- Permissible: All colour varieties and patterns, including those with white
- Permissible: Any amount of white
About the Donskoy
Origin: Russia
View Donskoy breedersSee Donskoy kittens
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.
- Typical life span
- 12-15 years
- Size
- Medium — from its typical weight
- Weight
- 3.2-6.8 kg
- Height
- 25-30 cm
- Registry status
- Recognised by TICA
- Breed group
- Hairless
- Origin
- Russia
- Known hereditary risks
- 1 documented condition, with the test for each
About
What is a Donskoy?
Medium-sized hairless or partially hairless cat with wrinkled skin, long ears, and almond-shaped eyes. Russian origin hairless breed.
Donskoy history and origins
Discovered in 1987 in Rostov-on-Don, Russia. Unlike the Sphynx, the Donskoy hairlessness is caused by a dominant gene. Also called Don Sphynx. Recognized by TICA.
Donskoy appearance and size
Typically 3.2-6.8 kg and 25-30 cm at the shoulder — published as one range rather than separately for males and females.
Donskoy temperament and personality
Generally described as playful, affectionate, loyal, social, intelligent and gentle.
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.
Characteristics
- Size
- Medium
- Exercise needs
- —
- Easy to train
- —
- Amount of shedding
- 1 of 5
- Grooming needs
- 1 of 5
- Good with children
- —
- Cost to keep
- —
- Tolerates being alone
- —
- Intelligence
- —
- Health of breed
- 1 condition documented
Pros & cons
Pros & cons for the Donskoy
What you get with the Donskoy
- Low grooming needs, fitting for a busy owner — the coat is “Hairless: appears hairless”
- Commonly described as: “Playful, Affectionate, Loyal, Social”
What you are taking on
- One documented hereditary condition, none of them classed as serious — each with the test to ask a breeder for, on the health guide tab.
Drawn from sources rather than written as an opinion — cited health research, the registry’s own standard, and peer-reviewed longevity. FIFe breed standard; The Cat API. One breeder’s animals can differ from any of it, and an empty column means we hold nothing for that side rather than that there is nothing to say.
Characteristics
FIFe standard · Donskoy
Coat and colour
As the FIFe standard sets it out. Every line below is the standard’s own wording, tagged permissible.
Coat
Complete hairlessness is preferred.
Short harsh hair on the muzzle, ears and legs may occur.
Notes
- Hairless: appears hairless.
- Flock: residual flock hair with no more than 2 mm length on the whole body.
- Brush: fine wavy, often wire hair on the whole body, with bold areas on the head, upper part of neck or on the back of more than 2 mm in length.
Colour
- Preferred
- Permissible
- Undesirable
- Disqualifying
Preferred, permissible, undesirable and disqualifying are FIFe’s own words about the breed. They describe what the standard asks for — not an assessment of any individual dog, and not ours.
Shortened from FIFe standard DSP — each label is the standard’s own wording with the verdict lifted into the tag beside it. Read the full clause at source.
Temperament
PlayfulAffectionateLoyalSocialIntelligentGentle
Breed-level information from The Cat API. It describes the Donskoy in general; any individual animal can differ.
Health guide
Health & screening guide for the Donskoy
Known hereditary risks for the Donskoy 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.
1 condition documentedThis is breed-level literature, not veterinary advice about an individual animal — your vet knows the animal.
Health checklist (PDF)Skin & coat
Hypotrichosis (hairlessness)
MonitorInherent to the breed
Donskoy's hairlessness is a single-gene, autosomal incomplete-dominant trait, catalogued by OMIA as disease-related. It is molecularly distinct from Sphynx hairlessness: KRT71, the gene responsible for the Sphynx mutation, has been explicitly ruled out as the cause in Donskoy, and no causal gene for the Donskoy trait has yet been identified. As the defining trait itself rather than a discrete disease, it carries secondary management needs typical of hairless cats generally (skin fold care, sunburn and temperature-regulation sensitivity), though those have not been documented specifically for Donskoy by a source in the approved list and are not asserted as confirmed findings here.
What to ask for
No DNA test exists or is possible while the causal gene remains unidentified.
Gallery
No photographs yet
This is where Donskoy owners’ own photographs will go, from the pet profiles they keep here. Nobody has added one to a public page yet.
A photograph in a pet profile stays private to its owner. We will not put one here unless they ask us to.
Kittens
No kittens listed right now
No Donskoy breeder has a record on this platform yet, so there is nothing to list. That is a gap in our coverage, not a fact about the breed.