The Oriental Longhair Cat

The Oriental Longhair Breed

Breed Description
Variants & Pointed Oriental Longhairs
Breed Status
the amended Standard of Points which took effect from 1st June 1998

Breed Description

The Oriental Longhair is a beautifully balanced cat with an alert, intelligent expression. The type is the same as the Siamese, Balinese and Oriental Shorthair - svelte and elegant, and they have the same lively temperament.

The coat is medium length and fine and silky in texture, with no woolly undercoat, which makes it very easy to groom. The tail is a long elegant plume.

The colours and patterns are those of the Oriental Shorthairs with the addition of the green-eyed and odd-eyed Whites.

This means that Oriental Longhairs are bred in:

Self Colours: black, blue, chocolate, lilac, cinnamon, caramel, fawn, red, cream and apricot.

Tortie Colours: black tortie, blue tortie, chocolate tortie, lilac tortie, cinnamon tortie, caramel tortie, fawn tortie.

Smokes: all of the above self and tortie colours, with a silver undercoat.

Tabbies: all of the above self and tortie colours, including the silver versions, in any tabby pattern (ticked, spotted, mackerel and classic).

Shaded: all of the above self and tortie colours, including the silver versions, with varying degrees of shading. No distinction is made between shaded and tipped as one can grade into the other.

All the above colours have green eyes.

Whites: green-eyed, blue-eyed and odd-eyed (one green and one blue).

Variants & Pointed Oriental Longhairs
If an Oriental Longhair is mated to an Oriental Shorthair or Siamese all the kittens will be shorthaired; although they look like Orientals or Siamese, these kittens are registered as Oriental Longhair Variants. They are useful in an Oriental Longhair breeding programme since if a Variant is mated to an Oriental Longhair or Balinese, half the kittens will be longhaired. (Of course, it is not a good idea to mate a Pointed Variant to a Balinese because none of the kittens can be full coloured.)

Balinese look-alikes are often produced in Oriental Longhair litters. These cats cannot be registered as Balinese, which may only have Balinese, Balinese Variants and Siamese in their pedigrees, so they are registered as Pointed Oriental Longhairs.

Oriental Longhair Variants and Pointed Oriental Longhairs are used in Oriental Longhair breeding programmes, but cannot be used to breed Balinese or Siamese; they can however be used to breed Oriental Shorthairs (provided that they have been tested not to carry longhair - obviously, this cannot be the case for Pointed Longhairs or first generation Variants). From June 2012 they have been allowed to be shown under GCCF Rules in the appropraite Siamese, Oriental Shorthair or Balinese Open Class for their colour and pattern. Just like Oriental Longhairs, Balinese, Oriental Shorthairs and Siamese, they make excellent pets.

Can you tell which are Variants
and which are Oriental Shorthairs ?

(The peacock feather didn't have a chance!)

(photo by Marc Henrie - apologies for the kittens who did not wish to sit still)

Breed Status
Angoras, as they were then known, started off with Preliminary recognition, where the cats are judged in Assessment Classes instead of in Open Classes; each cat is judged individually against its Standard of Points and, if deemed of sufficient quality by the Judge, is awarded a Merit Certificate. Over the years they gained sufficient Merit Certificates to apply for Provisional status, and this was granted from 1st June 1998.

After further hard work to gain sufficient numbers of Intermediate Certificates, the breed achieved Championship status from June 2003 - as the Oriental Longhair.

These pages were brought up to date from the original by Julia May which is still accessible here:-