A sturdy, easygoing working cat from America, best known as the silver tabby and patient with children.
The American Shorthair goes back to the cats European settlers took across the ocean. On ships, farms and in homes they kept the mice and rats away. That is why it is muscular and strong, with a thick, hard coat. It is calm and friendly, loves hunting games and is gentle with children. It is best known as a silver tabby with black swirls.
Friendly and close to its family, but not pushy or clingy.
Likes to be near you, but often prefers the seat next to you to your lap.
Loves hunting toys, best of all together with you.
Mostly easygoing, with bursts of hunting play now and then. Not hyperactive.
Quiet: it chirps and squeaks, and sometimes meows without a sound.
Clever. It quickly learns house rules and simple tricks, and sometimes how to open cupboards.
Usually relaxed when visitors come.
Patient and gentle, a lovely family cat.
Usually gets on with a friendly dog if they get used to each other slowly.
Usually fine with other cats after a calm introduction.
Copes with a working day alone if it has toys and things to do.
Fine as an indoor cat with enough play and places to climb. It also enjoys a safe garden.
The American Shorthair came over with the Pilgrims on the Mayflower.
It is a nice story. Shorthaired cats did sail with the settlers, but there is no proof that the breed goes back to a cat on the Mayflower.
Any ordinary shorthaired house cat is an American Shorthair.
No. The breed got the name 'American' in the 1960s to stop exactly that mix-up. An American Shorthair has a pedigree and fits a strict breed standard.
It is just an American British Shorthair.
They are related, and British blood was added around 1900 and again in the 1970s. But the American is leaner and more athletic, with a longer head, longer legs and bigger ears.
The American Shorthair began as a working cat: the mouser of settlers and pioneers. After the first big cat shows in New York it became a pedigree breed, first called the Shorthair and later the Domestic Shorthair. Because that name was also used for any house cat, it has been the American Shorthair since the 1960s. In Europe it is rare, because the European federation FIFe does not recognise it.
European settlers take cats across the ocean to protect their cargo and stores from rats and mice.
In the California Gold Rush, miners sometimes pay about 50 dollars for a cat that is good at catching mice.
At the first big American cat show, in Madison Square Garden in New York, dozens of shorthairs are already entered.
Belle of Bradford, a red tabby from England, becomes the first shorthair in CFA's stud book.
The American registry CFA recognises the Shorthair as one of its first five breeds.
Breeders on the West Coast start an association to give the breed a name of its own.
The Domestic Shorthair is renamed the American Shorthair.
A kitten with a crinkly, wiry coat is born in a litter in New York State: the start of the American Wirehair.
The last British Shorthairs are registered as American Shorthairs, and the stud book briefly opens to mackerel tabbies without a pedigree.
Medium to large, muscular and powerful, built like a working cat. It is a little longer than it is tall, but not cobby, with a broad chest and a straight back.
Cat registries write colours as an EMS code. The letter is the colour (n black, a blue, d red, f tortie), s means silver or smoke, y golden, and the numbers tell you about white (01–09), shading (11, 12), the tabby pattern (22–25) or colourpoint (33).
Black(n)
Blue(a)
Brown classic tabby(n 22)
Silver classic tabby(ns 22)
Black and white(n 03)
Calico(f 03)WCF and LOOF also list the spotted tabby. CFA names classic, mackerel and ticked.
Chocolate, lilac and points point to a cross with another breed; CFA, WCF and LOOF do not accept them. WCF and LOOF also refuse cinnamon and fawn, in any combination.
At a New York cat show in 1896 a brown tabby shorthair was listed for 2,500 dollars, a huge sum at the time.
In 1906 the shorthair was one of the first five breeds the American registry CFA recognised.
It is known for its silent meow: it opens its mouth to ask for attention, but no sound comes out.
The American Wirehair, with its crinkly wiry coat, began in 1967 as one special kitten in a litter of American Shorthair type.
The jet-black Bombay breed was started with a black American Shorthair from silver tabby litters.
An American Shorthair is usually a healthy, hardy cat. Sources often give 15 to 20 years, though no study has measured it. In a large American lab study they had urate bladder stones less often than mixed-breed cats.
It easily gets too heavy, especially when neutered and kept indoors. Extra weight strains joints and heart and makes diabetes and bladder problems more likely. It creeps up slowly and is easy to prevent.
How it is found: There is no test. Weigh the cat now and then, measure its meals and play every day.
The heart muscle thickens, so the heart pumps less well. According to CFA it showed up in some lines in the 1980s and 1990s and has largely gone thanks to screening. How common it is today is not known.
How it is found: There is no DNA test for this breed. A heart scan by a cardiologist of both parents is the usual check.
Small cysts grow in the kidneys and slowly damage them, often causing trouble from middle age. It is best known in Persians. In one Japanese study of cats with possible kidney problems, nearly half of the American Shorthairs tested carried the gene; how common it is in the whole breed, nobody knows.
How it is found: A PKD1 DNA test or a kidney scan of the parents.
Little work: a weekly brush is enough. In spring it sheds its thick undercoat; brush more often then, with a slicker brush or grooming mitt.
Play every day, with a feather wand, toy mice and puzzle feeders. Swap the toys around and give it a scratching post or cat tree.
It loves its food and easily gets too heavy, especially indoors. Measure its meals and let it work for them with a puzzle feeder.
The American Shorthair is not hypoallergenic, and it sheds a lot in spring. If you are allergic to cats, do not count on this one being different.
It is still a real hunter. Hunting games keep it happy, and a fenced garden or cat run lets it be outside safely. Some learn to walk on a harness.
Checked on 21 October 2026
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