The British Shorthair cat is truly originated from the British islands, where hundreds or even thousands years ago lived their ancestors. The British Shorthair is said to trace its ancestry back to the domestic cat of Rome. The legends says that Roman troops that invade Britain brought shorthaired cats along, which were kept for their hunting abilities, providing a useful service.
The British Shorthair breed originates in the 1880, London, the first pedigree certificate issued in 1898, Great Britain. The first organization to register the British Shorthairs in Great Britain was GCCF. It was only in 20s-30s of the 20th century that English selectionists started pedigree breeding of British Shorthair cats. The British Shorthairs have started to be actively bred only from 1980, when this breed has been accepted by the largest cat organizations. The British Shorthair breed’s original color was blue. In fact, the blue British Shorthairs show a better type, a better coat texture. They have a long pedigree breeding history and have accumulated the best qualities of the breed. Now many colors and patterns of British Shorthair cats are recognized and accepted. There is a variety of colours available: self-coloured (black, blue, white, cream, chocolate etc) and non-self or patterned - tortie, smoked, tabbie, bi colours, spotted, colourpoints (Siamese).
Standart and defects:
The British Shorthair cat – is compact, well-balanced and powerful cat.
Head – Round face with full cheeks and good breath of skull with round underlying bone structure. The head should be set on a short thick neck. The nose is short, broad and straight. In profile, a rounded forehead should lead to a short straight nose with a nose break that is neither too pronounced nor too shallow. A strong, firm and deep chin is essential. The tip of the chin to line up with the tip of the nose in the same vertical plane.
Ears – small, rounded at the tips , set low and far apart.
Eyes – Large, round and well-opened. Set wide apart.
Body – Cobby type with short level back. Low on legs with broad deep chest. Equally massive across the shoulders and the rump. Medium to large.
Legs & Paws – Short strong legs. Paws round , strong and firm.
Tail – Should be thick and of medium length, thicker at the base with rounded tip.
Coat – Short, dense and crisp with a good undercoat. Soft and / or overlong and fluffy coat is incorrect.
The cat should be healthy, show a good condition and be well groomed.
Defects:
• Uneven bite, twist, tail knots, skeleton deformations;
• Over-long, soft or fluffy coats;
• Pronounced nose-stop;
• Weak chin and jaws;
• Pinch, pronounced whisker pads.
Care and nutrition
The British Shorthair cat is very easy to care of and does not make any special trouble to its owners. The "teddy" short coat is an easy-care coat, requiring no washing or combing out. Only during the moulting period (approximately once a year) the cats require their coats to be combed out. We recommend this procedure to be done by simply using a slightly wet hand, without using a comb.
One of the main conditions for the cat's health is proper nutrition. A well-balanced food is required. The quality and the quantity of food depends on the cat's age. The younger the kitten, the more often it should be fed (4-5 times per day). Kittens unlike the adult animals should be given small portions throughout the whole day.
When selecting canned meat and dry foods, the preference should be given to professional class foods (with "premium" or "super premium" label). This becomes critical when you feed your cat only with manufactured food.
Colours:
Many different colours and patterns
There exist a lot of different colours and patterns, almost the same colours as for Persians:
• Solid colours as black, blue, chocolate, lilac, red and cream.
• Tortie colours as black tortie, blue tortie, chocolate tortie, lilac tortie.
• Tabby colours in all three tabby patterns (blotched, mackerel and spotted) in all the colours mentioned above
• also with silver, then they are called silver tabby.
• Colours with silver, as smoke, shaded and shell (chinchilla).
• Bicolour patterns, i.e. all the colours above with white.
• Colourpoints (as for the Persians)
• and also Tabby Points.
Temperament
The British Shorthair are independent, yet very affectionate to their people. They follow them around the house to make sure that everything is done right. Males are very people oriented. They are like little Teddy bears, extremely quiet, rather little talking, but they still very alert and can be sometimes quizzical. Everything is done cautiously, they are not seriously in a hurry. They make ideal pets for less active owners as well as for rather busy households.