Exotic Shorthair Cats

Shorthair cats are known to be one of the most independent category of cat as they are capable of grooming themselves to an excellent degree. Their behaviour and temperament also reflects this as their genes have come from a pool of various breeds that carry this behaviour. While shorthair coats are much shorter than the longhair variant, focus on the stature of the cats actual body is taken as the emphasis of the cats wellbeing. New owners looking to get into cat keeping will be spoilt for choice from the shorthair range as the availability of them were abundant throughout the last few centuries. This lead to precise and calculated breeding programmes that were made possible to to the readily available population. As evidence of this refined breeding product, the Exotic Shorthair cats are another twist on the Persian cat.

When a cat is referred to as an Exotic, this is most likely referring to the shorthair version of the Persian cat. As strange as this sounds, this is a mix of both worlds as the facial and body characteristics are ported over into the shorthair genepool. The temperament of the cat is also expected to shift slightly due to the added genes, deviating from the mostly independent nature of the typical shorthair. These cats can essentially be touted as Persian lite as they even follow the same colour diversity as their longhair counterparts.

The coat of the exotic Persian is expected to be short in length yet slightly longer than the other known shorthair cats. This is to be expected as the Persian genes have been brought into the shorthair pool but this is still considerably shorter than the semi-longhair variants that have emerged over the years. The coat will assume a thick and dense layer on top of the skin. The eyes of this cat are often observed to be bright and bold in stature, the rounded eyes will light up in the dark and create a most aesthetic look that people instantly recognise as “Cat’s eyes”. The ears of the Persian also follow through here as they tend to rather small in size. It is also common that the ears will sometimes tilt forwards a little.

The Exotic Shorthair is a great compromise between aesthetics of the Persian and the great personality and less labour intensive grooming of the shorthair. This perfect mix is a worthwhile experience and is a gentle learning curve that allows an ease into cat caring.