Curly Cats – the American Curl

Cats come in all shapes and sizes, with a massive range of colours and coat patterns.  They also come with some unusual physical quirks including having no tail, having short legs and, in the case of the American Curl, having curly ears!

About the breed

The first known American Curls turned up at strays at the home of the Rugas family in Lakewood California back in 1981.  A black female, named Shulamith, gave birth to a litter of kittens and these too had her curled ears.  By 1986, the breed was exhibited for the first time and by 1992, the longhaired version of the cat was awarded championship status by The International Cat Association or TICA.  Seven years later, the Cat Fanciers Association also accepted the breed in both long and shorthaired variations.

Curly ears

American Curls are medium sized cats that typically weigh around 5-10 lb and take longer to mature than some breeds, some 2-3 years.  Their ears are straight when they are born and take their curl within the first eighty days of life.  By the age of four months, they will have reached their maximum curl and will be hard and stiff to the touch.  For show standards, this curl must be between 90-180 degrees but not so far that they touch the back of their skulls.  Straight eared cats are also part of the breed but aren’t accepted for showing.

The ears are particularly sensitive and mis-handling can result in damage to the cartilage of the ear.  Therefore if you have this breed around children, this care should be ingrained in them from a young age to avoid a sad accident.

Description

Both the longhaired and shorthaired version of the breed have a silky coat that les flat against their body.  They don’t need much in the way of additional grooming from humans but do enjoy spending time with people and receiving their attention and affection.  They are generally healthy cats due to a good gene pool but their ears do present occasional problems, with cleaning needed to stop infections, and this needs to be done very carefully.  The curl is a dominant gene so pairing with a non-curl breed will often result in Curl kittens.  It is still a rare breed across the world but is currently found in the US, Spain, France, Russia and Japan in reasonable numbers.