Siberian Forest Cat

The Siberian is a centuries-old landrace (natural variety) of domestic cat in Russia. The Siberian cat is the the national cat of Russia.  

In this page we will cover:

1. Hypoallergenicity

2. History

3. How and when did cats become domesticated

4. The Appearance of these Hardcore Cats 

5. Head and Body 

6. Average Size and Weight 

7. Questions and Answers

  The Siberian cat breed is perfect. They are affectionate, playful, and energetic; gets along well with children and other animals. They can handle colder weather and like to play in water. Affectionate and intelligent, and rarely unable to solve its own problems. The cat is also attracted to water, occasionally throwing toys in it or playing around it. Despite the cat's size, the Siberian is quite agile and can easily jump onto bookcases or on top of cupboards. Surely, the worlds most laid back cat.  

Since female of all breeds produce less Fel d1, than male, breeders advise people who suffer from allergy to take a female as a pet. 

Non-commercial association of breeders (Siberian Research Inc) was founded in 2005 to study allergenic capacity and genetic diseases of Siberian breed. In March 2010 there were obtained more than 300 samples of saliva and fur to study.

Content of Fel d1 in the saliva varied in the range 0.08-27 µg/ml and in the fur — 5-1300 µg. The upper threshold corresponds to the previous studies, but the bottom one appeared to be lower than expected. It was defined that cats with silvery coloring have the highest level of Fel d1. About half of siberian cats have Fel d1 level lower than other cat breeds and about 20% of cats produce it very little. 

Today we can test for hypoallergenicity. 

The Vikings brought the cats with them as they traveled back and fourth to what is know known as Kiev, Ukraine from Norway. Along the way they lost a few of their feline friends. The cat were originally called the Sibirskaya Koshka. Some people call it the Siberian Forest Cat. It is believed they existed for at least a thousand years in the forests of Russia. What is sure, is that this is a natural cat breed and man played no part in its development.

When the Siberian Forest cat was introduced to Europe the breed was written about in Harrison Weir's late nineteenth century book, Our Cats and All About Them, as one of the three longhairs represented at the first cat show, held in England in the 1700s.

Elizabeth Terrell, a Baton Rouge, Louisiana breeder, is responsible for bringing these cats to America. Primarily a Himalayan breeder, she discovered through a 1988 trade journal article that a Russian Cat Fanciers association was looking to import (and establish) the Siberian cat breed into Russia. Terrell traded four Himalayans to Nelli Sachuk, a member of St. Petersburg's Kotofei cat club, in exchange for three Siberians in 1990 -- one male (Kaliostro Vasenjkovich) and two females (Ofelia Romanova and Naina Romanova). She devoted both time and money to a breeding program, later basing the American Standard (an abstract aesthetic ideal for the animal type) on the Russian Standards. 

Concerned with establishing a purebred Siberian cat, she subsequently founded an inter-registry breed club, which she named Taiga.Though the Siberian is a rare breed, it is gaining interest and on its way to recognition and fame. 

By 1991 FiFe recognized the breed and TICA recognized the breed a year later in 1998. The CFA accepted the breed for registration in 2000. 

 Domesticated cats all come from wildcats called Felis silvestris lybica that originated in the Fertile Crescent in the Near East Neolithic period and in ancient Egypt in the Classical period.  These wildcats can still be found in Africa, southern Asia, and Europe. This same research also revealed that cats were likely domesticated in the Near East around 12,000 years ago.   

So how did cats become our purring feline friends? Perhaps a kind-hearted hunter came across a lonely litter of kitties mewling in the forest and brought them home. While this makes for a sweet story, it doesn't synch up with what really happened. For thousands of years, cats had no real need for humans—and vice versa—so we generally went our own ways. 

But that changed as we began settling down into flourishing agricultural communities in an area called the Fertile Crescent, which stretches from the Nile River to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. There humans were able to grow and store plentiful amounts of grain. And all of that grain began to attract mice. Lots of mice. These mice, in turn, drew cats who were pleased to discover an abundant and relatively easy to hunt food source.

This was the beginning of a mutually beneficial relationship between cats and humans. Our storehouses offered cats plenty of prey, and we got an effective means of controlling the rodents who were destroying our grain. We appreciated this ability so much that we began bringing cats on board the ships that transported grain and other products. This explains how cats spread from the Near East to all corners of the world. 

This may be hardcore looking cats, but really they are big softies! Siberian cats are a solid and sturdy medium to large size breed, but with long-haired fluffy coats, round paws, and very, very sweet faces!

Their eyes tend to be large and round, and are usually green, gold, green-gold, or copper in color. White Siberian cats or cats with a predominantly white coat may also have blue eyes, or two different colored eyes – one green and one blue.

Siberians have water repellent triple coats – needed to keep them warm in the cold climate they are from. This means they have an outer layer of longer guard hair, a middle layer of awn hair, and an undercoat layer of down. They have a longer ruff of fur around their neck, fluffy hind legs, and a very bushy tail.

They are naturally strong and have a muscular build, but it can take up to five years to mature from a kitten into a full, balanced, and well-proportioned adult size cat.

Their Siberian cats head has trapezium-shaped head with rounded outlines, it can be both middle-sized and large as well as the cat’s ears. They are rounded and a bit leaned forward. The distance between the ears should be equal to the ear width.

The fur on the ears back side is short and thin. Starting from the middle spot of the ear cat’s fur becomes longer and covers the earset. It’s desirable for the cat to have “bobcat” tufts on its ears endings.

The cat’s eyes are large, almost round, the tail of the cat’s eye is a bit inclined and directed to the earset. The distance between the eyes is larger than the cat’s eye width. The eye color isn’t connected with the cat’s fur color.e face and it’s a very fluffy cat. The body looks rounded and smooth. Kittens grow up slowly and become reproductive only at the age of 5. Female are usually a bit smaller than males. So, one should be attentive when defining the correspondence to the breed standard of cats and kittens. 

Their body is middle-sized, strong and well-muscled, its back is a bit higher than the shoulders; the belly is barrel-shaped and hard, which gives the impression of a large weight and this will be really so with age. The cat’s legs are middle-sized with massive bones.The hind feet are a bit longer than the fore ones. The paws are large and rounded with obligatory fur between the fingers. The tail is wide at the bottom and a bit contracted at the ending. 

The cat is middle-sized or large with perfect physical abilities, its power is complimented with a cute face and it’s a very fluffy cat. The body looks rounded and smooth. Kittens grow up slowly and become reproductive only at the age of 5.

Female are usually a bit smaller than males. So, one should be attentive when defining the correspondence to the breed standard of cats and kittens. Male weight is usually from 13 to 20 lbs, the female – from 8  to 15 lbs.