Personality:
- Friendly, talkative, and alert.
- Accept other pets but remain closely attached to their people.
History:
Newly developed breed created to incorporate the best features of the Oriental Shorthair, but with a long, silky coat. Ancestry includes the Siamese, Colorpoint Shorthair, Oriental Shorthair, Balinese, and Javanese. Accepted for registration in the Cat Fanciers’ Association (CFA) in 1988 and for championship status in 1995. CFA considers the longhaired and shorthaired versions to be divisions of the same Oriental breed. The International Cat Association (TICA) considers the Oriental Longhair and Oriental Shorthair to be separate breeds.
Body Type:
- Medium-size, refined and svelte with firm muscles, long tapering lines, and a plume like tail.
- Head is a long-tapering wedge with large pointed ears.
- Green eyes are almond shaped and of medium size (only white Orientals may have either blue or green eyes).
Coat:
- Coat is medium long and fine without a downy undercoat (prevents matting).
- Long coat gives this cat a softer, less extreme look than their shorthaired counterparts.
- Over 300 color and pattern combinations. Colors include solids (blue, chestnut, cinnamon, cream, ebony, fawn, lavender, red and white), smoke (all colors and combinations of colors with a white undercoat that lies close to the skin), shaded (similar to the smoke colors but the white undercoat extends farther up the hair shaft making the coat appear to sparkle), and parti-color and bi-color (blue-cream, fawn-cream, lavender-cream, cinnamon tortoiseshell, chestnut tortoiseshell and ebony tortoiseshell).
- Five tabby patterns with the above colors are possible including mackerel, classic, spotted, ticked, and patched (where the tabby pattern is combined with particolor combinations).
Health and Wellness:
- Since the Oriental Longhair is a hybrid with Siamese in their background, they sometimes have kinked tails and/or crossed eyes. These defects do not affect the well being of the cat, but are grounds for disqualification in the show ring.
- Gingivitis may exist in some lines. Preventive dental care and early treatment can keep this condition under control.
What you should know:
- Because this is a relatively new breed, there may be a brief waiting period before a kitten will be available.
