The British Longhair is a medium-sized, semi-long-haired

breed A breed is a specific group of domestic animals having homogeneous appearance (phenotype), homogeneous behavior, and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species. In literature, there exist several slig ...

domestic cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members o ...

, originating in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

History

The British Longhair is a longer-haired development from the longstanding

British Shorthair The British Shorthair is the pedigreed version of the traditional British domestic cat, with a distinctively stocky body, dense coat, and broad face. The most familiar colour variant is the "British Blue", with a solid grey-blue coat, orange eyes, ...

breed. In the mid-20th century, British Shorthairs were interbred with imported long-haired varieties, like the

Turkish Angora The Turkish Angora ( tr, Ankara kedisi, "Ankara cat") is a breed of domestic cat. Turkish Angoras are one of the ancient, natural breeds of cat, having originated in central Anatolia (modern-day Turkey, Ankara region). The breed has been document ...

and what today is called the

Traditional Persian Traditional Persian is one of several names for a group of cats that are considered to be essentially the original Cat breeds, breed of Persian (cat), Persian cat, before the variety was Selective breeding, selectively bred to have extreme featur ...

, with an aim to producing more stout and round-faced stock, while retaining the short coat. As a result of this hybridization, British catteries have frequently produced (generally unwanted) semi-long-haired offspring among their litters. In more recent years, these have been intentionally bred (often outside the UK) to each other and sometimes to standard British Shorthairs, to establish a consistent, formalized British Longhair breed. Embedded

Flash Flash, flashes, or FLASH may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional aliases * Flash (DC Comics character), several DC Comics superheroes with super speed: ** Flash (Barry Allen) ** Flash (Jay Garrick) ** Wally West, the first Kid ...

presentation.

Breed recognition

The breed is in the first stages of recognition with the two major

cat fancy The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

organizations in the UK, the

Governing Council of the Cat Fancy The Governing Council of the Cat Fancy (GCCF) is a cat registry, established in 1910 and the largest organisation that registers pedigree cats in the United Kingdom. It was formed from a small number of cat clubs which were registering cats a ...

and Felis Britannica (the UK branch of

Fédération Internationale Féline The Fédération Internationale Féline (FIFé) (in English "International Feline Federation") is a federation of cat registries. There are currently forty-two member organizations in forty countries. Membership spans Europe, South America, and ...

). The naming of the breed, and whether it is treated as a distinct breed, is quite inconsistent between the few pedigree registry organisations that acknowledge it . It is called the British Longhair, British Longhair Variant, British Semi-Longhair, and Longhair British. It is sometimes known as the Britannica in some European countries, and also the Lowlander in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Feline Federation Europe (FFE) calls them (in the same

breed standard In animal husbandry or animal fancy, a breed standard is a description of the characteristics of a hypothetical or ideal example of a breed. The description may include physical or morphological detail, genetic criteria, or criteria of athletic ...

), the British Longhair Variant, the Highlander, and the Highland Straight. However, the latter two of those names have already been used by other registries to refer to completely different cats. The Highlander (with a variant, the Highlander Shorthair) is actually a development from the

American Curl The American Curl is a breed of cat characterized by its unusual ears, which curl back from the face toward the center of the back of the skull. The breed originated in Lakewood, California, as the result of a spontaneous mutation. History The f ...

, and not closely related to the British breeds; it is a very large cat, with close-set, often upward-curling ears. The Highland Straight, a British breed, is actually the straight-eared variant of the

Highland Fold The Scottish Fold is a breed of domestic cat with a natural dominant gene mutation that affects cartilage throughout the body, causing the ears to "fold", bending forward and down towards the front of the head, which gives the cat what is o ...

; together, they are the longer-haired versions of the Scottish Straight and

Scottish Fold The Scottish Fold is a breed of domestic cat with a natural dominant gene mutation that affects cartilage throughout the body, causing the ears to "fold", bending forward and down towards the front of the head, which gives the cat what is o ...

, respectively. (TICA uses different terminology: Scottish Fold, Scottish Fold Longhair, Scottish Straight and Scottish Straight Longhair, to avoid confusion with the Highlander.)

Health

British Longhairs can be prone to obesity if neutered or kept as indoor-only cats. Like most longer-haired cats, they require brushing or are prone to matting. Autumn and winter are the seasons when they have the highest risk of tangles because their coat thickens in preparation for winter. The breed – like others derived from and including the Persian – have increased risk of inherited

polycystic kidney disease Polycystic kidney disease (PKD or PCKD, also known as polycystic kidney syndrome) is a genetic disorder in which the renal tubules become structurally abnormal, resulting in the development and growth of multiple cysts within the kidney. These cy ...

(PKD), especially

autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is one of the most common, life-threatening inherited human disorders and the most common hereditary kidney disease. It is associated with large interfamilial and intrafamilial variability, wh ...

(ADPKD).

References

{{Domestic cat Cat breeds Cat breeds originating in the United Kingdom