APPEARANCE

The modern Siamese cat that you will see at a show looks rather different to its original ancestors from Thailand.The original cats were medium-sized with long bodies and moderately wedge-shaped heads and comparatively large-sized ears. As Siamese became increasingly popular in the middle of the 20th century, a more slender version was favoured, and today the standard describes the breed as beautifully balanced with head, ears, and neck carried on a long svelte body, supported on fine legs and feet, with a long, tapering tail in proportion. The head is long and well proportioned with width between the ears, narrowing in perfectly straight lines to a fine muzzle, a straight profile, and strong chin. The ears are large and wide at the base, and set to follow the lines of the wedge-shaped head.The eyes, a deep, brilliant blue, which are one of the great beauties of the Siamese, must be Oriental in shape and slant towards the nose.The points — mask, ears, feet ,and tail — should show a clearly defined colour that matches on all points, and there should be a clear contrast between the points and body colour.The coat is very short and fine in texture, and should be glossy and close lying.

The cats originally arriving in the UK were seal point, but occasionally other colours: blue, chocolate, and lilac were born. Siamese kittens are born light cream or white and the point colours start to develop after a week or two. Siamese have a genetic mutation, similar to albinism, which affects enzymes that control the colour of the fur. Areas of the body that are cooler allow the enzymes to function and they develop more pigmentation, making them darker. In cold climates, the Siamese cat’s fur will be darker on its body than a cat living in a warm climate. Today, Siamese come in 32 colours and points patterns — the solid points colours are: seal, blue, chocolate, lilac, cinnamon, caramel, fawn, apricot, red, and cream. There are also tabby points in the same colours, tortie points, and tortie tabby points.