History of the Siberian cat:

The Siberian Cat is Russia’s native longhair cat. Whilst being considered an extremely old breed (residing in Russia over 1000 yrs), it is fairly young in terms of a registered pedigree. Russian families kept these cats for their rodent control skills and later as pets. Russians talk of their loyalty and amazing personalities. They were often living lives on the streets mating freely without human intervention and remained fairly isolated as well as being pets before the cold war. At the end of the cold war the door opened for other breeds to enter Russia and for the Siberian to be exported to other countries. The first Siberians entered America in 1990 and Britain much later (2002).

The Siberians type did vary depending on which part of Russia they came from and their colour varies hugely from the traditional colours of Brown, red, black and even silver to the non-traditional colourpoint variety known as Neva Masquerade. It is believed this later colour came about from mating’s with other colourpoint breeds like Siamese and is not a mutation natural to Russia but more Asia (Siam now Thailand specifically).

The Siberian developed to withstand cold climates hence its dense, triple, water proof, semi longhaired coat which was thinner and shorter in the summer. The coat was fairly matt free and not overly long like a Persian. Some of today’s Siberians resemble old style Persians with their overly long fur and extreme type. This is not the look I want to achieve. The Siberian differs from other forest breeds due to its overall rounded appearance of the head and body. However they should not be too round that they start to resemble Persians. They are strong, muscular cats weighing between 4-8kg depending on age and sex. Most of their size is reached in the first 18 months but they develop their heft slowly taking 5yrs to fully mature. The muscle gives them a ‘heavier than they look’ appearance.

Personality:

They are very affectionate cats with lots of personality and playfulness well into old age. They are easy to handle and train and have a fascination with water. One of my cats loves to drop his toys in the water dish and will scrape the top of the water in his bowl with his paw before drinking. They are very intelligent and good at problem solving. Despite their size they are very agile and great jumpers so make sure your valuable ornaments are shut away when these cats are around!.

They are very dog like in their devotion to humans and love to greet new people. They chirrup when they greet you and love to purr when around their favourite human. They love to play fetch with their humans, which is very funny to watch. Despite their active nature they make great lap cats and will happily live indoors and curl up on your lap to sleep in the evening.

The Siberian is a playful, loyal and affectionate breed that can be very protective of the people they love. Being a mellow breed they make great companions loving nothing more than to share your bed with you, usually your pillow or under the duvet. They will come when you call their names and like to follow you around almost like a dog would. Your new Siberian will be a loyal companion who will want to be around you and involved in all you do.

They will provide loving companionship and hours of fun, making them the ideal family pet. A lot of people who claim to be dog lovers will often be won over by a Siberians charm.

Hypoallergenic qualities:

The Siberian cat is thought to be hypoallergenic (causes less allergic response), although it has not been scientifically proven yet.

Many people who suffer from cat allergies do not seem to react in the same way to a Siberian. It is thought that the Siberian cat produces less ‘Fel D1 allergen in its saliva’ than other cats, resulting in a lower allergic response by allergy sufferers. The protein in cat saliva (Fel D1 allergen) means that when a cat grooms itself, the protein present in the saliva dries on the fur leaving dander. The dander particles are small and air filters cannot always remove them. The Siberian has less ‘Fel D1 allergen’ flakes on their fur.

Not all individuals can tolerate Siberians and anyone who is allergic to cats should ideally spend some time in the presence of these cats before purchasing one. Ideally you should have a home visit with the breeder you intend on getting a cat from as different lines will have different levels of Fel D1 allergen, resulting in different levels of responses. Neutering has been shown to reduce the levels of Fel D1 allergen. The allergen is hormonally controlled and so entire cats (especially males) have the highest level.

Fur length does not affect the amount of allergen produced, but sometimes the fine fur of the undercoat can cause eye irritation, especially when moulting. Allergy suffers also need to take other precautions at home which will include vacuuming regularly, washing cat beds and other items regularly, not allowing the cat to sleep upstairs, using good quality air filters. Keeping on top of hygiene is also very important for allergy sufferers. I do not have allergies myself but have breeder friends who do and they tolerate the cats well.

Most breeders have a lot of success in homing these cats with allergy sufferers.

For more information on this subject or to arrange a home visit, please contact me.

The Neva Question:

I briefly mentioned above about the Neva masquerade (colourpoint Siberian) which is a cat of Siberian type but with Siamese colouration. The colour was recognised as Siberian upon registration but how did it occur? Well as previously mentioned these cats existed in Russia long before they were given breed status and recognised with a breed standard. Other breeds like Siamese were also imported into Russia and allowed to freely mate with the native cats resulting in these blue eyed, colour pointed Siberian typed cats. This happened without human intervention at first but later became deliberate at the hands of breeders who wanted to create something exotic. These cats sold well as most people in Russia had never seen them before and so came the mass production of Neva. As the gene is recessive the colour was often hidden until two cats came together with the gene. So there was in the early days a small handful of what we call naturally occurring Neva cats (not purposely planned with direct mixing). Many older Russian breeders who have now either stopped breeding or passed can recall never seeing a neva Siberian as a child so this is something that certainly happened after other breeds began to arrive in Russia. Yet there are Neva breeders who still claim it is a natural mutation in Russian cats.

Sadly it is now almost impossible to find pedigrees without some neva presence in there and true traditional breeders believe had there been proper protections from the start to not accept this colour like is the case with other forest breeds then the Siberian would have remained more natural and in keeping with the original cats in Russia. Fortunately there are traditional breeders who want to preserve the natural Siberian without colourpoint mixing but there is a big discrepancy between traditional breeders.

Most traditional breeders aim to not breed colourpoint kittens and pay little attention to what is in the cat’s genealogy or they may seek to have at least 5 generations without neva. Then there are others who are few and far between like myself who aim to not have any Neva anywhere in the genealogy to try and maintain purely traditional heritage. This is not easy to do as these cats are sadly few and far between and there are only a handful of such breeders in the UK. You can find a list of all clean genealogy breeders on the Siberian cat breeder central link at bottom of page. It requires great expense to import such cats from all around the world and so it is a difficult task at times to ensure you have enough diversity. However if this was not done then all lines would be lost to indiscriminate breeding with Neva. I have already witnessed in recent years a growing trend of previous traditional breeders starting to switch to Neva breeding and mixing lines. It could very well be that in 20 yrs time these cats will be lost if this trend continues.

You may ask why people are doing this and breeding Nevas? Well I believe it is because they are pretty and those with allergies who may want a ragdoll or Birman because of the colour but cannot drive the trend to breed this colour in Siberians. Some breeders are motivated only by selling cats and winning at shows. A lot of Neva lines have become very large, larger than the traditional cats and mixing with the likes of ragdolls etc. to achieve this would not surprise me. For me however the big mistake was the Russian breed societies recognising Neva in the first place. They ignored how the colour came about and just included it because it was already present in Russia at time of registration. We are now on top of Neva seeing the breeding of blue eyed coloured cats and wild hybrids. Mixing with Abyssinians to get cinnamon and Birmans for lilac etc.

Without the traditional breeders being the caretakers of the breed and choosing to breed what was the aboriginal cat of Russia we will see the Siberian become nothing but a mix of all sorts. In return losing all its unique qualities including its hypoallergenic traits and open the breed up to health issues present in other breeds. Only passion and demand for authentic real Siberians can drive change.

More information on this issue which I am very passionate about can be found at:
www.siberiancatbreedercentral.com/history-of-the-breed-and-the-nem-question/