Cinnamon And Fawn Norwegian Forest Cats

The Norwegian Forest Cat was recognised as a breed by FIFe in 1976, although at this time without certificate status. One year later the breed also was given certificate status in FIFe.

According to the first standard of the breed, written in 1972 by NRR, all colours were permitted, and at this time Norwegian Forest Cats in Norway could be recognised, registered, and shown in a particular class without the possibility of getting certificates.

In the beginning there was no division into different colours or colour groups. When the classes eventually were getting larger, the breed was divided into two colour groups - agouti cats and non-agouti cats. In 1983 a further division of these colour groups was made, into cats with and without white. The 31 December 1987 the novice class for Norwegian Forest Cats was closed in SVERAK, and in 1990 it was closed in NRR too. In the standard from 1.7.86 all colours were permitted except for himalayan pointed, and 1.1.89 chocolate and lilac was no longer permitted. In 1991 the present division of the breed into nine colour groups was introduced. Since 10.1.94 there is an addition in the standard that all colours are permitted except pointed patterns, chocolate, lilac, cinnamon, and fawn.

The first kittens with "strange colours" were born

In 1992 the first cinnamon and fawn kittens were born in S*Wildwood's cattery (Sylvia Erikérs, Falun). The litter was not born in Sylvia's home, but in the home of Åsa Jonsson, who was co-owning the mother of the litter. Åsa called Sylvia on the phone when the kittens were born, and she told her that two of the five kittens had "strange" colours. They were extremely reddish. Sylvia told Åsa that it was nothing strange about some kittens being reddish, it was just the rufous. The dam of the litter, CH S*Wildwood's Humla, was blue spotted tabby (NFO a 24), and the sire, IC S*Amazonas Camilo, was brown classic tabby (NFO n 22).

Sylvia went to see the kittens a couple of days later, and she was very surprised to see the strange colour of these two kittens. She had never seen anything like it. They looked more like some kind of torbies, with the red markings spread asymmetrically all over their coats. But with these parents torbies was not possible to get, and to make it even more difficult - the kittens were both males! What was this?!! Sylvia asked Åsa if Humla could possibly have been mated to another male by accident, but Humla had been safely indoors all the time, so this was not a possibility. And even if it HAD been possible, it would not explain these strange colours. One of them was dark with a colour like apricot in the tabby pattern, the other one was more like a pale blue torbie. Could this really be just an extreme case of rufous?

The rumour about the strangely coloured kittens was spread rapidly, and several other breeders came to look at them, but no one had ever seen any kittens with these colours.

The three other kittens in the litter had "normal" colours: solid blue (NFO a), solid black (NFO n), and blue classic tabby (NFO a 22). And when the litter had to be registered, the darker of the kittens with the odd colours, S*Wildwood's Iros, was registered as a brown classic tabby (NFO n 22), and the light kitten, S*Wildwood's Imer, was registered as a blue mackerel tabby (NFO a 23). When the kittens were four months old, the breeder was recommended to change the colour of the brown tabby kitten to golden tabby (NFO ny 22). Since the type of these two cats were really good, they were both quite successful at shows while they were registered with recognised colours.

When Imer and Iros were about one year old, it was obvious that they were not blue mackerel tabby and golden classic tabby. It was decided that they should be registered as lilac and chocolate tabbies. So then S*Wildwood's Imer's colour was changed to NFO c 24, and S*Wildwood's Iros got the colour NFO b 22 in his pedigree.

More "chocolate" and "lilac" kittens were born

Later in 1992 one more kitten was born, that was registered as chocolate tabby. And in the years after Imer and Iros were born, kittens with these colours have been born every year. Below you can see how many have been born each year in Sweden.

Totally: 30 kittens have been born in 21 different litters.

In the autumn of 1997 a kitten was also born in Germany, that was registered as lilac classic tabby/white (NFO c 09 22). And in January 1998 a cat in Norway will be changed into a chocolate mackerel tabby/white (NFO b 09 23).

From chocolate/lilac to cinnamon/fawn

In the middle of the 1990s' it was suggested that one of the "lilac" Norwegian Forest Cats was in fact fawn instead. Since then it has been discussed now and then that they could all be cinnamon and fawn instead of chocolate and lilac. In 1998 some serious attempts have been made to decide which it is - or if there are both chocolate/lilac and cinnamon/fawn cats. At the 8th of February breeders and cats were gathered in Köping to a colour seminar. Also FIFe Allround judge Dagny Dickens was present to look at the cats. Except for several "chocolate/lilac" Norwegian Forest Cats, chocolate and lilac cats of other breeds as well as cinnamon and fawn Abyssinians and Somalis were present. There were also "normal" coloured Norwegian Forest Cats present, of course. With all these cats present for comparison, it was suddenly clear that the Norwegian Forest Cats had nothing in common with the chocolate and lilac cats, but they were very similar to the cinnamon and fawn cats.

A little later a small group of people gathered to study hair samples in a microscope. We had collected hair samples from all the "chocolate/lilac" Norwegian Forest Cats, and also from a cat registered as a blue spotted tabby, but by many judges and breeders suspected to be lilac instead. The name of this cat is EP & EC S*Tailor Hill's Cupido, and he is a son of S*Wildwood's Imer. For comparison we had hair samples from chocolate and lilac British Shorthairs, cinnamon and fawn Abyssinians, and also from ruddy Abyssinians of high and low degree of rufousing. Then we had hair samples from blue, black, blue tabby, and brown tabby Norwegian Forest Cats, mostly of the same lines as the "chocolate/lilac" Norwegian Forest Cats. And finally we had hair samples from some Maine Coons with various degree of rufousing, both blue tabbies and brown tabbies.

We could not see any differences in the microscope between the different degrees of rufous, and neither between agouti and non-agouti. But there was a definite difference between the diluted hairs and the non-diluted. There was also a difference between brown tabby, chocolate, and cinnamon, as well as between blue tabby, lilac, and fawn. We could not find any hair sample from the Norwegian Forest Cats that looked like the chocolate and lilac hairs from the British Shorthairs, but they did match the cinnamon and fawn Abyssinian hairs pretty well. So we came to the same conclusion as they did at the seminar: the cats are in fact cinnamon and fawn, not chocolate and lilac.

According to this microscope test, EP & EC S*Tailor Hill's Cupido is a blue tabby. His hair sample matched the blue tabby Maine Coon hairs perfectly.

So far only a few of the Norwegian Forest Cats have been re-registered to cinnamon and fawn. Most of them are still registered as chocolate and lilac. This change will be made as soon as possible after the show in Borlänge 16 May 1998.

From where did the cinnamon gene come

All the cinnamon and fawn Norwegian Forest Cats that have been born so far, can be traced back to the NRR registered cats EP & GIC Niros Dunder, born 1983, and Kløfterhagens Babuschka, born 1981. (This is however not the case for the "chocolate mackerel tabby/white" cat in Norway.) Their parents are also NRR registered Norwegian Forest Cats, but in the generation behind them, five out of eight are cats that were accepted in the novice class. We assume that the cinnamon gene came in through one of those.It is not possible, at least not today, to decide whether it came from Dunder or Babuschka. Dunder has more offsprings than Babuschka, but most of them were not much used for breeding. The big exception is the son EC Pans Polaris, DM, who has hundreds of offsprings. But of course, even if Dunder carried the cinnamon gene, Polaris did not necessarily have to inherit it. Some other sons and daughters out of EP & GIC Niros Dunder that were used for breeding to some extent are Pans Lissi, Pans Pluto, and EP & EC Torvmyra's Vincent. And then of course GIP & EC Dea-Dia, DM av Æsene and GIC Frøy Sparetta, DM av Æsene, who both carry the cinnamon gene. Their dam is Kløfterhagens Babuschka. Babuschka also has a daughter, IC Iris av Æsene, with Pans Polaris, but she does not seem to carry the cinnamon gene.

Why is there no non-agouti cinnamon or fawn Norwegian Forest Cat present?

So far only agouti cinnamons and fawns have been born. But we expect that non-agouti cats will appear soon, because there are non-agouti carriers of the cinnamon gene that are used for breeding. One example of this is the black male EC S*Svarte Petters Bernard, who has given six cinnamon tabby kittens in three litters. Bernard was Cat of the Year in SVERAK 1997, and Cat of the Year Norwegian Forest Cat in Europe.

Why have so many cinnamon and fawn kittens been born from this line?

A certain amount of line-breeding has been made, in order to find out which cats carry the cinnamon gene, but most of the kittens have appeared by chance. The increasing amount of cinnamon and fawn cats is, at least partly, due to the fact that many cats from this line is used for breeding, since several have been really successful as both show cats and breeding cats. One more example of this is Breeding Female of the Year 1997 in SVERAK, EC S*Tassajara's Tigris, DM. Her sire is S*Wildwood's Imer, so Tigris is carrying the cinnamon gene.

Is there any cats of other breeds behind these Norwegian Forest Cats?

With all the novice cats recognised during the years when the novice class was still open - yes, of course there are cats of other breeds behind our cats! Just like there are behind any breed. There are probably at least Persians, Abyssinians, and of course European Shorthairs behind the Norwegian Forest Cats. There was even a ticked tabby novice accepted and registered in NRR, when the novice class was still open. His name was Raggen, and he was used for breeding. Of course there should be an Abyssinian somewhere behind him. Raggen is however not behind the cinnamon and fawn Norwegian Forest Cats. We assume that the cinnamon gene also came from an Abyssinian behind one of the novice cats behind EP & GIC Niros Dunder or Kløfterhagens Babuschka. Of course it could be a mutation, but this must be considered less likely than the theory that a gene from an Abyssinian has come in through the novice cats.

So we do not know how, where, and when the cinnamon gene came in, but we do know that the cinnamon and fawn Norwegian Forest Cats of today do not show any evidence in their type of any foreign breeds being mixed in. We believe that they are typical Norwegian Forest Cats, and we hope that you all agree after having seen them at the show.

Variation in colours

The cinnamon and fawn Norwegian Forest Cats vary quite a lot in their colours. Just like cats of other colours, some cats are darker and some are lighter, some cats are warmer in their colours and some are colder. Since the Norwegian Forest Cat are not bred for colour, we get the whole scale of variations.

But the cat itself also varies in colour. As new-born they are darker, with a lot of apricot between the tabby patterns. Then they are slowly getting lighter until they are about 1 - 1,5 years old. After that the colours change with the seasons. There will probably be both cats who have their darkest coat at the moment, and cats who have their lightest coat, present at the show.

What do the other breeders think about these colours?

The reactions to these colours vary among the breeders. Some want them to be recognised, some do not. But we are happy to say that Norsk Skogkattring, the Norwegian club for Norwegian Forest Cat breeders and fanciers, support us in our effort of getting these colours recognised.

Now when these cats are not new anymore and things have calmed down, the interest for these colours is growing. Breeders in Germany, Holland, and the USA have been asking for kittens. Now the first cinnamon/fawn cats have left to Germany.

At the show in Borlänge 16 May 1998

At the show in Borlänge we showed 17 cinnamon and fawn cats.  One of the first two cinnamon/fawn cats was there, S*Wildwood's Imer. There was cinnamon tabbies, fawn tabbies, cinnamon torbies, and fawn torbies with and without white. Members of the Judges & LO Commission* of FIFé studied all these cats at the show. They studied the type and came to the conclusion that neither the type nor the coat quality were any different from Norwegian Forest Cats with recognised colours. They also commented on the health, that is not any different from other Norwegian Forest Cats. At the end they all said that the Judges Commission of FIFé will support a recognition of the colours cinnamon and fawn at Norwegian Forest Cats.

*
Mr Ole Magne Grytvik, Chairman
Miss Lili Anciau
Mrs Jitka Kytlerova
Mrs Aase Nissen
Mrs Alva Uddin                                    

1998.07.01.