British Shorthair

Researchers are not sure how cats first reached the British Isles. In many other parts of Europe, cats became common at the same time as the spread of the Roman Empire. However, it appears that housecats reached the British Isles before the Romans did. Cat shows First introduced to Britain by the Romans, the British Shorthair was one of the domestic cats originally bred for its hunting prowess. In the last 150 years, breeding has emphasised physical qualities. The British Shorthair breed debuted — along with a wide range of other selectively bred felines — in the first organised cat show arranged by Harrison Weir at London's Crystal Palace in 1871. British Shorthairs remained the premiere pedigree at cat shows up until 1895. Shortly after the British Shorthair exhibit in the Crystal Palace show, the popularity of British Shorthair increased. The public began searching for breeders of British Shorthairs with various character and colour traits, all in the pursuit of "exoticness". From the late 19th century to the early 20th century, certain British Shorthairs would occasionally earn notoriety or decorated titles in Cat Competitions. At least partially to alleviate this, British Shorthair breeders mixed Persians, Russian Blue, Burmese, and Chartreux into their bloodlines. Part of the genes thus introduced would eventually become the basis for the British Longhair. At the time, any long-haired cats produced were placed into the Persian breeding program. As all cats with the blue colouration were then judged together as variants on a de facto single breed, the Blue Shorthair, outcrossings of the British with the Russian Blue were also common. After the war, in an attempt to maintain the breed standard, the GCCF decided to accept only third-generation Persian x British Shorthair crosses. This contributed to another shortage of pure breeding stock by World War II, at which point the Persian and Russian Blue were reintroduced into the mix. British Shorthair breeders also worked with the French Chartreux, another ancient breed, which although genetically unrelated to the British Blue, is very similar in appearance. Breeders worked to reestablish the true British type, and by the late 1970s the distinctive British Shorthair had achieved full recognition status from all major cat registries, including the CFA, Fédération Internationale Féline (FIFe), and The International Cat Association (TICA). == Breed registration ==

Popularity The British Shorthair publicity from 19th and 20th century cat shows helped British Shorthairs become one of the most popular pet cat breeds today. For example, in the 1980s, the British Shorthair was featured in competition by the CFA, which led to an increased demand for British Shorthairs as household pets. As of 2023, the British Shorthair ranks as the 6th most popular cat breed in the United States. According to the GCCF's 2024 registry data, it is once again the most popular pedigreed breed in its native country, accounting for about half of the annually registered kittens. And it has held the title of the UK's most popular cat breed for decades. In the 2024 statistics of FIFe, one of the major global cat registries, the breed ranked at position 2 out of 54 breeds in popularity, comprising 16.9% of their total registered kittens that year, which translates to 16.278 cats. == Description ==

Appearance smile" for which the breed is renowned. The British Shorthair is a large, powerful-looking cat with a broad chest, sturdy, thick-set legs, and rounded paws. The body is muscular and well boned, supported by medium to short legs and finished with round, medium-to-large feet. The tail is medium in length, thick at the base and tapering to a rounded tip, measuring roughly two-thirds of the body length. The head is large and distinctly rounded, with a short muzzle, full cheeks—especially pronounced in mature males—and a short nose with a gentle profile. The chin and muzzle complement the circular head shape, while the neck blends into the cheeks, creating the impression of little or no visible neck. The ears are small to medium in size, broad at the base and set widely apart. The eyes are large, round, and level-set; eye shape is considered more important than colour. In the British Blue they are typically deep copper-orange, while other coat varieties may show different eye colours. Coat, colour, and patterns The British Shorthair's coat is one of the breed's defining features. It is very dense and straight, and even in length. All base colours can be affected by the silver and golden genes in the smoke, shaded and tipped variants. These coat colours are present in either a solid or one of the four acknowledged tabby patterns (classic, mackerel, spotted, and ticked tabby). All colours and patterns also occur in the variants resulting from the combination with colourpoint, bicolour (white spotting) and/or tortoiseshell. ==British Longhair==

The British Longhair, also known as the Highlander or Highland Straight, is a longhaired variant of the British Shorthair. Some registries such as TICA recognise it as a distinct breed, others such as the GCCF treat it as a variant of the British Shorthair, which may be referred to as simply 'British'. == Health ==

A UK study looking at veterinary records found a life expectancy of 9.58 years for the British Shorthair and British Longhair compared to 11.74 years overall. Swedish insurance data puts the median lifespan of the breed at >12.5 years. 82% of British Shorthairs lived to 10 years or more, and 54% lived to 12.5 years or more. Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) can be a problem in the breed. A Danish prevalence study with more than 329 cats showed that 20.4% of males and 2.1% of the females had HCM, with an additional 6.4% of males and 3.5% of females judged to be equivocal. HCM testing of males used for breeding is now mandatory for breeders organised under the Danish FIFe member, Felis Danica. The breed is thought to be at high risk of polycystic kidney disease (PKD). A study of over 190,000 patient records in England found the British Shorthair to be less than half as likely to acquire diabetes mellitus as either moggies or the overall cat population; 0.24% of British Shorthairs were diagnosed with the condition compared to 0.58% for both non-pedigree cats and the overall prevalence. == Commemoration ==

In 2022, the British Shorthair was one of eight cats featured on a series of UK postage stamps issued by the Royal Mail. == Breed gallery ==

File:British Shorthair, Classic Tabby.jpg|Black silver classic tabby File:Jack Flash blue bicolour.jpg|Blue bicolour adult male File:Spiritland British Shorthair Silver Shaded (cropped).jpg|Black silver shaded male File:Silver & white kittens (7687774432).jpg|Black silver tabby and black silver tabby point kittens File:British Shorthair (4-28-2023) (cropped).jpg|British Blue female == See also ==