British Shorthair Cat Breeds
British Shorthairs are well proportioned cats that boast a kind and sincere look about them which is one of the breed’s most endearing features. They are known to have “teddy bear” looks with their large, round expressive eyes and compact, well-balanced, powerful bodies. They have round faces and full cheeks with a good width between their ears. Noses are short, broad and straight. When seen in profile cats have rounded foreheads showing a very slight nose break. They have firm, strong and deep chins and perfectly level bites.
Their ears are small being nicely rounded at the tips and set well apart on a cat’s rounded head. The outside of their ears are well covered with hair with only a small amount of furnishing on the inside of them. Eyes are large, well opened and rounded being set nicely apart, but without showing any Oriental shape to them.
The British Shorthair has a strong, cobby body and short back. Chests are deep and they are big across their shoulders and rumps making them medium to large sized cats. Their legs are short and very strong with nice round, firm paws and close fitting toes with five on each of their front feet, but only four on their back feet. Tails are thick and moderately long being thicker at the base and boast having a rounded tip.
When it comes to their coat, the British Shorthair has a short, dense and crisp coat. The accepted colours for the breed under the GCCF standard are as follows:
British Self – all solid colours
- White – eyes orange or blue or one of each
- Black – eyes orange
- Blue – eyes orange
- Lilac – eyes orange
- Chocolate – eyes orange
- Red – eyes orange
- Cream – eyes orange
- Fawn – eyes orange
- Cinnamon – eyes orange
British Colourpointed and Colourpointed & White
These varieties boast having a coat pattern and the blue eyes of a Siamese
British Tipped
These varieties boast having coats that are coloured at the tips, their eyes are generally green. The most commonly seen varieties are as follows:
- Black (silver) Tipped
- Golden (non-silver) Tipped
British Tortoiseshell, Tortoiseshell & White, Bi-Colour
These varieties boast having mixed colours. They may or may not have white in their coats which can either dominate or dilute a colour pattern
British Tabby
These varieties boast having tabby patterns in their coat that can be various colours and this includes silver. There are basically four tabby patterns which are as follows:
- Classic
- Spotted
- Mackerel
- Ticked