| Country of Origin: | Thailand |
| Colors: | Any point color and solid points, tabby points, tortie points, or torbie points. |
| Average Size: | Weight: 8 to 15 lbs ( 3.6 – 6.8 kg) Length: Medium to Large |
| Life Span: | 15 years or more |
| Coat: | Short |
| Personality: | Highly intelligent, people-loving, active, curious, and endowed with a great sense of humor |
| Characteristics: | Energy: High Talkative: High Kid Friendly: Yes Allergic: No |
The first Thai cats were imported to the West in 1800s. First, they were brought to England where they were known as Siamese or Royal Cat of Siam. What was so impressing to many cat breeders was the gracefully looking face of these cats, called “marten-faced”. These cats were because of that very different from other breeds, and because of that, breeders wanted to emphasize the qualities that make this cat so different from other ones. Through selective breeding, they developed the graceful and elongated, fine-bones body type that the Siamese cats have.
During the 1990s, a Siamese cat that represented the classic look of ancient Siamese cats was shown on expositions through Europe, and this cat was called Thai, by a pioneering German woman who first introduced it. She dedicated her passion on growing a breed that she called Thai. At the same time, other breeders in the US also worked on developing and trying to preserve the bloodlines seen in ancient Siamese cats, and they even imported new bloodlines from Thailand.
During the 2006, it was suggested that the old-style Siamese cat becomes accepted as a new breed called Thai. TICA introduced this new breed in 2006. Starting from 2010, TICA gave this breed a championship status, and since that time, Thai cats started competing along with other breeds in Championship classes.
The Thai breed has the potential to produce healthy and genetically diversified show cats, and is also allowed to outcross them with Western Siamese cats as well.
Because of all this, it is clear that Thai is an old cat breed but newly classifies. It is related, but again very distinct from the modern Western Siamese cats. It originates from Thailand. However, what makes these two cat breeds same is their point coloration gene, their vocal personalities and people-loving preferences.
Thai cats are point colored, with elongated body type, with a wedge shaped head, short single coat and they don’t carry any longhair gene. This is a healthy diversified line of cats with the personality of ancient and old style Siamese cats.
