Cats ... such wayward, mysterious and even slightly mystical creatures. It is no coincidence that they are preferred to be wound up as pets. Of course, feline care requires careful care, but in return you can get a sea of affection, and most importantly, absolutely equal situation with all members of the family.
Cat in the history of mankind
After all, these pets will not tolerate humiliation, they only allow people to love themselves and look after their feline person. Even in ancient manuscripts about the life of high-ranking people you can find a mention of their beloved cats.
In ancient Egypt, there was even a goddess Bast with a cat's head, responsible for femininity, beauty and home. The Egyptians built tombs for their soft-footed favorites.
Time passed, but the man did not pass the love of cats, it only got stronger. People learned to breed new breeds, learned how to preserve ancient species. Breeders try to surprise their customers, offer them new, unusual cats. We will analyze the rarest cat breeds with photos and names.
Which breeds are rare?
What does the concept of “rare breed” include? it is erroneous to assume that these breeds appeared recently (although, for the most part, this is so). Some cats of rare breeds have been carefully guarded by breeders for centuries and have come down to us from ancient times.
Although, most often unusual feline is still a breeding product brought to perfection. Indeed, every person, including a geneticist, has his own idea of beauty. Someone likes fluffy murmuring homebody, and someone wants to domesticate a wild cat, leaving a dexterous disposition and habits of a predator. So cats of rare breeds are derived (we will present photos of each of them in the article).
It should be said right away that the average breeder is not able to breed such a breed, having crossed, for example, a Thai cat and an Angora cat . This is considered a gross violation of the rules. Cats of rare breeds are bred for years - this is a rather complicated technology.
Why are they needed? Breeders have two goals: aesthetic and financial. You must admit that a cat with very different eyes looks very unusual, and how a short-legged pet touches everyone. Tailless, not covered with wool, with fancy ears, look like a miniature leopard - there are a lot of options. And of course, for the pleasure of having an unusual pet in the house, you have to pay generously.
The rarest cat breeds - pleasure is far from cheap (starting price of 20 thousand dollars). But there are a lot of people who want to get such pets. Some breeds even line up.
Kao mani
So, let's start listing rare breeds of cats. We will introduce readers to the photos and their names. We will tell you about the history of the breed, characteristics of the character, care and predisposition to diseases.
A cat with unusual eyes - kao-mani. It differs from its relatives in that it has a different color of the cornea: green and blue. In English-speaking countries, these beauties are also called the "diamond eye" - diamond eye.
This breed comes from Thailand. Even in the texts of the XIV century, a description of these
boiling-white cats is mentioned
, which, by the way, was authorized to be royal only. Surprisingly, for the general public, tao-mani became known only in 2009.
These curious, very smart cats have a slender, muscular body, covered with white, well-fitting hair, quite short. Tao-mani have a very characteristic genotype, so not every pure-white cat with multi-colored eyes will belong to this breed. By the way, the color of the eyes may be absent. Individuals with the same, green, iris color are quite common. They are bred in Thailand and few states of the USA.
These cats need the company of both humans and their own kind. Communication is very necessary for them. They do not play strangers, tolerate children.
Tao-mani - boasts excellent health. The most “weak” place is the ears. There are individuals that are deaf on one of the ears, although breeders carefully monitor this: they only cross cats that are healthy in both ears.
Turkish van
Another rare breed of cat in the world is the Turkish van. Its uniqueness is determined primarily by the love of water. Turkish vans are wonderful swimmers, they like to run in shallow water or catch small fish at shallow depths.
This is not the only distinguishing feature of the breed. Turkish vans are large, medium-long wool. In addition, it is completely devoid of undercoat - this explains the love of the breed for water. The characteristic color is pure white with red-chestnut spots at the base of the ears, tail of the same color. There are frequent cases when there is a bright spot on the shoulder.
The body of a cat is like that of a real swimmer: a muscular chest, powerful legs (and the forelegs are noticeably longer than the hind legs), and the tail is shaped like a brush. Determining the male and the female is quite simple: the males are an order of magnitude larger.
Turkish van is a breed that gets along well with people, they are brilliantly trained, very playful. There are no problems with walks either: it can be either a harness, to which the Turkish vans quickly get accustomed, or an aviary, or a free range with the owner.
Munchkin and Napoleon
Munchkins are very rare cat breeds. This is a kind of dachshund of the cat world. The paws of these cats are disproportionately short in relation to the body.
Their posture in a standing position is also interesting: they rest on the base of the tail and hold their front legs in front of them. In such a pose, more characteristic of a kangaroo, the munchkins can be for a very long time.
The uniqueness of these unusual cats also lies in the fact that short legs are not a product of the work of breeders, but a natural genetic mutation.
Thus, the breed emerged from quite ordinary domestic cats, in the genotype of which a special dominant gene of “short-legged” appeared. This explains the variety of shades, colors and lengths of wool.
Munchkins do not differ in good health, it is quite difficult for them to survive in the natural environment.
Napoleon is the name of the rare breeds of cats that appeared by crossing the Munchkins and Persian. A characteristic feature in addition to short legs is dwarfism. The maximum weight of the Napoleons is only two kilograms.
Serengeti
Serengeti are another rare breed of cat. Their population in the world totals only a few hundred copies! Brought Serengeti in the USA. The pioneer breeder wanted to present the world with a breed that, repeating the external qualities of the African serval, would be absolutely handmade and domestic. Years of searching were successful: the result was a graceful, unusually beautiful cat.
Surprisingly, there is not a single wild serval gene in the genotype of a serengeti. However, she is unusually similar to him in appearance. But the temper is homely, calm, friendly. Cats have a muscular body, long legs and powerful legs. Coloring is allowed black or smoky with pronounced round spots (horizontal extension is allowed) or black with barely noticeable spots. Another feature is a large wedge-shaped head, resembling the head of a wild feline. Moreover, this symptom is manifested even at birth.
Serengeti are smart, graceful, very stubborn natures. These cats will not tolerate the appearance of someone more important than them in the house. They are the center of everything. Another feature is the unsurpassed talkativeness and convivial spirit.
The most common disease of the breed is urolithiasis.
Caracal
Very rare cat breeds include caracals. Yes, these are not cats at all, but real wild lynxes, only of small sizes (compared to other representatives of the species). In the wild, caracals live in the steppes and savannahs (hence the name "steppe lynx").
These cats differ from the usual lynx in coloring: the coat is dense, rather short, the coloring is brick-colored (sometimes sandy), characteristic spots are found only on the face.
Caracal in Turkish means "black ear" - this is indeed so. His ears are crowned with charming black tassels. These cats are very fit, muscular, with very long legs.
At home, the life expectancy of a caracal reaches 18 years. However, deciding to get it, it is necessary to be aware that this is not at all a domestic purring cat - wild predatory habits remain for life.
Toyger
Want to have a miniature tiger home? Then toyger is what you need. His literal translation from English is "toy tiger." The only thing is that these kittens are decent: from 10 thousand dollars. What is unique about toygers? Its color, contrasting in everything. The most important thing is tiger black stripes, moreover, monophonic, devoid of any color transitions. They stand out against a tan background. The tips of the legs and tail are always black. The body is tight, muscular. By the way, do not overfeed a toyger - this is one of the mistakes of the owners. The front legs are crowned with thick powerful pads.
Toygers are very companionable cats, they get along well with children. Well give in to education and training. At the same time, toygers are quite calm and complaisant, they will not require constant games, these cats of rare breeds love to sit in the arms of the owner much more.
Ashera
A very scandalous story is connected with the appearance of this breed, and its “creator" is still wanted by the police. The fact is that in 2007 specialized (and not only) publications began to be full of information that “the rarest cat breed in the world” was bred. These extremely clever and loyal soft-footed creatures are also completely hypoallergenic.
However, after a series of genetic examinations, it was found that the asher is nothing but a species of savannah - a cat, also a rare breed, but known to the public. But before the truth was established, many people fell for such an exotic bait, laying out 20 thousand dollars for kittens
Asher is truly a giant of the cat world, because, according to the creators, the genotype of the serval, Asian leopard and domestic cats is enclosed in it. Indeed, their height reaches one meter. There may be several colors, the rarest (of which only four kittens a year are born on average) has golden-orange spots, the other is of an ashen hue and the most common is with black spots, like a leopard.
Winner Rating: Home Serval
So, we sorted out the rarest breeds of cats, photos and their names are also given. However, there are three winners. So, home serval. Sometimes it seems that this cat doesn’t live with a man at all, but only has come from the forest to stay. This is partly true, because no one has bred the breed specifically for the house, it’s just that people realized that the servals are perfectly domesticated.
However, habits remain wild. Servalians are wonderful hunters; they like to run, jump, and overtake prey. Breeders should consider this. It is unlikely that this breed will get along in an ordinary apartment - it will be more to its taste a mansion with high ceilings, because the serval's jumps reach three meters up.
Savannah
The next rarest cat breed in the world is the savannah. We already touched her when we talked about usher. Savannah was bred in the 80s of the last century. The creators wanted to give people a real home leopard. Then, they believed, they would leave wild cats alone, would not be kept in captivity - in mansions and apartments.
Savannahs occurred from the crossing of the already known serval and Siamese cat. As a result, from the first they got the habits of a predator and spotting, and from the second they have a fairly flexible disposition and indefatigable talkativeness.
The savannahs are perfectly trained, and they carry out commands that are quite complicated for cats: “aport”, “bring” or “stranger”.
Chausie
At the top of the rating "Rare cat breeds in Russia" (and throughout the world), according to many, is the Chausey. These cats boast a completely unique genotype and outstanding appearance.
Chausi is the fruit of a natural (initially) crossing of a wild reed cat and a domestic cat. Only after a long time connoisseurs of soft-footed noticed how beautiful these kittens are.
It was decided to start breeding a new breed, a reed cat, but affectionate and domesticated. Only in 2003 was it possible to fix a new breed. However, to this day, its elimination is not going smoothly; it is too difficult to combine genes.
Three colors are fixed by the standard: black, silver or tabby. The last two are ticked, i.e. color uneven, with interspersed stripes. A prerequisite is a clear picture on the head, as well as the ears and tip of the tail.
Chauzi are excellent companions for their owners, however, the predatory habits of the reed cat remain: they swim and hunt in the water, make reserves when the owner does not see them, they jump well. These cats do not accept dry foods, even exclusive ones - only meat should be in the diet. The gastrointestinal tract of Chausey simply does not digest cereals and vegetables.