List of cat breeds facts for kids

A cat breed is a special type of domestic cat that has been developed and recognized for its unique looks and personality. These cats are often bred to have specific features, like a certain fur color, coat length, or body shape. This list includes many different cat breeds, including those that are well-known, new, or even some that are no longer around. It also includes some cats that are a mix of domestic cats and wild cats.

Many groups around the world keep track of cat breeds. These groups are called cat registries. They set the rules for what makes a cat a certain breed. For example, in 2023, The International Cat Association (TICA) recognized 73 different cat breeds. Other big registries include the Cat Fanciers' Association (CFA) with 45 breeds, the Fédération Internationale Féline (FIFe) with 50, the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy (GCCF) with 45, and the World Cat Federation (WCF) with 69.

Sometimes, the same cat might be called a different breed by different registries. This can be a bit confusing! For instance, the Himalayan cat is seen as a type of Persian cat by the CFA, but TICA considers it its own breed. Also, some breed names might sound like they come from a certain place, like the Balinese or Javanese, but they were actually developed by breeders in Western countries and don't really come from those places.

It's important to know that common terms like "domestic short-haired" or "domestic long-haired" cat are not actual breeds. These terms are used to describe cats that don't belong to a specific recognized breed, usually based on their fur length. They are often called "mixed breed" cats. Some registries do allow these cats to be registered for special breeding programs, but they are different from specific breeds like the British Shorthair or Oriental Longhair.

Cat Breeds from A to Z

Breed	Location of origin	Type	Body type	Coat type and length	Coat pattern	Image
Abyssinian	Unspecified, but somewhere in Afro-Asia, likely Ethiopia	Natural	Semi-foreign	Short	Ticked tabby
Aegean	Greece	Natural	Moderate	Semi-long	Multi-color
American Bobtail	United States	Mutation of shortened tail	Cobby	Semi-long	All
American Curl	United States	Mutation	Semi-foreign	Semi-long	All
American Ringtail	United States	Mutation	Foreign	Semi-long	All
American Shorthair	United States	Natural	Cobby	Short	All
American Wirehair	United States	Mutation	Normal	Rex	All
Aphrodite Giant	Cyprus	Natural	Lean and muscular	All	All
Arabian Mau	Arabian Peninsula	Natural	Moderate and muscular	Short	All
Asian	United Kingdom	Crossbreed between the Burmese and Chinchilla Persians	Moderate	Short	All without white and without siamese pointing
Asian Semi-longhair	United Kingdom	Crossbreed between the Burmese and Chinchilla Persians	Moderate	Semi-long	All without white and without siamese pointing
Australian Mist	Australia	Crossbreed between the Abyssinian, Burmese, and Australian short-haired cats	Moderate	Short	Spotted or marbled
Balinese	Developed in United States; foundation stock from Thailand	Mutation of the Siamese	Semi-foreign	Long	Colorpoint
Bambino	United States	Crossbreed between the Munchkin and Sphynx	Dwarf	Short	Black + white hairless
Bengal	Developed in United States, but created in Asia	Hybrid of the Abyssinian and Egyptian Mau × leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis)	Large	Short	Spotted, marbled, or rosetted
Birman	Developed in France; foundation stock from Burma (Myanmar)	The original Birman was crossed with the Siamese and the Persian to create the Birman of today.	Cobby	Semi-long	Mitted colorpoint
Bombay	United States and Burma (Myanmar)	Crossbreed between the Black American Shorthair and Sable Burmese	Cobby	Short	Solid black
Brazilian Shorthair	Brazil	Natural	Normal	Short	All
British Longhair	United Kingdom (England)	Natural	Cobby	Semi-long	All
British Shorthair	United Kingdom (England)	Natural	Cobby	Short	All
Burmese	Burma (Myanmar)	Natural	Semi-foreign or semi-cobby	Short	Solid and Tortoiseshell
Burmilla	United Kingdom (England)	Crossbreed between the Burmese and the Chinchilla Persian	Semi-cobby	Short	Solid with Shaded Silver and Silver Tipped patterns
California Spangled	United States	Crossbreed between the Abyssinian, American Shorthair and British Shorthair	Moderate	Short	Spotted tabby
Chantilly-Tiffany	United States	Natural	Cobby	Long	Solid, classic tabby, spotted tabby and ticked tabby
Chartreux	France	Natural	Muscular; cobby	Short	Varying shades of blue
Chausie	United States	Hybrid of the Abyssinian × jungle cat (Felis chaus)	Normal	Short	Solid black, black grizzled tabby and black ticked tabby
Colorpoint Shorthair	United Kingdom (England)	Crossbreed between the Abyssinian, Siamese and short-haired cats	Foreign	Short	Colorpoint
Cornish Rex	Cornwall, England, United Kingdom	Mutation	Foreign	Rex	All
Cymric, Manx Longhair or Long-haired Manx	Isle of Man, United States, and Canada	Mutation of the Manx (shortened tail)	Semi-cobby	Long	All
Cyprus	Cyprus	Natural	Lean and muscular	All	All
Devon Rex	Buckfastleigh, Devon, England, United Kingdom	Mutation	Semi-foreign	Rex	All
Donskoy or Don Sphynx	Russia	Mutation	Semi-foreign	Hairless	Solid
Dragon Li or Chinese Li Hua	China	Natural	Normal	Short	Ticked tabby
Dwelf	United States	Crossbreed between the American Curl, Munchkin and Sphynx	Dwarf	Hairless	All
Egyptian Mau	Egypt	Natural	Moderate and muscular	Short	Spotted tabby
European Shorthair	Continental Europe	Natural	Moderate	Short	All
Exotic Shorthair	United States	Crossbreed between the American Shorthair and Persian	Cobby	Short	All
Foldex	Canada	Crossbreed between the Exotic Shorthair and Scottish Fold	Cobby	Short	All
German Rex	Germany	Mutation	Semi-foreign	Rex	All
Havana Brown	United Kingdom (England); foundation stock from Thailand	Crossbreed between the Siamese and black short-haired cats	Semi-foreign	Short	Solid brown
Highlander	United States	Crossbreed between the Desert Lynx and Jungle Curl	Moderate	Short/long	All
Himalayan or Colorpoint Persian	United States and United Kingdom	Crossbreed between the Persian and Siamese	Cobby	Long	Colorpoint
Japanese Bobtail	Japan	Mutation of shortened tail	Moderate	Short/long	All
Javanese or Colorpoint Longhair	Developed in United States and Canada; foundation stock from Southeast Asia	Crossbreed between the Balinese (with some Colorpoint Shorthair), Oriental Longhair and Siamese	Oriental	Long	Colorpoint
Kanaani	Israel	Hybrid of short-haired cats ×  African wildcat (Felis lybica)	Semi-foreign	Short	Solid black, chocolate spotted tabby or cinnamon spotted tabby
Khao Manee	Thailand	Natural	Moderate	Short	Solid white
Kinkalow	United States	Crossbreed between the Munchkin and American Curl	Dwarf	Short	All
Korat	Thailand	Natural	Semi-foreign or semi-cobby and muscular	Short	Solid blue
Korean Bobtail	Korea	Natural, mutation of shortened tail	Moderate	Short/long	All
Korn Ja or Konja	Thailand	Natural	Small	Short	Solid black
Kurilian Bobtail or Kuril Islands Bobtail	Kuril Islands, North Pacific	Natural, mutation of shortened tail	Semi-cobby	Short/long	All
Lambkin	United States	Crossbreed between the Munchkin and Selkirk Rex	Dwarf	Rex	All
LaPerm	United States	Mutation	Moderate	Rex	All
Lykoi	United States	Mutation	Moderate	Sparse haired	Black roan
Maine Coon	United States	Natural, crossbreed	Large	Semi-long/long	All excluding chocolate and colourpoint
Manx	Isle of Man	Mutation of shortened tail	Moderate	Short/long	All
Mekong Bobtail	Developed in Russia; foundation stock ultimately from Southeast Asia	Mutation of shortened tail	Moderate	Short	Colorpoint
Minskin	United States	Crossbreed between the Munchkin, Burmese, Devon Rex, and Sphynx	Dwarf	Hairless	All
Minuet	United States	Crossbreed between the Persian and Munchkin	Dwarf	Short/long	All
Munchkin	United States	Mutation of dwarf cat	Dwarf	Short/long	All
Nebelung	United States	Natural, mutation	Foreign	Semi-long	Solid blue
Neva Masquerade (colorpoint Siberian)	Russia	Crossbreed between the Siberian and a colorpoint cat	Cobby	Long	Colorpoint
Norwegian Forest Cat	Norway	Natural	Cobby	Long	Chocolate or orange and white bicolor
Ocicat	United States	Crossbreed between the Abyssinian, American Shorthair and Siamese	Large	Short	Spotted tabby
Ojos Azules (extinct)	United States	Crossbreed	Moderate	Short	All
Oriental Bicolor	Developed in United States and United Kingdom, later in Continental Europe; foundation stock ultimately from Thailand	Color variety of the Oriental Shorthair	Oriental	Short	Bicolor
Oriental Longhair	Developed in United States and United Kingdom; foundation stock ultimately from Thailand	Crossbreed between the Oriental Shorthair and long-haired cats	Oriental	Semi-long	All; if colorpoint is considered to be a separate breed, it is called the Javanese
Oriental Shorthair	Developed in United States and United Kingdom; foundation stock ultimately from Thailand	Crossbreed between the European Shorthair and Siamese	Oriental	Short	All
Persian (modern)	Developed in United States and Europe; foundation stock from Greater Iran	Mutation of the Traditional Persian	Cobby	Long	All but colorpoint
Persian (traditional)	Greater Iran	Natural, but some crossbreeding with the Turkish Angora	Cobby	Long	All but colorpoint
Peterbald	Russia	Crossbreed between the Donskoy, Oriental Shorthair and Siamese; before this, it was between the Balinese and Javanese	Oriental	Hairless, velour, brush, or straight coat	All
Pixie-bob	United States	Mutation (falsely claimed to be a hybrid of the domestic cat and the bobcat (Lynx rufus) early on)	Medium	Short	Spotted tabby
Ragamuffin or Liebling (obsolete)	United States	Crossbreed between the Ragdoll with limited out-crossing to the Himalayan, the Persian, and other long-haired cats	Cobby	Long	All
Ragdoll	United States	Behavioral mutation in a crossbreed, presumed to be between the Persian or Turkish Angora and the Birman or Burmese	Cobby	Long	Colorpoint, mitted, or bicolor
Raas	Raas Island, Indonesia	Natural	Moderate	Short	Solid blue, solid cinnamon, or cinnamon colorpoint
Russian Blue	Russia	Natural	Moderate, Oriental	Short	Solid blue
Russian White, Russian Black and Russian Tabby	Developed in Australia; foundation stock from Russia	Crossbreeds between the Russian Blue and short-haired cats from Siberia, Russia	Moderate	Short	Solid white, solid black and tabby
Sam Sawet	Thailand	Color variety of the Thai	Moderate	Short	Solid
Savannah	United States	Hybrid of the domestic cat x serval (Leptailurus serval)	Large	Short	Spotted
Scottish Fold	United Kingdom (Scotland)	Mutation of the bones and cartilage of the ears	Cobby	Short/long	All
Selkirk Rex	United States in 1988	Mutation/crossbreed between the American Shorthair, Persian, Himalayan, Exotic Shorthair and British Shorthair	Large and cobby	Short/long (longhair, sometimes in early generations, can appear to be semi-long)	All
Serengeti	United States	Crossbreed/hybrid between the Bengal and Oriental Shorthair	Oriental	Short	Spotted
Siamese (modern) (for traditional, see Thai)	Developed in United States and Europe; foundation stock from Thailand	Mutation of the Thai	Oriental	Short	Colorpoint
Siberian or Siberian Forest Cat (for colorpoint, see Neva Masquerade)	Russia, Ukraine	Natural	Cobby	Long	All; except chocolate, lilac, cinnamon, and fawn
Singapura	Developed in United States; foundation stock from Singapore	Possibly a mutation of a crossbreed (excluding the Munchkin), solving why they are so small	Small	Short	Ticked tabby
Snowshoe	United States	Crossbreed between the American Shorthair and Siamese	Moderate	Short	Mitted colorpoint
Sokoke	Kenya	Natural	Moderate	Short	Ticked tabby
Somali	United States, Canada	Mutation	Cobby	Long	Ticked tabby
Sphynx	Canada, Europe	Mutation	Oriental	Hairless	All
Suphalak	Thailand	Natural	Moderate	Short	Solid reddish-brown
Thai or Traditional, Classic, or Old-style Siamese; Wichien Maat	Developed in Europe; foundation stock from Thailand	Natural	Moderate	Short	Colorpoint
Thai Lilac, Thai Blue Point and Thai Lilac Point	Thailand	Color varieties of the Korat	Moderate	Short	Solid lilac and colorpoint (blue point and lilac point only)
Tonkinese	Canada, United States	Crossbreed between the Burmese and Siamese	Oriental	Short	Colorpoint, mink, or solid
Toybob	Russia	Mutation	Dwarf	Short	All
Toyger	United States	Crossbreed/hybrid between the Bengal and short-haired cats	Moderate	Short	Mackerel tabby
Turkish Angora	Turkey	Natural	Semi-cobby	Semi-long	All
Turkish Van	Developed in United Kingdom; foundation stock from Turkey	Natural	Semi-cobby	Semi-long	Van pattern
Turkish Vankedisi (white variety of Turkish Van)	Developed in United Kingdom; foundation stock from Turkey	Natural	Svelte	Long	Solid white
Ukrainian Levkoy	Ukraine	Crossbreed between the Donskoy and Scottish Fold	Moderate	Hairless	Solid gray
York Chocolate	New York, United States	Natural	Moderate	Long	Solid chocolate, solid lilac and solid taupe or any of these colors with white

See also

In Spanish: Anexo:Razas de gatos para niños

• Animal show
• Animals in sport
• Felidae – the entire cat family
• Felinae – the subfamily of all smaller cat species
• Lists of breeds
• List of experimental cat breeds
• List of cat registries
• List of individual cats
• Selective breeding
• Wildcat – the ancestor of the domestic cat