The Peterbald Cat

The head is long, wedge-shaped, with flat, high cheek-bones and flat skull. It has an almost straight profile, with slightly noticeable angle from forehead to nose. The muzzle is strong, not narrow and without any pinch.

The Peterbald has a strong but not protruding chin. It has several vertical lines/wrinkles on the forehead which diverge before the ears nearly at right angles. The whiskers and eyebrows are wavy or broken off near the skin. The ears are large broad at the base, high on the head, straight set, following the line of the wedge, opening forward. The Peterbald is a sturdy, lean cat with a high, long neck with running wrinkles. The body is long, muscular, cylindrical with deep groin line. The cat's legs are long with firm, fine boning. The tail is long, straight, strong and whippy.

Sometimes clear signs of Rex coat are visible until the cat is 1 1/2 years to 2 years of age. True baldness begins from the head, neck, and upper part of the back. If he coat is still on the extremities, it is short, soft, wavy on the muzzle, base of the ear, on forelegs and feet and on the last third of the tail or along all the tail length.

Background on the Peterbald: The Sphynx no longer stands alone as the world's only hairless purebred cat.  The recent development of another hairless breed in Russia has been of great interest to cat lovers around the world.  These Oriental type of hairless cat were unpopular in Moscow, but became very popular among St. Petersburg breeders.  The first Peterbalds were born in January of 1994.  They were a result of outcrossing a very classy tortie Oriental female (Radma Vom Jagerhof) with a brown mackerel tabby Don Hairless male (Afinguen Myth), whose bone structure was a bit light, but who had a wedge-shaped head.  All in all, he was a good choice for breeding with Oriental cats.  The kittens from this litter were considered to be Don Hairless, but some of them were rather elegant, and we use them now in our breeding program for Peterbalds.  The first Peterbalds were sold to other clubs in various parts of Russia, and they have become the founders for developing Peterbalds throughout Russia. The most significant cat responsible for the Peterbalds' increase was a black male named, Nocturne Iz Murino.  Born in February 1995, he was a hybrid resulting from an outcross between the Oriental Shorthair female and Don Hairless male mentioned above.    He was used widely for matings with purebred Oriental and Siamese females, and he produced many high quality offspring to follow in his footsteps.  Now, his offspring have been bred with each other. 

Many people ask if the Peterbald is a type of Sphynx.  Since the genetics of the Peterbald is not similar to that of the Canadian Sphynx and its' hairlessness is determined by a completely different gene, we elect to remove the word "Sphynx" from the name, and the breed is simply known as the "Peterbald".

The Peterbald gained acceptance in The International Cat Association (TICA) in August 1997.