An old natural breed from Ankara: fine-boned, with a silky semi-long coat, lively and fond of its people.
The Turkish Angora comes from the area around Ankara, which used to be called Angora. It is slender and graceful, with large ears and a plumed tail. Its coat is silky and has almost no undercoat. The classic Angora is white, often with blue eyes or two different eyes. By nature it is busy, clever and curious: if you cannot find it, look up.
Very involved with its people and follows them around the house.
Likes a cuddle, but is usually too busy to stay on your lap for long.
Loves to play, chase and fetch, and wants plenty of games every day.
Very active and athletic, and stays kitten-like for years.
Some are quiet and some are chatty. Most will tell you what they want.
Clever and quick to learn tricks, but also how to open doors and cupboards.
Usually comes to greet visitors straight away, though a few can be quick-tempered.
Can be a good family cat with children who play gently and give it space.
Can live with a calm dog, as long as the cat gets to be in charge.
Often bossy with other cats. Pick a calm companion and let them get used to each other slowly.
Copes with a working day alone, but does not like being left alone a lot.
Happy indoors, with high places to climb and enough to do.
All Turkish Angoras are deaf.
No. Only white cats have a higher chance, mostly those with blue eyes, and many of them hear perfectly well. Coloured Angoras do not have this extra risk.
The Turkish Angora is the ancestor of all longhaired cats.
Not quite. In the nineteenth century Angoras were crossed into Persians. But no study shows that all longhairs descend from the Angora.
Vikings brought the breed to Europe over a thousand years ago.
A story, with no evidence. The first written records of Angora cats in Europe date from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
White longhaired cats from Angora reached Europe centuries ago and were much loved for a while. Later they were crossed into Persians, until the breed nearly vanished in the West. In Turkey white Angoras lived on, among other places at the Ankara Zoo. From 1962 American fans took cats from that zoo home, and so the breed started again.
In the south of France the scholar Peiresc breeds white cats from Angora. They reach Italy too.
Harrison Weir praises the white, blue-eyed Angora and also mentions black, blue and smoke ones.
Angoras and Persians can hardly be told apart any more. The Angora disappears into Persian breeding.
The zoo opens in Ankara that later runs a breeding programme for white Angoras.
The first Turkish Angora on record arrives in the United States.
The American couple Grant get two white cats from the Ankara Zoo, Yildiz and Yildizcik.
America's CFA gives the white Turkish Angora championship status.
NoRuz Kristal of Azima becomes CFA's first Turkish Angora Grand Champion.
CFA also accepts coloured Turkish Angoras: solid, tabby and with white.
The European federation FIFe recognises the Turkish Angora.
Slender, graceful and well balanced: FIFe and TICA call it the ballerina of the cat world. It looks delicate, but it is firmer and heavier than you would think.
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).
White with blue eyes(w 61)
White with odd eyes(w 63)
Black(n)
Red classic(d 22)
Black silver tabby(ns 22)
Black tabby harlequin(n 02 22)FIFe and CFA allow any eye colour with any coat. WCF wants the eye colour to suit the coat.
FIFe recognises golden. America's CFA does not name it separately, and WCF does not mention it in its standard.
FIFe and WCF rule out chocolate, lilac, cinnamon, fawn and points; America's CFA rules out chocolate, lilac and points. A cat in these colours is very probably not a pure Turkish Angora.
FIFe and TICA both call the Turkish Angora the ballerina of the cat world.
Can't find your Angora? Look up: it loves the top of the tallest cupboard, or even a door.
Its summer coat is so much shorter than its winter coat that it can look like a different cat.
In Turkey it is called Ankara kedisi, 'Ankara cat'. Ankara used to be called Angora.
Many Angoras find water fascinating: a dripping tap can keep them busy for ages.
According to breed guides usually about 12 to 18 years. There is no vet study of this breed's lifespan yet.
The gene that makes a cat white can also affect the inner ear. So a white cat is sometimes born deaf, in one or both ears. White cats with blue eyes have the highest chance; an odd-eyed cat is sometimes deaf only on the blue-eyed side. Coloured Angoras do not have this extra risk. A deaf cat usually lives well indoors: you get its attention with a wave or a touch.
How it is found: A hearing test (BAER) of white kittens. There is no DNA test.
Blood type B is unusually common in this breed: in a Turkish study almost half of the Angoras tested had it. For the cat itself that is harmless, but it matters for a blood transfusion and for breeding.
How it is found: A blood type test or DNA test of both parents before mating.
Easy for a longhair: without an undercoat the coat rarely mats. Combing once a week is enough, more often while it moults.
It wants to play, solve puzzles and climb every day. Give it high places: a floor-to-ceiling scratching post, shelves or a cat tree.
It needs no special food. Do keep it lean: extra weight is not good for its fine bones.
It is sometimes called 'good for allergies' because it has little undercoat. But it still makes the allergen Fel d 1. No breed is safe for allergies.
Most of the year it sheds little, but in spring and autumn it moults heavily. Comb it a bit more often then.
Checked on 21 October 2026
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