I have to say, that working on this story was a hard struggle for me to decide about what I like and what could be useful for the most of the readers of this article. I also have to say that from all introduced standards I like standard TICA the most, my hearth draw me to the original standard WCF and my duty tells me to work up on the standard FIFE, because (as the most of the readers) I’m registered there. Well finally I think that intellect beat the emotion, so lets try to take down and document the pictures FIFE standard of Siberian cat. It is nothing easy, all of the “medium, gently, lightly, equally” unfortunately give big space for fantasy and because of that, they make it difficult for exact description of the type. But if some of the introduced standards will be different than the standards FIFE, the readers will be warned of that difference.
Last but not least I highly assert that all of the used pictures were used for the purpose to present individual advantages or defects. Its not about critique any concrete cat in any case. We all know, that any cat can look on the picture totally different than in reality. I chose the photographs for this article according to what is seen on the picture, no matter how the cat look “in natura”.
So make yourself comfortable and lets start.
Standard FIFe
Total size: medium to large, females mostly smaller than males
Not this standard and not even the other standards doesn’t specify which size is big, medium big and big cat. Most likely we agree that females under 3 kilos and males under 4 kilos are not medium size (for the request of rugged skeleton and thews), therefore its good to know the counterbalance, when the standard TICA says, that the weight is secondary to type. In other words, good type have got advantage ahead of concrete size. I think that this rule, advantages of general type ahead of particular signpost , should be consider for every evaluation of cat. So always advantage general type ahead of concrete advantages or defects.
Rembo, one of the first Tom-cat registered by pedigree book in Russia. Its noised that in agreement with him was written the first standard of Siberian cat.
One year old, really big, robust male
Picture of little girl holding Siberian cat original type
Big, silver tabby Siberian male
big Siberian female to the fore
Another little girl, this time with colourpoint male
medium sized male
one year old, well build CP
Shape of head: a little bit longer than broad, softly rounded, massive
And here we go again. What is little and what is slightly?
Lets take it that FIFE against the other organizations advantage shorter head. It is comparable which individuals are placed in first position in competition of FIFE and the others organizations. Just don’t take it as a dogma, the arbitral is also only human being, so willy nilly he has got his own taste.
this is the requested shape of head in a original standard
profile in practice
short, dull knees in practice
this head is not rounded in the lower part
head of adult NM male
this head is little in the proportion to body, not massive
female, , head is well rounded, rugged, correct in proportion to body
beautyyyyy
adult male , head long and narrow
Forehead: broad, just slightly rounded
Little rounded forehead is for outsider also slightly vague specification. Lets try to display some types of forehead. Just reminding that head should be a little tapeinocephaly from above. The outsider would just easily say that the head is flat . Though its not written there, on the exhibition the judge who understand the Siberian cats , would say that to you.
requested profile, rounded forehead
narrow, flat forehead, front look
wide forehead
little rounded forehead, gently stepping back, head is little flat from above
nice, isn’t it?
nice profile with well formed forehead , female
flat forehead
too rounded, stop
Cheeks: cheekbones well developed
Yet in year 2006 it was noted in standard, highly fitted. Regarding that this fitting of cheeks sometimes drag along too splayed eye, it was desist from that. Standard WFC request widely set cheeks and standard TICA request not tall and not exserted cheeks.
Nose: medium length, broad, in profile shows a slight indentation, but without stop
Because of short head preferences FIFE prefers also shorter nose.
So in the organizations where the nose is still mediumly long for them, some of the arbitrals request shorter nose.
You also cant see from the text where the nose is slightly coved. It used to be a tradition of the original Siberian cats to expect slightly coved nose above nasal mycetes. But today this typical sign for Siberian cats is swabbed.
at the rate of other head proportions the nose is shor
nice female and nose isn’t it?
narrow nose
He could be marked like a medium long in some organizations, otherwise is longer and straight nose (not profile)
narrow, long nose ussualy carry together with narrow mouth
medium long nose
wide nose, forehead look, female
wide nose, male
Its good to know, that nose shouldn’t be narrowed towards the end, because this narrowed means narrow mouth as well.
Again, its not written here, but the breeder will find out at the shows, that the mouth is requested to be short, full, rounded. A lot of judges stick by this rounds and are also able to put worst type of cats with this rounds ahead of more superior animal with the type of head “less rounded”.
Here is Rembo again. It seems that “foundations” didn’t have that rounded mouth, how is requested today.
one more foundation
female with rounded mouth
one more cat, from the other site of view
Its different between rounded and round, here is more rounded than is ideal
Chin: slightly slanting back, in profile creating a curve from the upper line of the nose
Here except the massive, square, recessive and regular chin, its important to remember undesirable Pinch , which is necking in the crossing behind the touch pads.
chin little bit recessive
too expressive chin
this is just exactly
narrow, spire chin
pinch
ear little tilted, in rate on the head too big
good tilted ear
too much tilted ear
nice, isn’t it?
ears in rate to head big , placed too straight
those ears are quite small for Siberian cat
beautiful cat, highly set ears
Eyes: large, slightly oval shaped. A bit oblique, set widely apart
Any colour is permitted.
Conception of little oval is for outsider very difficult to identify, so we will show this on an example here and lets help us with the specifications from the other standards: big, rounded, outer corner of eye is little raised up towards the ear. The original standard was saying about middle eye the same specification. Round eye as well as heel eye are giving to the Siberians cats undesirable Persian or exotic expression at the expense of none tender expression (sweet look) typical for Siberian cats.
Eyes placed to far away from each other. Its beautiful isn’t it? Lets look for help in standard TICA…far apart more, than the eye size.
The colour of eye is uniform, all colours are allowed. There is nothing more to say, for Nevs the Standards don’t have any, but its expected , that the cat with uniform and darker colour of eye will be preferred, as it is at the others CP.
far apart, as it should be
beautiful, uniform colour, too much oval, heel placed
good shape and setting
once again, as it should be
3x overmuch, dominant at the rate of size of head, crossway laid, close
small
beautiful red NM male with everything its should have, right?
beautiful, a bit round
nice colour, good shape and good placed, deeply laid
close to each other, cross laid
bad shape of eye, which will change expression of the face, the Siberian “sweet look” is missing here
kitten with ununiform colours of the eyes, its getting better with the age
oval eye
cross laid, too oval
The construction of the body, well developed bones and muscles, strong neck, wide chest, body appeals rectangulary.
Here are some illustrated pictures
slightly build female
slightly build male
Siberian cat in the moves
Siberian cat in "neva coat"
we should trust Siberian cat, that originally its wood predator
Agosia, first male ,imported to Czech in 1988
well build female
well build male
male in the moves
Legs middle length so they could make rectangle together with the body, strong middle long legs with pads are very easy to distinguish from the little pads. Worst situation have got the arbitral on the exhibitions, where they cant see the cat in the natural moves, so sometimes the funny „shortening“ and „stretching“ lenght of legs is happening in the judgement from exhibition to exhibition.
Big laps, round, well hairy between the fingers
big and round
well hairy between their fingers
Coat : semi-long, well developed, very dense, undercoat not lying flat, overcoat water repellent, slightly hard to touch
summer coat is distinctly shorter than the winter coat
the winter coat shows a well-developed shirtfront, full frill and knickerbockers
To judge the quality of the hair from the pictures is almost impossible. In this case is really necessary to touch it. Like a example I choose cats, which I know well and the reader cant do nothing just to trust me. To rely on the exhibiton reports is not very good, because even the cat I have mentioned like a example of short, soft hairy, without undergrowth, has got in her reports quality and structure of her hair EX.
I just would like to remind you, that the thin colours (blue, cream)..have got propensity to soft hair then full colours. The best structure quality have got black tabby cats .
classically coloured siberian cat
smoke
undercoat is missing here
contrasts Neva in kittens hair
fine, soft, kittens hair
good contrast, gross covering hair, enough of undergrowth – summer time
one more good contrast
fully adult tom cat in full hair
all colour varieties are permitted, including all colour varieties with white; except pointed patterns and chocolate and lilac, cinnamon and fawn
any amount of white is allowed, i.e. a white blaze, white locket, white chest, white on the belly, white on the paws, etc.
I would like to remind here, that the Neva Masquerade cat dont have valid standard in FIFE, but the prestigious catteries abroad (mainly in Russia) are oriented more on NM without white colour or with a little rate of this colour. Why? The likeliest explanation is, that too big rate of white colour is affecting the optical look on the contrast of signs with the rest of the body and it looks too kitshy. It also remind the similarity with BIR and RAG. You can review here.
seal point
seal tabby with white (white is not very well seen here)
different coloured seal
For now, there is no marking of colours on the exhibitions. We can just hope, that the general meeting will authorize the proposal for a change and the judgers will be able to mark this race for colour in the future. It would mean the possibility of penalization unperfect contrast of signs with the rest of the body for the Nevs cat. Here are some examples.
good contrast between the signs and the rest of the body
badly seen contrast
Tail : of medium length, thick, rounded tip. Covered on all sides by dense hair with no hairs trailing down.
In the year 2006 ( before the novelization of standard) the tail was requested to be middle long to long. Its a shame, that the novels authors havent work on the specification ot the „middle long tail“. By asking the Russian WCF judges, I was told that for them the medium long tail is from the bladebone to the last rib.
The tail is medium long, strong, the end is rounded, very hairy from all sites
generally the longest covering hair are accompany with a little hairy tail
by contrast, cats with shorter covering hair have got very rich hairy tail. You can see the equally hair, no flag on the tail (longer covering hair)
Note:
class of novices accept just cats who are born in Russia. Grade with other races, especially with NFO, MCO and PER is not allowed.
Faults:
General too small or too finely built
Head long and narrow, straight profile, too round head (Persian type)
Here unfortunatelly is no problem to find examples. The defects of head are for the breeders one of the worst to revise.
Ears too large or too high set
Here, from my opinion is very often confusion about high seated ear and narrow head. So highly seated ear is the one, where his outside base lays above the outside corner of eye.The narrow head is where there is no space between the ears. ( ideally 1-1.5 of ear, space between the ears). Still the ear doesnt have to be highly seated.
Eyes round eyes
Legs too long or too thin
Thin yes, but the fact is, that the long legs are very hard to show on the exhibition.
Tail too short tail
Well, if there is no specification where the middle long tail ends, is hard to say, where the short tail beggins.
Coat too fine or silky, lying flat, lack of coat (except in summer)
Soft, flossy and sticky is clear from the touch, I mean even to outsider. The problem is with the hair short and its because that most of the judgement from all the organizations are penalizing short hair, missing collar and panties at the Siberian cats in the summer time. Here I think, with regard to the standards requests should be penalize the cats, who are fully haired in the summer time. The exception could be just only fully adult breed tomcats and eunuchs.
Total 100
Head general shape, shape of nose, cheeks and muzzle, jaw and teeth, forehead, chin 25
Ears size, shape, placement 10
Eyes shape and colour 10
Body shape, size, legs, shape of paws 20
Tail length and shape 5
Coat quality, texture, length 25
Condition 5
Sum up, Siberian is cat of middle, round shapes, soft facial expression. Its just need to remember the thin border between round and rounded, so we will not be talking about old persians cats. But Im not saying that they werent nice, look.
picture of persian cats from the beginnig of the 20 century.
And to be honest we are not far from them.
