Permissible
- All colour varieties and patterns including all colour varieties with white
- Any amount of white
No breeder is on record here yet. Portugal’s FIFe member club does not list this breed in its breeder directory at all, so an absence here says nothing about whether anyone breeds it in Portugal.
Medium-sized, compact cat with round body and no tail or partial tail. Powerful hindquarters give rabbit-like hopping gait.
Ancient breed from the Isle of Man where taillessness developed through isolated island genetics. Taillessness caused by dominant gene. Various tail lengths occur - rumpy (no tail) to longy (full tail).
Generally described as easy going, intelligent, loyal, playful, social, gentle and affectionate.
That is the breed in general, not a promise about one animal. Ask the breeder what their own line is like, and meet the parents before you decide.
Breed reference from The Cat API.
Drawn from sources, not opinion: FIFe breed standard; The Cat API; Vetlexicon Felis — Sacrocaudal dysgenesis of Manx cats. An empty column means we hold nothing for that side, not that there is nothing to say.
The Manx standard is published by the FIFe (Fédération Internationale Féline), the international federation of pedigree-cat clubs, and it is what show judges apply. This section sums up what it says about coat and colour. It does not assess any one animal: use it to know what to ask the breeder.
Double, short and glossy coat.
The undercoat is softer than the dense and springy overcoat.
Permissible
Shortened from FIFe standard MAN — each label is the standard’s own wording with the verdict lifted into the tag beside it. Read the full clause at source. FIFe lists this standard’s last modification as 2026. Text read on 31 Aug 2026.
The colour varieties FIFe recognises for this breed are listed, with their EMS codes, in the table at the end of its standard. FIFe describes each colour group in the General Part of its standards.
The colours and patterns the standard admits, and what it prefers, discourages or disqualifies in each. An accepted colour says nothing about health. Quotations from the FIFe are in English, as the standard publishes them; the headings are ours.
Known hereditary risks for the Manx breed, and the specific documentation to request from any breeder before paying a deposit. A responsible breeder will have these readily available; deflection is a red flag.
3 conditions documentedThis is breed-level literature, not veterinary advice about an individual animal — your vet knows the animal.
Health checklist (PDF)Found in more than about one in twenty of the breed's dogs screened, or described as common in the sources.
Breed-level information from The Cat API. It describes the Manx in general; any individual animal can differ.
An inherited, late-onset loss of the retina's light-sensing cells that leads to blindness. It was first found in Abyssinians and is common in Siamese-group breeds. It is recessive, so a kitten is affected only if it inherits a copy from each parent. In the Manx the evidence is a small screen: 3 of 30 Manx in a 2022 screen of over 11,000 cats carried one copy, roughly one in ten, all three from Finland, while a 2010 survey found none among 19 Manx. Whether it runs through the breed or in particular lines is not known.
What to ask for
UC Davis VGL PRA rdAc (CEP290) DNA test result, on both parents
An inherited, late-onset loss of the retina's light-sensing cells that leads to blindness. It was first found in Abyssinians and is common in Siamese-group breeds. It is recessive, so a kitten is affected only if it inherits a copy from each parent. In the Manx the evidence is a small screen: 3 of 30 Manx in a 2022 screen of over 11,000 cats carried one copy, roughly one in ten, all three from Finland, while a 2010 survey found none among 19 Manx. Whether it runs through the breed or in particular lines is not known.
What to ask for
UC Davis VGL PRA rdAc (CEP290) DNA test result, on both parents
Documented in this breed, but no source says how many of its dogs carry or have them. That is a gap in the evidence, not a sign they are rare.
The same dominant gene that shortens or removes the tail can also disrupt development of the lowest spinal segments and the nerves supplying the hind legs, bladder and bowel. Effects range from none at all to hind-limb weakness, a hopping gait and incontinence, and can include spina bifida. Fully tailless cats ("rumpies") carry the highest risk; the more tail present, the lower the risk.
What to ask for
There is no DNA test for the Manx tail-length gene or for Manx syndrome. Ask for a veterinary neurological and orthopaedic exam of both parents (hind-limb function, tail-stump/sacral palpation, continence) and, for any cat showing signs, spinal imaging.
Not a bleeding disorder. Cats short of clotting factor XII clot normally and are not known to bleed more than other cats, but the standard clotting screen run before surgery (the aPTT) comes back markedly prolonged, which can be mistaken for a dangerous bleeding disorder and lead to a postponed operation or unnecessary treatment. It is recessive, and two F12 variants are tested (c.1321delC and c.1631G>C); the clotting test is most prolonged in cats with two copies of both. In a 2022 screen of over 11,000 cats, 2 of 29 Manx carried one copy of c.1321delC (both from Finland), and none of the 4 Manx tested for c.1631G>C did: too few cats to say how common it is. The study's authors list the Manx among the breeds in which the deficiency has been documented in practice.
What to ask for
Factor XII deficiency (F12) DNA test result, on both parents. It does not affect the kitten's health, but its own result is worth giving to the vet before any surgery or clotting test.
The same dominant gene that shortens or removes the tail can also disrupt development of the lowest spinal segments and the nerves supplying the hind legs, bladder and bowel. Effects range from none at all to hind-limb weakness, a hopping gait and incontinence, and can include spina bifida. Fully tailless cats ("rumpies") carry the highest risk; the more tail present, the lower the risk.
What to ask for
There is no DNA test for the Manx tail-length gene or for Manx syndrome. Ask for a veterinary neurological and orthopaedic exam of both parents (hind-limb function, tail-stump/sacral palpation, continence) and, for any cat showing signs, spinal imaging.
Not a bleeding disorder. Cats short of clotting factor XII clot normally and are not known to bleed more than other cats, but the standard clotting screen run before surgery (the aPTT) comes back markedly prolonged, which can be mistaken for a dangerous bleeding disorder and lead to a postponed operation or unnecessary treatment. It is recessive, and two F12 variants are tested (c.1321delC and c.1631G>C); the clotting test is most prolonged in cats with two copies of both. In a 2022 screen of over 11,000 cats, 2 of 29 Manx carried one copy of c.1321delC (both from Finland), and none of the 4 Manx tested for c.1631G>C did: too few cats to say how common it is. The study's authors list the Manx among the breeds in which the deficiency has been documented in practice.
What to ask for
Factor XII deficiency (F12) DNA test result, on both parents. It does not affect the kitten's health, but its own result is worth giving to the vet before any surgery or clotting test.