kind of savannah - cats are also a rare breed, but known to the public. But before the truth was established, many people had already fallen for such an exotic bait, having laid out 20 thousand dollars for kittens

Ashera is truly a giant of the cat world, because, according to the creators, the genotype of the serval, Asian leopard and domestic cats is embedded in it. Indeed, their height reaches one meter. May come in several colors, the rarest(on average only four kittens are born a year) has golden-orange spots, another is ashy in color and the most common is with black spots, like a leopard.

Ranking of winners: domestic serval

So, we have sorted out the rarest breeds of cats, photos and names of them are also given. However, there are three winners. So, home serval. Sometimes it seems that this cat does not live with a person at all, but only came from the forest to visit. This is partly true, because no one specially bred the breed for the house, people just realized that servals are perfectly domesticated.

However, habits remain wild. Servals are excellent hunters, they love to run, jump, overtake prey. Breeders should take this into account. It is unlikely that this breed will get along in an ordinary apartment - it will prefer a mansion with high ceilings, because the serval jumps up to three meters.

Savannah

The next rarest cat breed in the world is the Savannah. We already touched on it when we talked about Asher. Savannah was bred in the 80s of the last century. The creators wanted to give people a real domestic leopard. Then, they believed, wild cats would be left alone, not kept in captivity - in mansions and apartments.

Savannas originated from the crossing of the already known serval and Siamese cat. As a result, from the first they received the habits of a predator and spotting, and from the second, a rather docile disposition and indefatigabletalkativeness.

Savannahs are well trained, and they perform commands quite complicated for cats: “fetch”, “bring” or “alien”.

Chausie

At the top of the rating "Rare breeds of cats in Russia" (and throughout the world) is, according to many, Chausie. These cats boast a completely unique genotype and outstanding appearance.

Chausie is the fruit of a natural (originally) crossing of a wild reed cat and a domestic cat. Only after a long time, connoisseurs of soft-footed cats noticed how beautiful these kittens turn out.

It was decided to start breeding a new breed, a cane cat, but affectionate and domesticated. Only in 2003 was it possible to fix a new breed. However, to this day, its breeding is not going smoothly, it is too difficult to combine genes.

Three colors are standard: black, silver or tabby. The last two are ticked, i.e. the color is uneven, interspersed with stripes. A prerequisite is a clear pattern on the head, as well as the ears and the tip of the tail.

Chausies are excellent companions for their owners, however, the predatory habits of the reed cat remain: they swim and hunt in the water, make supplies when the owner does not see, jump well. These cats do not accept dry food, even exclusive ones - only meat should be in the diet. The gastrointestinal tract of Chausie simply does not digest grains and vegetables.