Amazing Dogs Breeds: Sphynx Cat

Although hairless cats have been reported throughout history, breeders in Europe have been working on the Sphynx breed since the early 1960s. The current American and European Sphynx breed is descended from two lines of natural mutations:

Dermis and Epidermis (1975) from the Pearsons of Wadena, Minnesota, USA.
Bambi, Punkie, and Paloma (1978) found in Toronto, Canada and raised by Shirley Smith.

Other hairless breeds might have body shapes or temperaments that differ from those described above. There are, for example, new hairless breeds, including the Don Sphynx and the Peterbald from Russia, which arose from their own spontaneous mutations. The standard for the Sphynx differs between cat associations such as TICA, FIFE and CFA.

It has been theorized that Sphynx hairlessness might be produced by an allele of the same gene that produces the Devon Rex (re), with the Sphynx allele being incompletely dominant over the Devon allele and both recessive to the wild type. However a different genetic symbol (hr) is given to the Sphynx gene and it is more likely that these are different genes interacting with each other. The only allowable outcross breeds in the CFA are now the American Shorthair and Domestic Shorthair. Other associations may vary and the Russian Blue is a permitted outcross in the GCCF. In Europe mainly Devon Rex has been used for outcrosses.

In 1999 SGC Apophis Nordstrom of Classical Cats won the TICA International Alter of the Year. In 2006 SGC Classical Cats Valentino won the TICA International Cat of the year. In the Cat Fancier's Association, GC, RW, NW Majikmoon Will Silver With Age was Cat of the Year for 2006. The following year, GC, RW, NW Enchantedlair NWA Cornflake Girl was Kitten of the Year. These awards are handed out for the highest scoring cats, across all breeds during the current show seasons.

The Canadian Sphynx is recognized by cat fancy associations as being a healthy robust breed. Lack of hair can cause health issues with kittens in the first weeks of life due to susceptibility to respiratory infections.

Reputable breeders will not let their kittens go to new homes without being at least 12 weeks of age to ensure the kitten is mature enough to cope in a new environment.

The breed does have instances of the genetic disorder hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Studies are being undertaken to understand the links in breeding and the disorder.

Sphynx cats can catch common feline diseases and should be immunized in the same way as other breeds.

Data refer : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sphynx_%28cat%29