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Naked cats

Breed order:

Upper class: vertebrates with jaws (Gnathostomata)
Class: mammals (Mammalia)
Sub-class: higher vertebrates (Eutheria)
Order: hunters (Carnivora)
Upper family: cat-typed (Feloidea)
Family: cats (Felidae)
Genus: Felis
Species: wild cat (Felis silvestris)
Species: domestic cat (Felis catus)

Sphinx (Canadian Hairless)

Order in cat organizations:

In the category of shorthaired cats.

Origin:

The first Sphinx - Mexican Hairless - , which are reported, originate from 1902, when Mr. and Mrs. Shinick from Albuquerque, New Mexico, bought two naked cats, named Nellie and Dick, from the native Pueblo-Indians. These cats were brother and sister, and unfortunately they were not bred, because the male was killed by a dog.
Both cats looked very similar to today's Sphinx, they had a wedge-shaped head, large ears, a longer body and a long whip-tail. Interestingly these cats developed some longer coat on their back in winter, which disappeared in summer.
It is said that these naked cats originate from the Aztecs' cats.

The modern Sphinx was bred from Canadian and American lines.
On the 30.1.1966 the black-white shorthaired domestic cat, called Elisabeth, gave birth to her naked son, called Prune. Both cats were picked up by Mrs. Yania Bawa and her son Rydiadh Bawa from Ontario, Canada. Prune was crossed back to his mother, which gave birth to seven kittens on the 16.1.1967, two females and two males from this litter were hairless.
The new breed was called Moonstone Cats.
Later on Kees and Rita Tenhove, cattery Dutchie’s, joined the Bawas. Houston E. Smith, cattery Bor-Al, also joined the Bawas.

In 1975 Milt and Ethelyn Pearson in Wadena, Minnesota took a brown tabby domestic cat, called Jezebelle, home to their farm. Jezebelle gave birth to a naked female, called Epidermis. In 1976 she gave birth to another hairless female, called Dermis. Epidermis and Dermis were given to Kim Mueske, cattery Z’Stardust, in 1981, who developed the breed further.

In 1978 three hairless kittens were born from three different litters of one black-white shorthaired domestic cat, which were picked up by Ms. Smith.
The two following Sphinx progenies Q Paloma, born in September 1979, and Q Punkie, born in April 1980, were sent to the Dutch breeder, Dr. Hugo Hernandez, who bred Q Punkie with a Devon Rex with little coat, called Curare van Jetrophin, the result were Sphinx kittens with different degrees of hairlessness. From these litters two males, Q Ramses and Q Ra, were further used for distinctive inbreeding.

The breed was recognized by TICA in 1985, by CCA in 1992 and by ACFA in 1995. In 1998 the breed was recognized by CFA as Miscellaneous Breed, 2002 it was fully recognized. In 2002 the breed was also recognized by FIFe.

You will find a detailed history at:
mARTin and
messybeast.

Problematic:

In 1973 an article about hairless cats was published in the Journal of Heredity, where the Bawa-line and its problems was described, the cats suffered from convulsions and spontaneous traumatic brain swellings. The article assumed that these problems were connected with a lethal-factor connected with the hairlessness.

As the family Bawa and Ms. Smith reported, several cats could be successfully treated with medication, thus it could not be confirmed that it was a lethal-factor. The reasons for the problems could not be verified.
Remark: Up to now I could not find out, in which issue of the Journal the article was published.

Journal of Hereditary, 1973 Jan-Feb;64(1):47-9:
Roy Robinson, The Canadian hairless of Sphinx cat.

The Journal of Heredity: 1984 Nov-Dec;75(6):506-7
Hendy-Ibbs PM
Article about 10 hairless cats born in Britain between 1978-1984, where two different mutations could be noticed, cats born with whiskers and cats born without or with degenerated whiskers. It was suggested to use the symbols hi and hr.

It is said, similar to the naked dogs, that Sphinx might be more prone for sunburn.

See part 3!

Genetics:

The hairlessness in Sphinx is inherited as recessive trait.

Don Sphinx (Donskoy)

Order in cat organizations:

In the category of shorthaired cats.

Origin:

The first Don Sphinx was found by Elena Kovaleva in 1987, professor at the institute of education in Rostov-na-Donu, Russia, and was named Varvara.

You may read a detailed description in the Article about the Don Sphinx.

Problematic:

There are no articles about this breed.

It is often assumed that the same problematic as for the Sphinx might apply to this breed, that the breed might be more prone for sunburn.

See part 3!

Genetics:

The hairlessness in Don Sphinx is inherited as dominant trait.

Peterbald

Order in cat organizations:

In the category of Oriental-typed cats.

Origin:

The founder of the breed was Dr. Olga Mironova from Russia. She made a cross breeding between the brown mackerel Don Sphynx male, called Aphinogen Miph (owner: Mrs. Tatjana Komarova) and the tortoise Oriental female, called Radma von Jagerhoff. The female gave birth to Muskat and Mandarin iz Murino, and Nokturn and Neghenka iz Murino. Thus in January 1994 the Peterbald was born.

The Peterbald was recognized first by WCF, then by TICA in May 2006. In FIFe the breed has provisional status since 2007.

Problematic:

There are no articles about this breed.

It is often assumed that the same problematic as for the Sphinx might apply to this breed, that the breed might be more prone for sunburn.

See part 3!

Genetics:

The hairlessness in Peterbald is inherited as dominant trait.
Mating between Sphinx and Peterbald resulted in fully coated kittens.
Only cross breeding with Siamese and Orientals is permitted.

Continued: Naked breeds part 3 - But cats must have a coat (?)