Cat American Shorthair

The American Shorthair is the most popular feline breed in America, but there were no cats in North America before the arrival of European settlers. It is therefore thought that they were brought from the well-known ship Lower, where they were boarded because they were good mouse hunters.

The breed was naturally selected from the common cat crossed with other breeds, such as the British Shorthair, Persian and Burmese. This cat was first registered in 1904 with a Buster Brown, a cross between a British Shorthair and an American shorthair cat. Only in 1966 was the breed officially recognised. In Europe it is a rare cat, highly sought after instead in Japan.

Character American Shorthair

You only have to look at him for a few minutes to realise that this is a particularly alert feline who is attentive to everything around him. He is very affectionate and intelligent, is social but also likes to retreat into solitude from time to time. It adapts easily to any type of life, whether in a flat or outdoors.

You must consider, however, that he is an expert hunter, so it is good to try if possible when you have space outside to make that space safe, because precisely because of his nature, he wanders, he explores with great pleasure. It also gets on very well with children and, as it has a very long life expectancy, even up to 20 years, it can accompany a child to a ripe old age.

It also gets along well with other cats and dogs. He loves cuddles, but does not demand them, everything he does he does calmly and without stress. It adapts easily to any situation, it seems that its philosophy of life is ‘live and let live’, so it meows very rarely and does not impose its presence even though it loves the closeness of humans very much.

As well as being intelligent, they are also very clever, in some cases even managing to open the fridge and carry out small thefts, opening doors and flaps. They are very suitable for older people who have some time to play with them and mainly because they do not like to be alone for a long time.

Physical appearance American Shorthair

The American Shorthair is a medium-sized cat. The male weighs between 5 and 7 kg, while the female weighs between 2.5 and 5 kg. Its coat is short and thick, especially in winter, and is characterised by the almost complete absence of undercoat.

It is a longer than tall cat, quite athletic and robust. It has a broad head and square muzzle, the eyes are round, somewhat slanted and rather distant, the expression sweet and open. The coat colours of this feline are varied.

The most common are the striped tabby and the white tabby, but two-coloured and three-coloured specimens can be found. In the striped tabby with a silvery white background and very well contrasted black patterns, an ‘M’ often appears on the forehead. a characteristic that it shares with the European.

Health and nutrition American Shorthair

It is a cat that has no particular pathologies, it is very robust and long-lived. We must be more careful if our cat is accustomed to being outdoors, given its hunter character, to the small wounds it may get when hunting.

Its coat does not require any special care, except a weekly brushing, to be intensified during the moulting period. If the cat has access to the outdoors, it is advisable to bathe it every two or three months. It is predisposed to obesity if it does not have access to a fairly large outdoor space, and it does not get much exercise, especially if neutered.

The diet therefore needs to be rather strictly controlled. It eats practically everything, but like all felines it loves meat, however rice and vegetables should also be present in its diet.