2 breeders are on record here.
Medium-sized, elegant cat with distinctive colorpoint pattern, blue eyes, and wedge-shaped head. One of the most recognizable breeds.
One of the oldest recognized breeds, originating in Thailand (Siam). Favored by Thai royalty. First came to the West in the 1880s. Modern show Siamese has more extreme features than traditional type.
Generally described as active, agile, clever, sociable, loving, energetic 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; "Generalized AA-amyloidosis in Siamese and Oriental cats", 1997 (PubMed). An empty column means we hold nothing for that side, not that there is nothing to say.
The Siamese 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.
Very short, fine, glossy, silky and lying close to the body.
Almost no undercoat.
Base colour
mask in the face, points on ears, legs and tail
Permissible
Shortened from FIFe standard SIA — 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.
A tick means FIFe recognises that colour in at least one variety with that pattern. It does not mean every combination is recognised.
| Colour | Solid | Tabby | Pointed | With white |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black | Not accepted | Accepted | Accepted | Accepted |
| Blue | Not accepted | Accepted | Accepted | Accepted |
| Chocolate | Not accepted | Accepted | Accepted | Accepted |
| Lilac | Not accepted | Accepted | Accepted | Accepted |
| Cinnamon | Not accepted | Accepted | Accepted | Accepted |
| Fawn | Not accepted | Accepted | Accepted | Accepted |
| Red | Not accepted | Accepted | Accepted | Accepted |
| Cream | Not accepted | Accepted | Accepted | Accepted |
| Black tortie | Not accepted | Accepted | Accepted | Accepted |
| Blue tortie | Not accepted | Accepted | Accepted | Accepted |
| Chocolate tortie | Not accepted | Accepted | Accepted | Accepted |
| Lilac tortie | Not accepted | Accepted | Accepted | Accepted |
| Cinnamon tortie | Not accepted | Accepted | Accepted | Accepted |
| Fawn tortie | Not accepted | Accepted | Accepted | Accepted |
| White | Accepted | Not accepted | Not accepted | Not accepted |
Read from the table at the end of the FIFe standard. Smoke, silver, golden and corin are FIFe’s own names; the exact EMS codes and the eye colours are in the standard.
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 Siamese 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.
6 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 Siamese in general; any individual animal can differ.
This inherited retinal disease causes slow, progressive vision loss and eventual blindness. It was first identified in Abyssinians and is often sold as an 'Abyssinian test', but a large-scale genetic survey of over 11,000 cats found the same mutation at high frequency — roughly a third of the Siamese tested — making it a genuine concern for this breed as well.
What to ask for
PRA-rdAc (CEP290) DNA test result for both parents (UC Davis VGL or an equivalent laboratory)
This inherited retinal disease causes slow, progressive vision loss and eventual blindness. It was first identified in Abyssinians and is often sold as an 'Abyssinian test', but a large-scale genetic survey of over 11,000 cats found the same mutation at high frequency — roughly a third of the Siamese tested — making it a genuine concern for this breed as well.
What to ask for
PRA-rdAc (CEP290) DNA test result for both parents (UC Davis VGL or an equivalent laboratory)
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.
Amyloidosis is a build-up of abnormal protein deposits, mainly in the liver, that is generally fatal once advanced; it has been studied for decades in Siamese and Oriental lines and tends to appear between one and seven years old. Its inheritance is complex — pedigree analysis points to a mix of one or a few major genes plus smaller background effects — and while researchers have found DNA markers associated with it, there is not yet a commercial diagnostic test.
What to ask for
No commercial DNA screening test currently exists. Ask the breeder about any history of sudden liver or kidney failure, or unexplained early deaths, among related cats.
Amyloidosis is a build-up of abnormal protein deposits, mainly in the liver, that is generally fatal once advanced; it has been studied for decades in Siamese and Oriental lines and tends to appear between one and seven years old. Its inheritance is complex — pedigree analysis points to a mix of one or a few major genes plus smaller background effects — and while researchers have found DNA markers associated with it, there is not yet a commercial diagnostic test.
What to ask for
No commercial DNA screening test currently exists. Ask the breeder about any history of sudden liver or kidney failure, or unexplained early deaths, among related cats.
Described in this breed, but found in few or no dogs in recent screening, or only ever in one dog or one family. They are here so a test result makes sense if a breeder mentions one.
A fatal inherited storage disease of the nervous system. A missing enzyme (beta-galactosidase) lets a fatty substance build up in nerve cells, and affected kittens develop a severe, progressive loss of movement control. It is recessive, so a kitten is affected only if it inherits a copy from each parent. The disease was first described in a young Siamese in 1971, and its GLB1 mutation was identified in affected Siamese in the United States; the same mutation was later found in a Siamese diagnosed in Japan in the 1960s and in Korats in Italy. No population figure finds it today: none of 146 Siamese, and none of the 11,036 cats, in a 2022 screen carried it.
What to ask for
GM1 gangliosidosis (GLB1) DNA test result, on both parents
Mucopolysaccharidosis VI is an inherited enzyme deficiency. Its severe form, in cats with two copies of the ARSB variant L476P, causes stunted growth, joint disease and hind-limb weakness or paralysis by around eight months old; cats with one L476P and one copy of a second variant, D520N, look normal but often develop joint disease. L476P was absent from 101 healthy Siamese screened in 2003, and none of 146 Siamese in a 2022 screen of over 11,000 cats carried it. D520N is common (37 of those 146 Siamese had one copy and 1 had two), but on its own it has not been linked to any disease and is no reason to exclude a cat from breeding; it matters only alongside L476P. UC Davis's genetics laboratory specifically lists Siamese among the breeds it recommends testing for this condition.
What to ask for
Mucopolysaccharidosis VI (MPS VI) DNA test result for both parents, for the severe L476P variant (UC Davis VGL or an equivalent laboratory)
An inherited kidney disease in which fluid-filled cysts form in both kidneys and enlarge over the years, often leading to kidney failure in middle or later life. It is dominant: one copy of the PKD1 mutation is enough to cause cysts. It is mainly a disease of Persian-type cats, and the evidence in the Siamese is thin: in Turkey, 2 of 6 Siamese referred with kidney changes on ultrasound carried the mutation, while none of 20 healthy Siamese did, and none of 146 Siamese in a 2022 screen of over 11,000 cats, most from the United States and Finland, carried it. Four Siamese in the Turkish study with enlarged kidneys but no cysts did not carry it, so a clear PKD1 result does not rule out other kidney disease in a line.
What to ask for
PKD1 DNA test on both parents
An inherited fault in how the body makes haem, the part of haemoglobin that carries oxygen. Affected cats have brown teeth from the time the teeth come through, at about three weeks old, that glow pink under ultraviolet light, and brownish urine; the cats studied had at most a mild anaemia, and the sudden abdominal and nervous attacks this disease causes in people have not been seen in cats. These forms are dominant: one copy of the HMBS mutation is enough. Two different mutations have been found in Siamese cats, each in a single family: one in a line founded from an affected Siamese referred from Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1983, and one in a line founded from an affected Siamese referred from Massachusetts in 2002. Neither was carried by any of 146 Siamese, or any of the 11,036 cats, in a 2022 screen.
What to ask for
Acute intermittent porphyria (HMBS, Siamese type) DNA test result, on both parents
A fatal inherited storage disease of the nervous system. A missing enzyme (beta-galactosidase) lets a fatty substance build up in nerve cells, and affected kittens develop a severe, progressive loss of movement control. It is recessive, so a kitten is affected only if it inherits a copy from each parent. The disease was first described in a young Siamese in 1971, and its GLB1 mutation was identified in affected Siamese in the United States; the same mutation was later found in a Siamese diagnosed in Japan in the 1960s and in Korats in Italy. No population figure finds it today: none of 146 Siamese, and none of the 11,036 cats, in a 2022 screen carried it.
What to ask for
Median age at death 13.1 years
Middle half of deaths between 7.7 and 15.7 years, from 88 recorded deaths. 6.8% of them were before age two.
Computed from United Kingdom veterinary records covering 7,936 deaths. This is an age at death, not a life expectancy: half the cats of this breed in the records died younger.
Dataset: O'Neill, D. & Teng, K.T. (2024), Figshare, doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.25006802, CC BY 4.0. Teng, K.T., Brodbelt, D.C., Church, D.B. & O'Neill, D.G. (2024) Life tables of annual life expectancy and risk factors for mortality in cats in the United Kingdom. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery 26(5).
GM1 gangliosidosis (GLB1) DNA test result, on both parents
An inherited kidney disease in which fluid-filled cysts form in both kidneys and enlarge over the years, often leading to kidney failure in middle or later life. It is dominant: one copy of the PKD1 mutation is enough to cause cysts. It is mainly a disease of Persian-type cats, and the evidence in the Siamese is thin: in Turkey, 2 of 6 Siamese referred with kidney changes on ultrasound carried the mutation, while none of 20 healthy Siamese did, and none of 146 Siamese in a 2022 screen of over 11,000 cats, most from the United States and Finland, carried it. Four Siamese in the Turkish study with enlarged kidneys but no cysts did not carry it, so a clear PKD1 result does not rule out other kidney disease in a line.
What to ask for
PKD1 DNA test on both parents
Mucopolysaccharidosis VI is an inherited enzyme deficiency. Its severe form, in cats with two copies of the ARSB variant L476P, causes stunted growth, joint disease and hind-limb weakness or paralysis by around eight months old; cats with one L476P and one copy of a second variant, D520N, look normal but often develop joint disease. L476P was absent from 101 healthy Siamese screened in 2003, and none of 146 Siamese in a 2022 screen of over 11,000 cats carried it. D520N is common (37 of those 146 Siamese had one copy and 1 had two), but on its own it has not been linked to any disease and is no reason to exclude a cat from breeding; it matters only alongside L476P. UC Davis's genetics laboratory specifically lists Siamese among the breeds it recommends testing for this condition.
What to ask for
Mucopolysaccharidosis VI (MPS VI) DNA test result for both parents, for the severe L476P variant (UC Davis VGL or an equivalent laboratory)
An inherited fault in how the body makes haem, the part of haemoglobin that carries oxygen. Affected cats have brown teeth from the time the teeth come through, at about three weeks old, that glow pink under ultraviolet light, and brownish urine; the cats studied had at most a mild anaemia, and the sudden abdominal and nervous attacks this disease causes in people have not been seen in cats. These forms are dominant: one copy of the HMBS mutation is enough. Two different mutations have been found in Siamese cats, each in a single family: one in a line founded from an affected Siamese referred from Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1983, and one in a line founded from an affected Siamese referred from Massachusetts in 2002. Neither was carried by any of 146 Siamese, or any of the 11,036 cats, in a 2022 screen.
What to ask for
Acute intermittent porphyria (HMBS, Siamese type) DNA test result, on both parents
