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Don Sphynx

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Don Sphynx black tabby & white
Abrakadabra's Alina
Breeder: Nina Kovaleva-Feinstein, Abrakadabra's cattery, Uetersen, Germany
 

Don Sphynx come in all colours and patterns, which one can imagine, with white and without white, with silver or in golden, with tabby pattern and in Colourpoint.

bulletblack, blue
bulletchocolate, lilac
bulletred, cream
bulletcinnamon, fawn
bullettortie, bluecream
bulletchocolate tortie, lilac tortie
bulletAll those colours can also have all tabby patterns, for example black spotted, red mackerel, bluecream blotched, and so on.
bulletAll those colours can appear with silver or with golden, for example blue smoke, black golden shaded, blue golden mackerel, red silver blotched, chocolate tortie silver spotted, cream silver mackerel, and so on.
bulletAnd all those colours can also be with white (bicolour, Van, etc.), for example black and white bicolour, red and white Van, tortie mackerel bicolour, cream smoke with white, black silver blotched bicolour, and so on.
bulletAnd - last but not least - all those colours can also appear as Colourpoints, with white or without white, as silver or golden pointed, tabby pointed, and so on.

There exist hundreds of colours and pattern combinations, and all those varieties can be admired on shows.

Don Sphynx black tabby
My Toy cattery
Breeder: Natalia Volosova, My Toy cattery, Moscow, Russia
 
One will ask now, how it is possible to see all those colours and patterns on a cat without hairs.
One can see the colours on the skin, the skin has the colour tone of the colour, just paler, f.e. black does not appear as coal-black, it appears as light anthrazit, blue appears as pale grey with a slight blue tinge. Silver appears like "pepper and salt", mostly one can see the difference when one compares a black cat with a black smoke cat, there is a difference in the colour tone of the skin. Also the points can be seen quite clear, because the skin is darker coloured where the points are.
With the patterns it's tricky, mostly one can see if it is a tabby cat or not, but which tabby pattern is quite difficult to decide. Mostly one can see the tabby markings on the face, the front legs and the tail. Sometimes the spots on the stomach remain, but not always.
But, first you have the pedigree, second when the kitten are born, the pattern can be seen quite clear, when the kitten grow up the pattern sometimes gets blurred.
bulletRemarks:
Some kitten might be born with fluffy hairs, which are lost during the growth of the kitten.
bulletYou find a detailed history and interesting articles at My Toy's cattery.
 

Eurocatfancy

Standard TICA
The breed is called here Don Hairless.
Standard WCF
 
Breed profile
The Don Sphynx is a medium sized quite compact cat with medium head shape. The main characteristic is its hairlessness.

The head forms a medium long wedge, the cheekbones are high and prominent, the forehead is flat, the muzzle is broad and rounded with a slight pinch. When viewed in profile the nose is medium long and straight, the base of the nose is very slight defined. The eyebrows and whiskers are stiff and crinkled.
The eyeball is prominent, the eyes are medium-sized and oval. All eye colours are permitted.
The ears are large and very broad at the base, the tips are rounded, the ears are set high with a slight forward tilt.

The body is medium long, compact and very well muscled. The rump is quite strong and rounded, the belly is strong with accumulated fat.
The legs are long and strong with relatively large paws, the paws have long prominent toes, the paw pads are large and prominent.
The tail is long and strong.

The main characteristic is, that the Don Sphynx does not have any hairs. The skin is soft, elastic and very warm to touch. The skin is wrinkled on the head, on the forehead, around the neck, underneath the legs and on the groin.

 

History

The first Don Sphynx was found in Rostov-on-Don, Russia, in 1987 by Elena Kovaleva, a professor on the Institute of Pedagogic. Boys were playing with a bag, in which a little kitten was screaming. When the kitten grew up it started to become balder and balder, loosing all its hairs completely. The kitten was a bluecream female, named Varvara.
It was Mrs. Irene Nemykina (MIF cattery, MIF means Myth), who has got a daughter of Varvara, which she named Chita (after the monkey from the TV-movies), and who developed today's Don Sphynx. For breeding purposes European shorthair and Sibirian were crossed in to widen the gene pool. And always it turned out that the Don Sphynx dominantly inherits it hairlessness. Since 2000 there are no outcrosses anymore, and the Don Sphynx exists in more than 5 pure bred generations already.

 

Temperament

The Don Sphynx has an extremely lovely and gentle temperament. As every Sphynx breed they are slightly selective towards other cat breeds, they are absolutely devoted to their owners and want to be their number one.
They like to play with everything, never scratch, always kind.

 

Grooming

Like humans Don Sphynx are swetting, and can get sun tanned. In colder seasons their skin gets thicker, they accumulate fat under the skin, which disappears when it gets warmer. Sphynx like it warm at home. Treatment is rather easy, simply wash their skin from time to time with a mild baby shampoo.

 

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