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Breed Profile
of the Egyptian Mau cat
Egyptian Mau Photo Gallery
Dr David Richardson August 2005
The History of the Egyptian Mau cat
The history of the Egyptian Mau cat goes almost
as far back as the history of Egypt itself. Pictures similar to the
Egyptian Mau are found going back to 1500 BC. The Egyptian Mau may
be descended from the African wildcat - felis lyica ocreata.
The modern history of the Egyptian Mau cat as
an internationally accepted Breed begins in 1953 when the Egyptian
ambassador to Italy who had an Egyptian Mau cat was asked by a
princess to help her get some of these cats from Egypt to Italy
which in 1955 were shown at the Rome cat show. Eventually Egyptian
Maus were exported to Great Britain and the USA. They were first
accepted by TICA in 1988.
Description of the Egyptian Mau cat.
 The Egyptian Mau is a medium-sized spotted cat
of semi foreign body type with Gooseberry green eyes. It has a
distinctive flap of skin hanging from the belly in front of the hind
legs. This is called a primordial flap. Its purpose is to allow
the cat to run very fast by hyper extending its hind legs. The ears
of the Egyptian Mau are medium and large and set well back on the
head. The eyes are a rounded, almond shape. The head has a
modified wedge with gently rounded contours, and no flat planes.
The neck is muscular and arched. The hind legs are longer than the
fore legs and very muscular leading to small slightly oval paws.
The tail is moderately long thicker the base, tapering slightly to
the tip. The coat is short fine and silky and lies very flat
against the body. It is long enough to have at least two bands of
ticking over the ground colour. The Egyptian Mau has typical Tabby
markings with the M on the forehead, mascara, paler fur around the
eyes and the distinctive horizontal band leading back from the
eyes. Similarly there are rings on the tail which also has a dark
tip, a broken neck lace on the chest and broken rings around the
legs. The Egyptian Mau is always spotted and comes in two ground
colours, either silver or bronze. The silver has brick red nose and
black paw pads. The bronze also has a brick red nose with a light
brown ground colour. The Egyptian Mau may also come may come with
the silver gene in the smoke pattern. Only black smoke is allowed.
Black smoke varieties have black nose and paw pads.
What I am looking for when judging an
Egyptian Mau cat.
I am looking for a very muscular medium-sized
spotted cat of semi foreign body type. It should have a wedge
shaped head with rounded contours and no flat planes. The ears
should be well back on head & eyes should be a rounded almond shape
and gooseberry green. Allowance is made for amber colour eyes in
cats to 18 months old. I am looking for a primordial flap. I am
looking for excellence in spotted markings and ghost tabby markings
in the black smoke variety. I remember that 50 points for this breed
go on the Coat.
Scoring the Egyptian Mau Cat
Coat is worth 50 big ones; 25 for pattern, 15
for colour and 10 for type. Head, neck, nose ears and eyes are worth
35 (with 10 for eyes). The rest of the cat, body legs, paws and tail
are only worth 20 points.
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