Balinese Cat (Balinese, Balinese): History Of The Breed

2023 Author: Molly Page | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-11-27 22:49

Any shorthaired cat can carry the longhair gene. This gene can be inherited by one of the parents from distant ancestors, and then kittens with long or semi-long hair may appear in one of the litters of short-haired cats. Breeders do not allow such offspring before breeding and reject them. And so on until the gaze of some connoisseur of feline beauty sees in these rejected future "stars" and a new breed.

Initially, the occasional long-haired kittens in Siamese litters were considered a flaw in the pedigree and were sold exclusively as pets. There are records of these cats as far back as the 1900s: "Longhaired Siamese" were first registered as show cats with the Federation of American Cat Fanciers in 1928.

Balinese cat of a new type. Photographer: Anna Utekhina - dizigner.ru

In the mid-1950s, breeders in the United States began serious efforts to breed long-haired Siamese as a separate breed. They crossed semi-longhaired Siamese cats, obtained from shorthair, in order to fix the longhaired character. Later this work was continued, and the elegant silhouette of the Siamese began to gradually dress in "shaggy silk", and the long tail was adorned with delicate fringes. Considering the long-haired Siamese cat too bulky a name, the original breeder Helen Smith named the new breed "Balinese" as a reference to the grace of Balinese dancers (one of the "miracles" of Bali is the famous temple dancers with amazing plastic movements).

By 1965, most feline American organizations (except CFA) had registered the Balinese cat. In the same year, the first breed standard was developed, which was subsequently changed twice - in 1967 and 1970. In 1970 England also recognized Balinese, and since 1972 Balinese cats have been recognized and accepted absolutely at all championships.

When the breeding of the breed was just beginning, the Balinese were denser, with rounded shapes, with a delicate fringed coat and a beautiful feathery tail. American fashion and the efforts of breeders have changed this look, adding a long snout, elongated ears and a thin tail to the Balinese. Cultivating this line, American breeders crossed them with a new look Siamese. In their opinion, the type of balinese was thus improved, but the fur … the delicate fringe and feathery tail were the price that had to be paid for the "polished" grace. Today Balinese with beautiful hair and tail have become almost a rarity again, and in order not to finally lose the “silky fringe”, crosses with Siamese try not to practice, preferring purely “Balinese” marriages to them.

Old type Balinese cat

The difficulty of maintaining long hair and the delayed improvement of the type led to different approaches in breeding work with the breed in the USA and Great Britain (in the CFA and GCCF organizations), on the one hand, and in continental Europe (FIFe, WCF) on the other. In European countries, the emphasis was placed on maintaining the length and texture of the coat, soft and thin, with a noticeable undercoat, sometimes to the detriment of the type of animals. In the States, breeders tried with all their might to adjust the Balinese to the Siamese standard, in which they succeeded a lot. As for the coat, the "little long-haired" cats have become the norm in American catteries. However, their thin, silky, light coat looks extremely impressive, giving the breed a very specific expressiveness. Both in the US and in the UK, Balinese are classified as short-haired breeds.

Related article Balinese cat, or Balinese

Since the late 1980s, European experts from other organizations have begun to give preference to the ultra-elegant American-style Balinese. Now in the United States only cats with dark brown, chocolate, purple and blue markings are called balinese. Cats of other point colors are called Javanese. In Europe, the standard of the Balinese breed includes all point colors, but the name "Javanese" (or "Mandarin") was given to another breed. Just as in parallel with the Siamese there are oriental cats, differing from the first only in full color, along with the Balinese, by the 1980s, completely colored cats of the same appearance appeared - long-haired orientals. By the way, it is under the name "Oriental longhair" that this breed is registered in the American CFA.

The number of recognized colors varies from organization to organization. TICA, WCF and some others, in addition to the four traditional colors (seal, chocolate, blue, lilac), also recognize reds, cream, tortie, all tabby points, as well as silvery variations. CFA, ACFA, CFF recognize only traditional colors, and for non-traditional colors the name "Javanese" is used. In organizations of cat lovers in the CIS, balinese is recognized in all of the above colors as color-point.