Siberian cat: Nutrition, character, training and much more about the Siberian cat

By Roswitha Berger

The Russian cats are demonstrably the forefathers of the Persian cats. With the breed, however, breeding caprices were renounced and so the Siberian cats are still as original as their ancestors in the streets of St. Petersburg. You will learn in the book not only everything important about the attitude, but also a lot about the history. After all, it may be the only cat breed to which a whole park was dedicated, where 12 Siberian cats cavort as golden monuments.

Read all about:
- Outdoor and apartment keeping
- Advantages and disadvantages of vaccinations
- The right feeding
- Education and training of cats
- Preparation for moving in
- Health of the cat breed
- and much more!

Among other things, the reading informs you about the special requirements of the breed and answers the questions:
How should the apartment be furnished?
What purchases are necessary before the cat moves in?
What is important for the safety of the cat?
How can vet visits be made stress-free?
How do you deal with problems?

The more than 10 illustrations pass on some tips and tricks. Keep an open mind for the cat's peculiarities and you will learn many things that distinguish your cat from other cats of the breed, because no living creature is standardized. We wish you a lot of fun with the Siberian cat!

• Language: English
• Publisher: XinXii
• Release date: Apr 16, 2022
• ISBN: 9783986469351

Book preview

List of Figures

Figure 1: white Neva masquerade and silver Siberian cat

Figure 2: Pretty Neva Masquerade cat

Figure 3: Siberian cat

Figure 4: Small care equipment

Figure 5: Our letter opener is very prctical for matings,

Figure 6 Real meat has a different consistency,

Figure 7: Raw and cooked ground beef,

Figure 8: our drinking fountain as an example,

Figure 9: Electronic cat doors are even better.

Figure 10: a transport box is indispensable.

Figure 11: Our bowls as an example,

Figure 12: Our cat under the hood toilet,

Figure 14: Make your own cat games.

Figure 15: Balconies and windows should be well secured.

Figure 16: our tick equipment,

Figure 17: A claw shoe,

Figure 18: The scratching possibilities of our cat,

The Siberian cat - A pedigree cat with enchanting naturalness

The first thought that goes through anyone's mind when they see a Siberian cat is likely to be, Well, she looks like a regular house cat. But that is exactly the appeal of this breed. In breeding, deliberate care is taken not to bring out any unusual proportions. Only the long coat betrays the noble origin.

Figure 1: white Neva masquerade and silver Siberian cat

History of the breed

Origin of cats from Siberia

The Siberian cat is a true natural breed. This designation does not refer to wild animals, but to breeds of domestic animals, which have formed without systematic breeding. Often the term landrace is also used, because they are formed by special adaptations to the environmental conditions of the respective area of origin. The term is actually taken from agriculture. Domesticated wild pigs, for example, gave rise to domestic pigs, which were not specifically bred. In the 1950s, the natural breed was then selectively bred to produce particularly lean meat. This gave rise to numerous pig breeds.

In cats, the Norwegian Forest Cat, the Maine Coon, the Turkish Angora, the Turkish Van and the Siberian Cat belong to the natural breeds, because the peculiarities of the breeds were not created by purposeful breeding. A Persian cat, on the other hand, was produced by purposeful crossing of different long-haired cats.

The Siberian cat, like the Norwegian Forest Cat and the Maine Coon, belongs to the forest cats. How it came to the generic term is difficult to explain, because none of the breeds descended from the wild cats that live in the forests of Northern Europe or North America. Native wild cats (Felis silvestris silvestris) have at most very little influence on the forest cats, especially since the wild cats do not live in Siberia or Scandinavia. However, the long-haired forest cats are visually reminiscent of their wild relatives. Moreover, since all domestic cats are descended from the African wild cats (Felis silvestris lybica), it is hardly likely that they can survive completely without human help in icy forests.

The term Siberian cat for a long time did not refer to a specific breed. It was used for strong cats with lush, long-haired fur. These occur throughout the territory of the former Soviet Union. There is also no evidence that the Caucasian forest wild cat (Felis silvestris caucasia) had a significant influence on the development of the breed.

It will probably never be clarified whether the long-haired cats in Russia are an independent mutation or whether the peculiarity of the coat has spread starting from Asia following the Silk Road towards Russia. In Siberia, strong long-haired domestic cats were rarer than short-haired specimens, but they were not rare. In Western Europe, on the other hand, such cats were exotic and there was quickly a desire to breed these animals specifically.

Targeted breeding of the breed

It is typical that the cat breeding also of the Siberian cats did not begin in Russia. The starting signal for the purposeful breeding fell probably in July 1871 with the world-wide first cat exhibition in the London crystal palace, with which 150 animals were shown. There were also shown long-haired cats from Russia, which were obviously particularly enthusiastic as exotics. At that time, longhaired specimens began to be bred without regard to their origin, and at first they were uniformly called Angora. Later, the Persian cat emerged from this breeding. Russian cats were not bred as a separate breed. After the October Revolution of 1917 and the subsequent period of the Iron Curtain, the beautiful long-haired animals from Russia were almost completely forgotten.

In 1984, the first long-haired cats arrived again in a very unusual way in the then GDR. In a joint project of the RGW countries (Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and the GDR) the Druzhba route, a 550 kilometer long construction section of the 12,750 kilometer long natural gas pipeline Soyuz was built. Beginning in 1983/84, GDR construction workers in Russia became acquainted with long-haired cats and smuggled the animals into the homeland. Already in 1985 breeding with these cats began in the GDR and on January 1, 1987 the breed was officially recognized in the GDR, initially under the name Siberian Forest Cat. 

In this year an emigrant family brought a breeding pair of Siberian cats to the Federal Republic. Also in this part of Germany breeding was started and a breed standard was established. In Russia also in 1987 in St. Petersburg the Sibirskaja Koschka was registered, as well as the Point-variant Newskaja Maskaradnaja. The last one is considered today under the name Neva Masquarade in some associations as an independent breed. Other associations consider it as a color variety of the Siberian cat.

At the first cat shows in Russia, Siberian cats attracted the interest of foreign judges, leading to exports of breeding stock to Western Europe and the USA. In 1991, the federations deleted the addition forest as part of a new formulation of the standard to better distinguish the breed from Norwegian Forest Cats. In 1992 the Siberian cat was officially recognized as a breed by the World Cat Federation (WCF) and in 1998 by Fédération Internationale Féline (FIFe).

Hereditary diseases

In pedigreed cats, hereditary diseases are basically extensively discussed. Certainly rightly, when it comes to breeds that arise from a small gene pool or those that have been extremely changed by breeding. Both does not apply to the Siberian cat.

But hereditary diseases also occur in ordinary field-meadow-cats. Mostly the owners accept it, if a cat from the animal shelter or a cat, which was given to them, dies after few years. Sometimes the age of the animals is also unknown and nobody gives much thought to the cause of death. Therefore, it is rather an exception when diseases are accurately diagnosed in normal domestic cats. Since there is no systematic research of hereditary diseases in domestic cats and pedigree cats are under close observation, statements about the frequency of hereditary diseases should be considered with caution.

For example, you will always come across the sentence that pedigreed cats can have the heart disease