Breed · Cat

British Shorthair

Britain's oldest native breed, formalised in the late 1800s from ordinary working street cats.

The British Shorthair is the cat for people who want a cat, not a companion animal that requires a rota. Affectionate on its own terms, uninterested in being carried, content to spend the afternoon in the same room as you doing nothing at all. The dense coat needs more brushing than it looks like it should.

At a glance

Lifespan: 12–17 years
Adult weight: 4–8 kg
Daily attention: 20–40 min
Alone time tolerated: Well
Grooming: Weekly
Noise level: Quiet
With children: Good, dislikes being carried
With other pets: Easygoing
Indoor only: Recommended

Colours · 7 listed

British Blue is the colour everyone pictures, but the breed is recognised in a long list of colours and patterns.

Blue
Black
White
Cream
Lilac
Colourpoint
Tabby

Right for you if

You work full time and want a cat that copes with that.
You want affection without being followed into the bathroom.
You want a quiet household.
You have other pets and want a cat that will not start anything.

Wrong for you if

You want a lap cat that seeks constant contact.
You want an athletic, playful cat into adulthood.
You will not brush a dense coat during the moult.
You are prone to overfeeding — this breed gains weight easily.

Health and breeding — read this part

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy occurs in the breed; cardiac screening of breeding cats is the relevant question, not a DNA test alone.¹
Polycystic kidney disease has a DNA test that tracks the disease reliably — every cat carrying the mutation in one series had the kidney cysts to go with it.² There is no excuse for an untested breeding line.
Weigh them rather than eyeballing them. Under a coat this dense and on a frame this solid, your eye is not a reliable guide.

Sources

Meurs KM, Norgard MM, Kuan M, Haggstrom J, Kittleson M. Analysis of 8 sarcomeric candidate genes for feline hypertrophic cardiomyopathy mutations in cats with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine 2009; 23(4):840-3. International doi:10.1111/j.1939-1676.2009.0341.x PMID 19566849 Sequenced eight candidate genes in affected British Shorthair, Norwegian Forest, Siberian, Sphynx and Maine Coon cats and found no causative mutation — which is why screening, rather than a DNA test, is the question in those breeds. Small numbers.
Helps C, Tasker S, Harley R. Correlation of the feline PKD1 genetic mutation with cases of PKD diagnosed by pathological examination. Experimental and Molecular Pathology 2007; 83(2):264-8. International doi:10.1016/j.yexmp.2007.04.002 PMID 17553488 All 25 cats carrying the PKD1 mutation had renal cysts, supporting the test as reliable. Its cats were Persians, domestic short and longhairs and a Bengal — not British Shorthairs. Two wild-type cats had cysts, so other mutations may exist.

Every source here was checked, not recalled. Where this page makes a health statement and no source appears against it, that is not an oversight we have hidden — it means the claim is not yet sourced, and the build reports how many are in that state.

Availability, registration and keeping requirements differ from place to place. Check the rules where you live before you commit to any animal — we describe animals, not law.