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Persan |
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TranslationFrancis Vandersteen |
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OriginThe Persan is a long-haired cat breed originating from the borders of Turkey and Iran, namely Persia. |
| This medium to large-sized cat is characterized by its long, abundant coat, rounded silhouette and face with a very short muzzle. |
A brief historical overview |
| The breed's name refers to one of the Persan's ancestors, the Turkish Angora. This breed, which originated on the borders of Turkey and Iran, namely Persia, gave the Persan the gene responsible for its long-haired coat. This is why the word “Persan” was chosen to name the breed. Another presumed ancestor is a breed of cat found in Khorassan with long gray hair. Buffon described the Khorasan cats as “resembling in color those we call Chartreux cats, and except for the color, perfectly resembling those we call Angora cats”. At the time, the Persan was the blue variety of Angora, which was white. Pietro della Valle is said to have brought long-haired cats back to Italy from his travels in Persia in the 16th century, cats that did not exist in Europe at the time. These cats were first bred in Italy, then introduced to France, where they were appreciated by bourgeois women. The initiator of the long-haired cat craze in Europe was Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc (1580-1637), member of the Parliament of Aix-en-Provence, who introduced a couple to France. He had brought in cats from Damascus as curiosities. The breed subsequently made its way to Great Britain, where it quickly became very popular. Exoticism was in vogue, and the breed was successively known as the “French Cat”, the “Chinese Cat” and the “Indian Cat”. Eventually, it came to be known simply as Longhair, after its fur. During the 19th century, the first Persans were created by crossing Angoras already present in England with European-type cats. Morphological and fur objectives were achieved by the British as early as the 1850s. The first specimens were shown at the first Crystal Palace cat show in London in 1871. They were exhibited alongside British shorthairs, of which the British were very proud. By this time, a breeding program had already been set up by British breeders. The Longhair of the time was crossed with the British shorthair. The result was a rounder cat. A great deal of work was first carried out to improve coat quality and round out the cat's silhouette. British breeders then worked to diversify coats: the first Persans were unicolored, but by the end of the 19th century, particolored (bicolored or tricolored), tabby, smokes, chinchilla, silver shaded and golden Persans were being shown. In 1889, the first standard was established for a breed now called Persan. The breed's popularity soon spread to the United States, where they continued the selection work carried out by the English. The Americans went to even greater extremes, rounding out the Persan even further and working on color diversity. The cameo coat was created in the United States in the 1950s. It was in 1930 that American breeders succeeded in creating a new variety of Persan: the “peke-face” or “pékinois” for French-speaking breeders, alluding to the Pekingese dog breed, which has a very flat head. The creation of this new variety gave rise to much controversy in Europe from 1970 onwards, with the advocates of the “English” type on one side and the followers of the “American” type on the other. This controversy between the two types of Persan still exists today. Single-colored Persans arrived in France in the early 20th century, and the first breedings began between the wars. |
General appearance |
| The Persan is a round, brevilinear cat. Their general appearance is of medium to large size, massive and short-legged. The body should be muscular but not obese, with a straight but not too long back. Excessive length of the back is penalized by the judges. Hips and shoulders are round and of equal width, with a deep, broad chest, and the rest of the abdomen equally rounded. |
Behavior / characteristics |
| The Persan is generally described as a calm cat. Casanier and placid, it's a cat that adapts easily to life in an apartment, but it may also want to spend time in the garden from time to time, and is quite capable of hunting or climbing trees. However, if they're used to living outdoors at a young age, they're lively and behave like any other domestic cat. Finally, the Persan is also more active when shorn. The Persan is often referred to as a “dog cat”. As a general rule, the colorpoint Persan is considered more dynamic and energetic than classic Persans, due to the influence of the Siamese gene. |
Health |
| The Persan's health is fragile. Indeed, many diseases affect the eyes, such as corneal sequestration (a disease specific to cats), which is quite common in Persans. A study carried out on 251 sick cats showed that mammary tumors in Persans are mainly fibroadenomas and adenomas. As far as reproduction is concerned, it has been noted that bilateral chryptorchidism, leading to total sterility, is more common in the Persan cat than in any other breed. The Persan is also predisposed to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The yellow-eyed smoke-blue Persan can be affected by a rare genetic disease, Chediak-Higashi syndrome, a hematological disorder that is transmitted recessively. Because of its long hair, the Persan cat is particularly vulnerable to parasites such as fleas. It is predisposed to ringworm, notably due to the action of Microsporum canis. Dominant polycystic kidney disease (PKD) is a common genetic disorder in Persans and Exotic Shorthairs. This hereditary disease is autosomal dominant and generally affects both kidneys. According to various studies carried out between 1999 and 2002 in Australia, France, the United States, Germany and Scandinavia, the prevalence of the disease within the breed is between 40% and 50%, with no significant difference between the sexes, although it is more prevalent in females (43% of females affected versus 38% of males, according to a French study carried out on 220 Persan cats). The average age of onset of clinical signs is around 7 years, although the disease can be detected by ultrasound at ten months of age. Veterinary guidelines recommend systematic ultrasound screening of breeding stock from the age of ten months, in order to eliminate affected cats from the breeding system. Unlike the United States, France has no official screening program for the disease, which reduces the chances of seeing the prevalence of polycystic kidney disease decline. |
Genetics |
| The Persan's long hair comes from a recessive gene. The gene must be present twice for the cat to have long hair. This gene is found in all cats with long or medium-length hair, such as the Maine Coon or the Norwegian Forest Cat. However, numerous selections in Persan breeding have led to the accumulation of many genes with low individual effects, known as polygenes. These determine the length of the undercoat and the fineness of the Persan's coat. |
Head |
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Cranial region |
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Head |
The Persan's head is typical of the breed, and is probably what makes it recognizable from afar. It is round and massive, with prominent cheekbones, a round muzzle and a domed skull. The chin is strong. Generally speaking, the facial expression is gentle. To achieve this, the facial bones must be round. The nose is as wide as it is long, flattened and marked by a deep stop. Viewed in profile, chin and nose are on the same vertical line. Ideally, the stop is placed between the eyes, and the nostrils should be wide open for good breathing. Subjects with respiratory problems are not allowed to show any titles, so the nostrils must be wide open to allow normal breathing. | |
Facial region |
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Jaws and teeth |
The Persan's jaw is shorter than those of other cats. On average, the lower jaw is 2.6 cm long and 2.5 cm wide, while the lower jaw of an alley cat is 3.1 cm long and 2.9 cm wide. The upper jaw is 2.75 cm long and 2.95 cm wide, compared with 3.45 cm and 3.5 cm respectively for an Alley Cat. This difference in jaw size, without any significant difference in body size, has consequences for the Persan's prehension: kibbles are swallowed by dragging them with the underside of the tongue, which is highly unusual for cats. | |
Eyes |
The eyes are set far apart on the head. They are large and round, in a color that matches the coat. The color should be as intense as possible, as too pale is considered a fault. | |
Ears |
The ears are almost round, small and slightly open at the base, and set wide apart on the skull. Failure to do so will result in penalties. The inside of the ear should be well furnished with hair. | |
Neck |
| The neck should be short and massive, giving the impression that the head is set directly into the shoulders. Too narrow a chest and short neck are considered show faults. |
Body |
Tail |
| The tail, straight and well furnished, is rather short, but should be proportionate to the length of the body, as too long a tail is a fault. |
Limbs |
| The legs are short, sturdy and straight. | ||
Forequarters |
Hindquarters |
Feet |
| The feet are large, round and firm, with close-knit toes. The Australian (ACF) and World Cat Federation (WCF) standards specify that tufts of hair between the pads are preferable. |
Coat |
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Coat and texture |
The coat is long, dense and uniform over the entire body. The average hair length is 10 cm. But they can grow to 20 cm, especially around the neck. This is the only breed with long hair, all the others being recognized as medium-long. The coat is very silky and fine, with an abundant undercoat that adds volume. A ruff is appreciated, and should continue between the legs and even under the belly. For shows, the coat must be carefully prepared and brushed to avoid penalties. Good volume is also a plus. On the other hand, knots are not appreciated. All colors and coats are accepted. At present, over 150 Persan varieties are recognized, but there are more than 300 in all. This figure, which was 13 varieties recognized by FIFé in 1970, has steadily increased since 1980, when it was already 23. There is a reason for this large number of varieties. Each combination of coat type and color constitutes a variety: a blue tabby Persan, for example, is different from a red tabby Persan. Many technical terms are used to describe all cat coats, but some words are specific to Persans. For example, the term “classic Persan” refers to uniform, tortoiseshell, smoke, particolored and tabby coats. |
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Color and ticking |
Uniform or solids Persans have a solid-colored coat. Coat colors include white, blue, black and russet, as well as cream, chocolate and lilac. The coat color must not vary: for example, a white Persan must not have brown patches. Apart from white Persans, the only authorized eye color is orange and its variations (copper, for example). Particolored and tortoiseshell Persans have been exhibited in the United Kingdom since the late 19th century: these are black and white Persans and tortoiseshell and white Persans. Particolored Persans can be bicolor, harlequin or van. The coat of bicolors must be made up of patches of two different colors, with a maximum of half the coat in white. The standards of the 1960s required the color patches to be symmetrically distributed, but this criterion, too difficult to achieve, has since been abolished. Tabbies have a coat similar to that of the wild ancestor; there are marbled, tabby, spotted and ticketed tabbies. Marbled tabbies have broad stripes and oval spots on their flanks, while tabbies have much finer, parallel stripes. Speckleds have no stripes, but round spots. Ticketed coats have no pattern on the body. Smoked or smoke coats have faded hairs at the base. The hairs are generally white up to a third of their length, after which they are the color of the coat: the contrast is most impressive in winter, when the coat is long. The Persan chinchilla was created in 1880. Its discovery is attributed to Mrs Vallence, a British breeder. She bred the first Persan with a silver coat. This Persan, named Silver Lambkin, was the result of a mating between a smoke Persan and a silver tabby Persan. Silver Lambkin's progenitor is on display at London's Natural History Museum. The Persan cameo, or Cameo in English, designates the red silver shaded color (and their shell and cream variation) created in 1934 in the United States. It is the result of a cross between Persan chinchillas and red Persans. It may also be a cross between smoked Persans and tortoiseshell Persans, but this hypothesis is less supported than the first. The Persan cameo owes its name to an ice cream with an orange glaze. In fact, the Cameo's hair is ivory or silver-white, but the tips are reddish. The Persan has been recognized as a breed in its own right in the United States since 1950. England and France, on the other hand, have classified it as a variety of Persan chinchilla, after discovering it in 1975. Colorpoint Persans are considered a separate breed, called Himalayen, in some countries. This name comes from a breed of rabbit that also has a colorpoint coat. These Persans are alternately known as Himalayans, Colourpoint or Malaysian Persans. The first colors obtained were seal point (very dark black or brown markings), chocolate point, blue point and lilac point, then other colors quickly followed, such as cream, tortoiseshell, russet or tabby. Shaded and smoke varieties also exist. Colorpoint Persans always have blue eyes: this physical characteristic is associated with the gene that gives the cat its colorpoint coat. |
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English (United Kingdom)