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Abrakadabra's Alina
Breeder: Nina Kovaleva-Feinstein,
Abrakadabra's
cattery, Uetersen, Germany |
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Don Sphynx come in all colours and patterns, which one can
imagine, with white and without white, with silver or in golden, with tabby
pattern and with points.
- white
- black, blue
- chocolate, lilac
- red, cream
- cinnamon, fawn
- tortie, blue-cream
- chocolate tortie, lilac tortie. etc.
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tortieshell |
- All those colours can also have all tabby patterns, for example black
spotted, red mackerel, blue-cream blotched, and so on.
- All those colours can appear with silver or with golden, for example
blue smoke, black golden shaded, blue golden mackerel, red silver
blotched, chocolate tortie silver spotted, cream silver mackerel, and so
on.
- And all those colours can also be with white (bicolour, Van, etc.),
for example black and white bicolour, red and white Van, tortie mackerel
bicolour, cream smoke with white, black silver blotched bicolour, and so
on.
- And - last but not least - all those colours can also appear
with points, with white or without white, as silver or golden pointed,
tabby pointed, and so on.
There exist hundreds of colours and pattern combinations, and all those
varieties can be admired on shows.
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My Toy
cattery, tabby kittens
Breeder: Natalia Volosova,
My Toy cattery,
Moscow, Russia |
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One will
ask now, how it is possible to see all those colours and patterns on
a cat without hairs.
One can see the colours on the skin, the skin has the colour tone of
the colour, just paler, for example black does not appear as coal-black, it
appears as light anthracite, blue appears as pale grey with a slight
blue tinge. Silver appears like "pepper and salt", mostly one can
see the difference when one compares a black cat with a black smoke
cat, there is a difference in the colour tone of the skin. Also the
points can be seen quite clear, because the skin is darker coloured
where the points are.
With the tabby patterns it's tricky, mostly one can see if it is a tabby
cat or not, but which tabby pattern is quite difficult to decide.
Mostly one can see the tabby markings on the face, the front legs
and the tail. Sometimes the spots on the stomach remain, but not
always.
But, first you have the pedigree, second when the kittens are born,
the pattern can be seen quite clear, when the kittens grow up the
pattern sometimes gets blurred. |
naked and velour |
- Remarks:
Some kittens might be born with fluffy hairs, which are lost during
the growth of the kittens.
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red tabby |
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You find a
detailed
history and interesting articles at My Toy's cattery. |
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Eurocatfancy
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Breed profile
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| The Don Sphynx is a medium sized quite
compact cat with medium head shape. The main characteristic is its
hairlessness. The head forms a medium long
wedge, the cheekbones are high and prominent, the forehead is flat,
the muzzle is broad and rounded with a slight pinch. When viewed in
profile the nose is medium long and straight, the base of the nose
is very slight defined. The eyebrows and whiskers are stiff and
crinkled.
The eyeball is prominent, the eyes are medium-sized and oval. All
eye colours are permitted.
The ears are large and very broad at the base, the tips are rounded,
the ears are set high with a slight forward tilt.
The body is medium long, compact and very well
muscled. The rump is quite strong and rounded, the belly is strong
with accumulated fat.
The legs are long and strong with relatively large paws, the paws
have long prominent toes, the paw pads are large and prominent.
The tail is long and strong.
The main characteristic is, that the Don Sphynx
does not have any hairs. The skin is soft, elastic and very warm to
touch. The skin is wrinkled on the head, on the forehead, around the
neck, underneath the legs and on the groin. |
History
The first Don Sphynx was found in Rostov-on-Don,
Russia, in 1987 by Elena Kovaleva, a professor on the Institute of
Pedagogic. Boys were playing with a bag, in which a little kitten
was screaming. When the kitten grew up it started to become balder
and balder, loosing all its hairs completely. The kitten was a
blue-cream female, named Varvara.
Elena Kovaleva with Varvara |
Varvara |
It was Mrs. Irene Nemykina (MIF cattery, MIF means Myth), who has
got a daughter of Varvara, which she named Chita (after the monkey
from the TV-movies), and who developed today's Don Sphynx.
Chita |
For
breeding purposes European Shorthair and Siberian were crossed in to
widen the gene pool. And always it turned out that the Don Sphynx
dominantly inherits it hairlessness. Since 2000 there are no
outcrosses anymore, and the Don Sphynx exists in more than 5 pure
bred generations already. The Don Sphynx is fully recognized in
FIFe since 1.1.2011.
In TICA the Don Sphynx is recognized as Donskoy as Preliminary New
Breed. |
Temperament
The Don Sphynx has an extremely lovely and gentle
temperament. As every Sphynx breed they are slightly selective
towards other cat breeds, they are absolutely devoted to their
owners and want to be their number one.
They like to play with everything, never scratch, and are always kind. |
Grooming
In colder seasons their skin gets thicker, they
accumulate fat under the skin, which disappears when it gets warmer. Sphynx cats like it warm at home. Treatment is rather easy, simply wash
their skin from time to time with a mild baby shampoo. |
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