Sphynx cat

Sphynx
Standard No.
Shoulder height
origin	Canada
length
Weight	Male cat: ? kg cat:? kg
allowed colors	all
colors not allowed	./.
permitted coat drawing	each
not allowed coat drawing	./.
List of cat breeds

The Sphynx or Sphinx cat , named after the ancient Egyptian Sphinx , is a nearly hairless Canadian breed of cats .

Character and appearance

Sphynx cats are medium in size and muscular. They have large ears, pronounced cheeks, and a strong chin. On closer inspection you can see a light hair fluff that covers the whole body.

Sphynx cats are intelligent, lively, and affectionate. Due to their hairlessness, it seems that these cats have a higher body temperature than other cats. However, this is not the case. Due to the lack of fur, however, the body heat is released directly to the outside via the skin, which gives the animal the feeling of intense warmth when touching the animals. Because the average energy requirement of a Sphynx is higher, they need more food than other breeds. Due to the lack of fur, light-skinned Sphynx cats are more sensitive to solar radiation. You can get sunburn from unprotected contact with the sun and must be specially protected from the sun. However, this also applies to cats with white or light fur and is not a result of being naked.

origin

Already from the antiquity should exist of hairless cats reports and the Aztecs are hairless cats have held. However, on closer inspection, neither is correct. The oldest document, along with a picture of hairless cats, comes from Mexico in 1902 .

The breeding lines of today's Sphynx cats come from cats from Canada. These have been bred by humans from naturally mutated cats since the 1960s. The Canadian Sphynx has been recognized as a breed since 1980.

Legal situation

This article or paragraph presents the situation in Germany . Help us to describe the situation in other countries.

The expert opinion prepared on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture on the interpretation of Section 11b of the Federal German Animal Welfare Act (prohibition of torture breeding ) from 1999 comes to the conclusion that Sphynx cats are tortured breeds if the animals the whiskers are missing.

In September 2015 the Berlin Administrative Court confirmed the order of the Veterinary and Food Inspection Office to a breeder to have her breeding male neutered and to stop breeding immediately. This is the first judgment on the subject of torture breeding since the amendments to the Animal Welfare Act came into force in July 2013. The reason given here was that the whiskers of a cat are an important sensory organ and the lack of them is therefore to be regarded as harm and suffering for the animal. This legal opinion was confirmed by the Hamburg Administrative Court in 2018.

Related breeds

A two week old Sphynx cat

The Don Sphynx come from Russia . In these cats, another gene (which is inherited dominantly ) is responsible for the hairlessness.

The Peterbald also comes from Russia . In this breed of cats, Orientals were crossed with cats of the Don-Sphynx breed to improve the type.

Hawaiian breeders bred another subspecies of the Sphynx cat, the Kohona cat, whose skin has only small hair follicles and is therefore completely hairless.

Trivia

Probably the best known Sphynx is SGC Belfry Ted Nude-Gent, who played Mr. Bigglesworth, Dr. Evil's cat, starring Austin Powers .

Genetic basis

Sphinx is based on a mutation in the krt71 gene (keratin). The same mutation leads to a different phenotype, the Devon Rex . This breed is short-haired with wavy fur. There is therefore a polymorphism of the gene (see also: phenotypic variation # variations within a species and between different species ).

literature

• Alexa Capra, Daniele Robotti: Cats. Get to know - keeping - care - breeding. Neuer Kaiser-Verlag, Klagenfurt 2000, pp. 187-189, ISBN 3-7043-2189-3 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Sphynx , at geliebte-katze.de (accessed on August 1, 2013)
2. ↑ Expert opinion on the interpretation of Section 11b of the Animal Welfare Act (prohibition of torture breeding). (PDF) (No longer available online.) Group of Experts, Animal Welfare and Pet Breeding, archived from the original on December 17, 2013 ; Retrieved December 17, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. P. 54  
3. ↑ Naked cats without whiskers are torture breeding (No. 33/2015). In: berlin.de. September 23, 2015, accessed September 24, 2015 . 
4. ↑ Five judges and a naked cat. In: haz.de. September 23, 2015, accessed September 24, 2015 . 
5. ↑ On the amendment to the Animal Welfare Act. (PDF) In: tierschutzbund.de. tierschutzbund.de, accessed on September 24, 2015 . 
6. ↑ Resolution 11 E 1067/18. (PDF) Administrative Court Hamburg, April 4, 2018, accessed on May 15, 2018 . 

Web links

Commons : Sphynx Cat  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files