Blue mackerel tabby Exotic Shorthair (video)

Posted by Gergana Stefanova on Tuesday, October 26, 2021

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This is a lovely little cat. Super coat. I am not a great fan of the Exotic Shorthair or contemporary Persian as they both have the extreme face but they are popular. It is nice to see a video. 

Note: videos from Facebook sometimes disappear or stop working for one of many reasons, usually because it has been removed at source.

The details as per the breeder posting on Facebook: 

• Exotic shorthair
• Male
• Cute
• Blue mackerel tabby 
• Birthday 14.06.2021 
• CFA registration

Here is a still picture from the video. I think the breeder lives in Russia or one of the satellite countries. Not sure.

Blue mackerel tabby  Exotic Shorthair

Brachycephalic Persian cat with bulging eyes can have corneal problems

In this article I want to point out the bulging eyes of the Exotic Shorthair and the Persian, two associated breeds because the former is a shorthaired version of the latter. In this picture we can see the "punch-face" appearance of the Persian. It almost looks as if this cat has suffered a catastrophic injury to the face as it's been flattened. And this, to my mind, leaves the eyeballs bulging outwards beyond the protection of the bones of the face. This leaves the cornea exposed because there is a reduced ability to close the eyelids.

 Brachycephalic Persian cat with bulging eyes and flat face. Photo: Irina Gerasimova.

And of course, the cornea is exposed anyway as it sticks out so far. This contributes to 'exposure keratitis' and it is said probably contributes to corneal sequestrum development (the development of an opaque, dark brown to black plaque on the cornea). Persian cats are predisposed to this.

Exposure keratitis also occurs in people and it is described as a medical condition affecting the cornea of eyes which can lead to corneal ulceration and permanent loss of vision due to corneal opacity. Normally the cornea is kept moist by blinking and during sleep it is covered by the eyelids. When the cornea is exposed to the air, it can cause increased evaporation of tear from the corneal surface leading to dryness of the corneal surface. This can lead to corneal epithelial damage based on my research on Wikipedia.

I'm not saying that this particular, individual in the photograph is going to have problems with their cornea. I wouldn't say that. I'm just commenting generally about this desire to create flat-faced brachycephalic Persian and Exotic Shorthair cats with these bulging eyes. 

I think the bulging eye problem is particularly noticeable with the Exotic Shorthair cats. I've seen a lot of this and I think it is an unfortunate side effect of this extreme selective breeding. I don't think the breeders want this but it goes with the territory of the flat-face as does other health problems which you read about by clicking on this link.

I think you will find that the majority of the public would like to see the breed standards of the Persian and Exotic Shorthair 'detuned' by which I mean made less extreme so that the breeders follow guidance which doesn't drive them to creating unhealthy cats which arguably look less attractive than the traditional Persian. I think you will find that the vast majority of the public prefer the appearance of the traditional Persian over the contemporary variant. So, there's no need to breed cats like this in the first place.

Perhaps the problem is that the cat fancy is too inward-looking. Perhaps they should conduct a poll with the public and ask them what they think. They may have been encouraged to breed cats like this because the Persian has been very popular for many years but they have gradually drifted into this extreme look without, I believe, touching base with the public on the issue as to whether this was a wise thing to do. It has taken the cat fancy around 60 years to create this strange appearance.

Dracula cat became a celebrity because of her grossly misaligned jaw

Am I the only one who doesn't get this? Why do people make what appears to be a poorly bred, black Persian cat with a misaligned jaw a celebrity? I have never seen an undershot jaw so pronounced as this and in my view it is a case of poor cat breeding. 

 Poorly bred Persian cat with grossly misaligned jaw is a social media celebrity. Photo: Instagram.

Two people found this cat on the New York streets we are told and they rescued her. I'm guessing, which I fully admit, but it seems to me that somebody has bred, perhaps informally, a Persian cat and it has gone horribly wrong so they abandoned the cat on the streets. 

I don't think a cat breeder produced this cat. Perhaps somebody adopted a Persian from a cat breeder that was unsterilized and they bred from her. I don't know the history so I'm guessing wildly but this is a flat-faced, brachycephalic cat, which is exactly what Persians are. 

But what sets this cat apart from any other is this horribly misaligned jaw and I just don't get why that warrants this cat becoming a celebrity. Humans are celebrating a deformity which is very sad for the cat although I'm sure she doesn't feel any pain or discomfort but it may affect her eating. We shouldn't celebrate human mistakes. We don't put humans who suffer from some sort of skeletal deformity on a pedestal and chatter about them with enthusiasm!

Princess Monster Truck! A feel sad for her. She should live a quiet, enjoyable life out of the limelight. Photo: Instagram

I have seen many Exotic Shorthair cats with this jaw deformity. These are shorthaired Persians. They are very closely related to the Persian. The most famous was Lil Bub. What is the obsession with misaligned jaws in cats? Is it the Dracula look? I think it is.

They have given her the name Princess Monster Truck, which I can't understand either. They've even claimed intellectual property rights over the name. I wouldn't bother to try and protect the copyright of that name because it bloody awful.

@kadylone (Kady Lone) lives with a tortoiseshell-and-white Exotic Shorthair with a white moustache

Kady Lone is a beautiful woman who, I guess, is an influencer on Instagram. You know those beautiful women who influence others into purchasing make up products and other beauty products. She also cooks. They make their money by advertising beauty products in a very subtle way. They can make quite a lot of money as you are probably aware. Manufacturers have decided that this sort of subtle advertising can be more effective than the standard form.

Kadylone (Kady Lone) lives with a tortoiseshell-and-white Exotic Shorthair
with a white moustache. Here they are on a plane together.
I guess that it is an executive jet. Photo: Instagram.

I'm pleased to say that @kadylone (her Instagram username) features her tortoiseshell-and-white Exotic Shorthair cat with a white moustache quite a lot on her Instagram pages. Americans call tortoiseshell-and-white cats "calico cats". British people don't really like that!

Pudge the Exotic Shorthair living with Kadylone. Showing the flat-face.
Picture: Instagram.

Kady Lone describes herself as the mother of Pudge the Cat. Yes, her cat's name is Pudge. I guess that name derives from her cat's appearance which is quite cobby in cat fancy parlance. This means stocky which is quite normal for an Exotic Shorthair. This is a shorthaired version of the better-known contemporary Persian, which has very long hair.

Kadylone and Pudge. Pic: Instagram.

Other than the length of hair the cats are very similar with, I regret to say, the same sort of health issues, which are inherited. These defects are inherited because of selective breeding resulting in the extremely flat face which distorts the tear ducts. This results in what is called "tear duct overflow". Persians also have a high incidence at about 35% of polycystic kidney disease (PKD). I suspect that the Exotic Shorthair has the same health problem. It is a major factor in considering adopting this cat breed. But I do not want to put a wet blanket over this post.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kady Lone (@kadylone)

Kady Lone appears to be a very sweet, gentle and concerned cat caregiver which I like a lot. Calico cats are almost always female for genetic reasons: the sex genes are linked to the coat type genes. Male Torties are sterile as I recall. The Cats of Instagram page follows three individuals or entities one of which is Kady Lone. She has 35k followers. Cats of Instagram has 12m followers.

Picture of the round head and cheeks of a white Exotic Shorthair bred to extreme

This is an extreme version of the Exotic Shorthair. The way this breeder has bred this cat to extremities is by making the animal more rounded. This is seen in the cat's cheeks which are incredibly large and, yes, round in appearance. I've not seen an Exotic Shorthair with such rounded large cheeks. The appearance reminds me of a Russian bred British Shorthair. I'm going to conclude therefore that this cat is the creation of a Russian breeder.

Rounded head and cheeks of an extreme bred Exotic SH. Picture in public domain.

You can go to the breed standard to find out why this person decided to create such enormous cheeks. All the breed standards for this cat will be similar but I'll choose the Cat Fanciers' Association breed standard for the Exotic. It says that the cheeks should be "full". The head should be "round and massive". The face should be round with "round underlying bone structure". The word "round" is littered like confetti within the paragraph on the breed standard for the Exotic's head.

It is obvious, therefore, where this extreme version of the Exotic Shorthair comes from. We know that this breed is a short-haired version of the Persian. That's why you see this very flat face as well. This is the contemporary version of the Persian. To remind ourselves, the Persian cat was at one time, at the turn of the 20th century, a very standard looking domestic cat with long hair. The face back in those days of the Persian was fairly standard.

The general appearance of the Exotic should be of a "heavily boned, well-balanced cat with a sweet expression and soft round lines."

A contributing factor to this sweetness are the large round eyes. These are meant to mimic the eyes of a baby. And there's nothing more sweet to the eye than a baby (to some people). The coat should be plush and dense and the ears should also be round. I've never seen the word "round" used so much in a breed standard. As I said it's as if the word 'round' has has been thrown all over the page like confetti!

Criticising The Cat Fanciers' Association

The Cat Fanciers' Association needs to be criticised. I don't want to do it. In the interests of Persian cats in the USA and elsewhere I will do it on this page. I am speaking on behalf of the contemporary Persian purebred cat with the brachycephalic short head.

Other cat breeds that follow the CFA breed standard that requires a cat that suffers from flat head syndrome, brachycephaly, are the shorthaired Persian known as the Exotic Shorthair and the pointed Persian, called the Himalayan. The Burmese in American also has head shape problems that can affect health in a serious manner.

The breed characteristics or phenotype of the contemporary Persian, Exotic SH and Himalayan demand a brachycephalia short head that is big and round with a short, broad nose. The elements of the face should be in vertical alignment. I'll quote the CFA breed standard just so you know exactly what I mean:

"HEAD: round and massive, with great breadth of skull. Round face with round underlying bone structure.....When viewed in profile, the prominence of the eyes is apparent and the forehead, nose, and chin appear to be in vertical alignment."

In the most extreme cases the "upper part of the nasal plate is higher than the level of the lower eye-lids" (The Welfare of Cats, edited by Irene Rochlitz ISBN  978-1-4020-6143-1).

I discuss the health and subsequent welfare problems associated with this breed standard on this page: Persian Cat Health Problems.

The CFA breed standard for these cats is almost an act of criminal conspiracy to cause animal cruelty. I am a bit surprised that no none has considered prosecuting the esteemed Cat Fanciers' Association under animal welfare laws.

Also, as I understand it, the overall, underlying CFA breed standard insists that breeding should not produce unhealthy cats. This is in conflict with the breed standards of these three cats. In defence the CFA say that "it is possible to breed a beautiful Persian with a very short nose that breathes and tears normally".

I like the phrase, "it is possible". It is possible to fly to the moon but very few people have achieved it. The same applies to the creation of a totally healthy ultra type Persian cat.

Recommendations: (a) change the breed standard but do it over time so that there is a gradual shift back to normal characteristics without the CFA losing face (b) show cats that are over bred should be excluded from cat shows (c) cat show judges should be advised to make subtle changes to their judging criteria to start a shift away from the success of extreme bred cats (d) unhealthy cats should be penalized or excluded from cat shows (e) medical examinations should take place at cat shows and breeders given due notice. The notice period should be generous to allow change.

See: 19 Years of Persian Cat Experience - this neither supports of goes against what I have said.