The original pointed cat from Siam: slim, blue-eyed and dark-eared, and a real talker who loves people.
The Siamese comes from old Siam, the country now called Thailand. It has a pale coat with dark 'points': its face, ears, legs and tail. They turn dark because they are the coolest parts of its body. It is long and slim, has bright blue eyes and talks to you all day. It wants to join in with everything and does not like being alone.
One of the most people-loving breeds. It follows you everywhere and wants to join in.
Often looks for your lap, and stays there longer than many other cats.
Loves games, and many Siamese learn to bring a toy back.
Active: it wants to play and have something to do every day.
Famous for its loud voice. It talks a lot and expects you to answer.
Clever, and often quick to learn tricks such as fetch.
About as relaxed with visitors as an average cat.
Usually fine with older children who are gentle with it. Less suited to toddlers.
Can get on well with a dog, especially if they grow up together.
Usually enjoys another cat's company, ideally another Siamese.
Really does not like being alone. Not a cat for a house that is empty all day.
Can live indoors if it gets plenty of play and company.
Siamese were royal cats, kept only by the king of Siam.
There is no evidence for it. In 1901 the Siamese legation in London even wrote that the king kept no special breed of cat. The 'royal cat' was a British invention.
The kink in the tail is where princesses hung their rings.
A nice story, nothing more. Early Siamese often had kinked tails. Now it is a fault in the breed standard and you hardly see it any more.
Siamese are cross-eyed by nature.
Many early Siamese were. The gene for the points also changes how the eyes are wired to the brain. Breeders bred the squint out and now it is a fault.
Old Thai cat poems already describe a pale cat with dark points: the Wichianmat. In the late nineteenth century such cats came to England and America, where they became one of the first show breeds. From the 1950s fanciers bred an ever longer, finer cat. The older, rounder type lives on as a breed of its own: the Thai.
Thai cat poems, traced back to the kingdom of Ayutthaya, describe a pale cat with dark points.
The first known Siamese in America, a cat called Siam, is sent to President Hayes.
The British consul in Bangkok, Edward Gould, brings the pair Pho and Mia to England for his sister.
Pho and Mia's three kittens are shown at the cat show in London's Crystal Palace.
Wankee, born in Hong Kong, becomes the first Siamese champion in England.
The Siamese Cat Club is founded in England.
The Siamese is one of the first breeds recognised by the new American registry CFA.
The European federation FIFe recognises the Siamese.
Breeders more and more choose a longer, finer cat with an angular head: the modern Siamese.
CFA gives championship status to the Colorpoint Shorthair: its name for Siamese in red, cream and later tabby and tortie.
Researchers find the small change in the colour gene that gives a Siamese its points.
FIFe recognises the Thai, the old-style Siamese, as a separate breed. WCF and TICA had already done so.
Long, slim and elegant, but muscular: it feels heavier than it looks. Its pale coat has dark points on the face, ears, legs and tail.
An all-white Siamese with deep blue eyes. Underneath the white is an ordinary pointed Siamese, but a white gene hides the colour. That white gene can make a cat deaf, so in Britain a Foreign White needs a hearing test before it is registered.
Recognition: In FIFe it is a colour of the Siamese (white with blue eyes). WCF calls it the Foreign White Shorthair. Britain's GCCF recognises it as a breed of its own.
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).
Seal point(n 33)
Blue point(a 33)
Chocolate point(b 33)
Lilac point(c 33)
Red point(d 33)
Seal tabby point(n 21 33)In America's CFA only seal, blue, chocolate and lilac point are Siamese. Every other colour on this page is called a Colorpoint Shorthair there.
Also called lynx point. Tabby points come in all fourteen point colours.
FIFe allows white in every point colour. In WCF van and harlequin cats may be bred but not shown. Britain's GCCF and America's CFA allow no white.
In Britain's GCCF the Foreign White is a breed of its own. CFA has no white Siamese.
FIFe does not have these colours in the Siamese; a silver or smoke cat with points is an Oriental there. TICA and France's LOOF do allow silver and smoke, and Britain's GCCF allows caramel and apricot.
Siamese kittens are born almost white. The dark points appear in the first days or weeks and keep darkening all through the first year.
The colour gene only works on skin cooler than about 33 degrees. So a Siamese in a cold house gets darker, and one in a warm house stays paler.
The first known Siamese in America belonged to President Rutherford B. Hayes. It was sent to him from Bangkok.
In the old Thai poems the Siamese is called the Wichianmat. That name is often translated as 'moon diamond'.
Many other breeds were bred from the Siamese, such as the Balinese, the Oriental, the Tonkinese and the Ocicat.
Usually 12 to 15 years, and some live past 20. In a large English study a newborn Siamese could expect about 12 years, as long as the average cat.
The retina slowly wears out, so the cat usually goes blind between three and five years old. In 2010 the gene was still common in Siamese; testing has probably made it rarer since. A kitten only gets it when both parents are carriers.
How it is found: DNA test of the parents. A carrier is only mated with a cat without the gene.
The airways become inflamed, so the cat coughs, wheezes or struggles to breathe. About 1 to 5 in 100 cats in general have it; Siamese get it more often. Medicine keeps it under control, but it does not go away.
How it is found: There is no test. Ask whether cats in the line suffer from coughing or asthma.
An abnormal protein builds up, mostly in the liver. The liver can then bleed, and the disease usually cannot be cured. It occurs in some lines of Siamese and Orientals; exactly how often is not known.
How it is found: There is no DNA test yet. Ask whether the disease has occurred in the line.
A cancer of the lymph glands in the chest that young Siamese get more often than other cats. In an English group of affected cats about 1 in 5 was a Siamese. Chemotherapy often treats it well.
How it is found: There is no test. Ask whether it has occurred in the line.
Very little work. A stroke with your hand or a rubber brush now and then is enough for the short coat. No bathing needed.
Play together every day and give it something to do. A bored Siamese may start wrecking things.
A Siamese does not want to be alone all day. If you are often out, get a second cat as well, ideally another Siamese.
Extra weight shows quickly on the slim body, as a little belly. Watch out for wool, string and plastic too: some Siamese eat things that are not food.
A Siamese is not hypoallergenic. The allergen comes from skin and saliva, so a short coat does not help.
Checked on 20 October 2026
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