Norwegian forest cat

Norwegian forest cat
Standard FIFé: NFO, GCCF: 64
Shoulder height	40 to 45 cm
length	100 to 130 cm (nose to tail)
Weight	Male: 5 to 9.5 kg. Cat: 3.5 to 7 kg
colour	All colors and drawings are allowed, with or without any amount of white. Exceptions are point badges, chocolate, lilac, cinnamon and fawn.
List of cat breeds

The Norwegian Forest Cat , briefly referred to as Norwegian ( Norwegian Norsk Skogkatt ), is a very original, regional house cat of Norway that was created over long periods of time without any specific breeding influence . They were redomesticated in the 1930s and have been included in the "natural races " since the 1970s . The Norwegian Forest Cat is large, robust, and has semi-long fur with a pronounced bushy tail and a distinct ruff.

origin

The origins of the Norwegian Forest Cat are unexplored. It is possible that seafarers once brought Persian cats with them as ship cats from the south, which crossed with native domestic cats and led to the current type for centuries. Naturally occurring mutations in feral domestic cats could also have led to this result, for which four spontaneous mutations should have occurred in Norway.

Targeted breeding of the Norwegian Forest Cat began in the 1930s when a breeding program was established. In 1938 the Norwegian Forest Cat was first seen at an exhibition in Oslo. Due to the Second World War , however, breeding came to a standstill again. At the beginning of the 1970s a second attempt was made to breed the Norwegian Forest Cat. In September 1972 the Norwegian Forest Cat finally received a provisional standard, it was accepted as an independent breed for the first time by the Norwegian associations and in 1972 it was even named the Norwegian National Cat. The name Norsk Skogkatt thus became official. The first breeding cats were registered with FIFé in 1975 . In 1977, Pans Truls , a three-year-old male, was the first Norwegian forest cat to receive full FIFé certification. The newly recognized breed also aroused interest in other European countries. After recognition by FIFé, only cats from the fourth generation were allowed for export. Since the 1980s the Norwegian Forest Cat has enjoyed increasing popularity throughout Europe and also in Germany.

description

Norwegian forest tomcat, black with white gloves, in characteristic thick winter fur

The Norwegian Forest Cat is a semi-longhair cat and is one of the largest pedigree cats alongside the Maine Coon and the Ragdoll cat. The Norwegian Forest Cat owes its appearance to the extreme climate in its Scandinavian homeland. It is tall, strong and muscularly built, very robust and has a double-layered coat made of a dense undercoat and a highly water-repellent top coat, which is supported by a thin layer of even longer guard hairs that lies finely over the coat (this looks like a third Hair layer). Like almost all cats from temperate and sub-polar latitudes, the Norwegian Forest Cat also changes its coat in the change of the seasons. Like the Siberian cat, the Norwegian Forest Cat wears a characteristically thick winter coat in winter; it is particularly long under the belly, on the neck, on the chest and on the tail and has a thick undercoat, so that it can withstand freezing cold of minus 30 degrees and rainy weather defies. The long, shiny outer hairs of the Norwegian Forest Cat (in contrast to the Maine Coon) are slightly oily, therefore difficult to fall down and thus water-repellent, so that no moisture can get on the skin. The fur of the Norwegians is not as silky as that of the Maine Coon, but rather looks a bit shaggy. As with all long-haired cats, there are tufts of hair between the pads of the paws. These so-called "snowshoes" are particularly popular among forest cat breeds. In summer the undercoat is usually very sparsely developed, often only the long tail hair suggests a semi-longhair cat. In non-neutered cats, the difference between winter and summer fur is much greater. Neutered cats still have a rather lush coat of hair even in summer.

Norwegian forest cat in profile

Compared to the short-haired form of the European house cat , which is common in our country , the Norwegian forest cat is usually larger, predominantly mackerel or black - with and without white - typically with white gloves. Among the unregistered, semi-long-haired farm cats that are still present, tabby cats predominate in the northern regions; on the gray rocky coasts, Norwegian cats are more often black, with and without white. The Norwegian Forest Cat is available in all house cat colors.

The Norwegian Forest Cat has an elongated body, but appears longer-legged than the Maine Coon and Siberian Cat . The standard explicitly calls for their rear legs to be higher than the front legs. However, this is more or less the case with all cats. The face of the typical Norwegian cat appears triangular. The ears are placed high, with thick tufts of fur on the inside and often with lynx-like hairbrushes on the tips. The very long whiskers underline the triangular shape of the face, the ruff should be well developed, the Norwegian forest cat has knickerbockers on its legs. The tail is long and bushy. The profile shows no stop. It is long and - unlike that of the Siberian cat and the Maine Coon - perfectly straight. The chin is strong. The Norwegian Forest Cat is not fully grown until it is three to four years old. Only then will she have reached her final weight and full size.

Norwegian forest cat descending a tree

Because Norwegians developed naturally for a long time, they rarely have reproductive problems. Premature births, young animals with weak life, stillbirths and birth disorders in the sense of difficult births, as are common in some breeds that have been bred for a long time or those with a very small gene pool, occur rather rarely.

The Norwegian Forest Cat is extremely good at climbing and, due to its size and flexibility, can jump very high and also low. However, just like other domestic cats, they cannot climb vertically upside down trees, as is often claimed, in purely anatomical terms (no claws bent backwards). The impression can easily arise, however, because she climbs down trees quickly, first with widely spread legs and paws, climbing sideways in a spiral, then jumping down from a considerable height and usually without having to climb backwards.

behavior

Norwegian forest cats are very gentle and good-natured. By their nature, they are considered to be uncomplicated and playful and develop a close bond with people. Norwegian cats are usually sociable and also accept other cats in their territory or in the apartment.

Breed standard

Norwegian Forest Cat with pronounced tufts of hair in its ears

Norwegian forest cat with snowshoes

The breed standard includes a. the following characteristics:

• Head: triangular shape, all sides the same length, high profile, forehead slightly rounded, long straight profile without interruption (stop)
• Chin: strong
• Ears: Large in shape, broad at the base, tapering to a point, lynx-like hairbrushes (hair tips at the ends of the ears) and long tufts of hair in the ears
• Eyes: large and oval, well opened, slightly slanted, all colors allowed regardless of coat color
• Expression: vigilant
• Body: long structure, strong bone structure
• Legs: strong, high-legged, hind legs higher than front legs
• Paws: large, round with "snowshoes"
• Tail: long and bushy, reaching at least to the shoulder blades, better to the nape of the neck
• Fur: medium-long structure, woolly undercoat is covered on the back and on the flanks by water-repellent outer hair, outer hair made of long, coarse and (occasionally slightly bluish) shiny guard hair. A cat with full fur has a shirt front, a full ruff and knickerbockers.
• Color: All colors are permitted, including all colors with white, with the exception of pointed badges, chocolate and lilac, cinnamon and fawn. Any amount of white is allowed, for example a white flame, a white medallion, white on the chest, white on the paws, etc.

The Norwegian Forest Cat has also been recognized in the colors amber and amber-light at FIFé and many free associations since January 1st, 2005. This is an apricot or cinnamon-like shade that only comes into its own in the adult animal. Animals of this color are born with a strong, very contrasting tabby pattern that fades to amber with age. In 2007 Marc Peterschmitt from France identified the amber coat color as an independent mutation of the black pigment in his doctoral thesis. It is located on the extension locus that was first discovered for cats. He thus proved that amber is not a variant of cinnamon caused by crossbreeding with foreign races, but an independent color that occurs exclusively in the Norwegian forest cat.

Trivia

The often read claim that images of the Norsk Skogkatt can already be found on old Viking coins is wrong, because no coins were minted by the Vikings.

In Old Norse mythology , two cats pulled the carriage of the fertility goddess Freya . However, there is no description of long hair in the Edda . In Norwegian fairy tales there are references to goblin -like magic or troll cats (Norwegian Trolldom "magic") with long bushy tails.

literature

• Tanja Ehrhardt: Norwegian forest cats . Parey, Hamburg / Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-490-04419-3 .
• Claudia Müller-Girard: Lexicon of pedigree cats . Bechtermünzverlag, Eltville am Rhein 1990, ISBN 3-927117-47-1 .
• Eva Ewald: Norwegian Forest Cat. Scandinavia's gentle savages . Cadmos, Schwarzenbek 2011, ISBN 978-3-8404-4006-9 .
• Claudia Hirschmann: Establishing a Cattery / Formation of a Cattery , Mittweida 2013, OCLC 885406988 (Diploma thesis Hochschule Mittweida , Faculty of Economics, 2013, 76 pages ( full text online PDF, free of charge, 76 pages, 4055 kB)) p. 12–15.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Andrea Jenssen: Breeding traits and hereditary disorders of the Norwegian forest cat during breed development , Budapest 2012 (Thesis (Diploma work) University of Budapest 2012, Supervisor: László Zöldág ( full text - online PDF, free of charge, 34 pages, 381 kB, English)).
2. ↑ Jean M. Hébert, Thomas Rosenquist, Jürgen Götz, Gail R. Martin : FGF5 as a regulator of the hair growth cycle: evidence from targeted and spontaneous mutations. In: Cell Volume 78, No. 6, 1994, pp. 1017-1025, doi : 10.1016 / 0092-8674 (94) 90276-3 .
3. ↑ C. Drögemüller, S. Rüfenacht, B. Wichert, T. Leeb: Mutations within the FGF5 gene are associated with hair length in cats. In: Animal Genetics Volume 38, No. 3, 2007, pp. 218-221, doi : 10.1111 / j.1365-2052.2007.01590.x .
4. ↑ James S. Kehler et al .: Four independent mutations in the feline fibroblast growth factor 5 gene determine the long-haired phenotype in domestic cats. In: Journal of Heredity Volume 98, No. 6, 2007, pp. 555-566, doi : 10.1093 / jhered / esm072 .
5. ^ PR Pan's Truls, M, NFO n 09 23, 1973-05-02, NO / NO on pawpeds.com
6. ↑ http://norvegienambre.e-monsite.com/pages/ambre (French)
7. ↑ http://www.hendrik.maekeler.eu/wikingerzeitlicher-geldumlauf-im-ostseeraum.pdf

Web links

Commons : Norwegian Forest Cat  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Norwegian forest cat
• Independent interest group Norwegian Forest Cat, with emergency mediation
• Independent interest group Norwegian Forest Cats
• The NFC Printout - A Forgotten Feature? PDF for download
• Norwegian Forest Cat: Standard. Structure and physical. (In English)