- All colour varieties with the exception of colourpoints, chocolate, cinnamon, fawn, lilac and the same combined with white.
Permissible
- Any amount of white, i.e. a white blaze, white locket, white chest, white on the belly, white on the paws, etc
1 breeder is on record here. 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 to large muscular cat with distinctive pom-pom bobbed tail. Natural breed from Russian Kuril Islands.
Natural breed originating from the Kuril Islands between Russia and Japan. Adapted to harsh island conditions with excellent hunting and fishing skills. Different bobbed tail mutation from Japanese Bobtail.
Generally described as independent, highly intelligent, clever, inquisitive, sociable, playful, trainable 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.
Drawn from sources, not opinion: The Cat API; FIFe breed standard. An empty column means we hold nothing for that side, not that there is nothing to say.
The Kurilian Bobtail 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.
Dense, rather fine in texture.
A fully coated cat is desirable and has a shirtfront, a full frill, and breeches.
Notes
Permissible
Shortened from FIFe standard KBL/KBS — 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 2025. 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.
Nothing hereditary is documented for the Kurilian Bobtail breed, but there is still specific documentation to request from any breeder before paying a deposit. A responsible breeder will have these readily available; deflection is a red flag.
No breed-specific hereditary disease is documented for the Kurilian Bobtail in the sources searched. The breed's own naturally short, curled tail has not been genetically characterised in the peer-reviewed literature found: OMIA's record of the HES7 tail variant responsible for the Japanese Bobtail's tail explicitly describes that mutation as private to the Japanese Bobtail, and the Kurilian Bobtail was not part of the sample in either of the two founding genetic studies on cat bobtails, so its own tail mutation should not be assumed to be the same gene as the Japanese Bobtail's (or the Manx's) without direct evidence. UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory's Kurilian Bobtail Shorthair test list contains only coat-colour, blood-type and parentage tests — no health test is offered or tagged for this breed. This absence reflects how little the breed has been formally studied, not evidence that it is unusually healthy.
What to ask for anyway
Breed-level information from The Cat API. It describes the Kurilian Bobtail in general; any individual animal can differ.