Some Things To Know About Selkirk Rex Cats

Posted by Bob Rogers on March 6th, 2020

Type of cat The Selkirk Rex is a breed of cat with extremely curled hair. The Selkirk Rex is unique from all other Rex breeds.

Unlike the Devon Rex and Cornish Rex, the hair is of regular length and not partly missing. There are longhair and shorthair ranges.

It differs from the LaPerm in that the Selkirk Rex coat is plusher and thicker.

The Selkirk Rex came from Montana, U.S.A. in 1987, with a litter born to a rescued feline.

The only abnormally covered kitten in the litter was eventually put with breeder, Jeri Newman, who named her Miss DePesto (after a curly-haired character in the TV series played by Allyce Beasley).

This structure feline was reproduced to a black Persian male, producing 3 Selkirk Rex and 3 straight-haired kittycats.

All Selkirk Rex trace their ancestry back to the cat Miss DePesto.

Jeri Newman named the type after her stepfather, "Selkirk," making this the first (and presently only) breed of cat to be called after a real person.

The breed has actually been established in two coat lengths, long and short.

The coat is extremely soft and has a woolly feel and look with loose, disorganized curls.

The head is round, with large rounded eyes, medium-sized ears, and an unique muzzle, whose length amounts to half its width.

A severe break, like that of a Persian, is a disqualifiable fault.

The American Shorthair has now been ceased as an outcross, except in The International Cat Association (TICA).

The type was accepted by The International Cat Association in 1992, the American Feline Fanciers Association in 1998, and the Feline Fanciers' Association in 2000.

In Feline Fanciers' Association (CFA) and in Australia, all outcrosses are arranged to be terminated in 2015.

This type has a very dense coat and high propensity for shedding.

Unlike other Rex breeds with reduced amounts of hair, the Selkirk Rex is not recommended for those who may be allergic to feline irritants.

The personality of the Selkirk Rex shows that of the breeds utilized in its advancement.

Selkirk Rex Cat Breeder Profile

There are no recognized health issues specific to the Selkirk Rex type.

They are a robust type.

Breeding towards appropriate head structure is needed to prevent kinking of the tear ducts, resulting in tear run down the front of the face, or muzzle creases that can lead to dermatitis on the face.

Homozygous felines (with two copies of the dominant Selkirk Rex gene) might have a tendency towards extreme greasiness of the coat, needing increased frequency of bathing.

Other health issue might be inherited from the outcross types utilized, consisting of polycystic kidney disease from Persians and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy from British Shorthairs.

Responsible breeders evaluate their breeding cats for these diseases to lessen their effect on the type.

The Selkirk Rex is defined by an autosomal dominant woolly rexoid hair (ADWH) abnormality that is identified by tightly curled hair shafts.

A splice variant in the gene KRT71 was found to be connected with the curly coat phenotype. KRT71 is an essential gene for keratinization of the hair roots.