- Permissible: All colour varieties and patterns including all colour varieties with white
- Permissible: Any amount of white
About the Cymric
View Cymric breedersSee Cymric 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
- 8-14 years
- Size
- Medium — from its typical weight
- Weight
- 3.6-5.9 kg
- Height
- 25-30 cm
- Registry status
- Recognised by TICA
- Breed group
- Long-haired
- Origin
- Isle of Man/Canada
- Known hereditary risks
- 1 documented condition, with the test for each
About
What is a Cymric?
Medium-sized longhaired tailless cat, the longhaired version of the Manx. Round body with powerful hindquarters.
Cymric history and origins
Longhaired kittens have always appeared in Manx litters. Recognized as a separate breed in the 1960s-70s. Named after Cymru, the Welsh name for Wales. Same tailless mutation as Manx.
Cymric appearance and size
Typically 3.6-5.9 kg and 25-30 cm at the shoulder — published as one range rather than separately for males and females.
Cymric temperament and personality
Generally described as gentle, loyal, intelligent, playful and devoted.
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
- 4 of 5
- Grooming needs
- 4 of 5
- Good with children
- —
- Cost to keep
- —
- Tolerates being alone
- —
- Intelligence
- —
- Health of breed
- 1 condition documented
Pros & cons
Pros & cons for the Cymric
What you get with the Cymric
- Commonly described as: “Gentle, Loyal, Intelligent, Playful”
What you are taking on
- One serious inherited condition is documented, in bones & joints. The health guide tab has the test to ask a breeder for.
- High grooming needs — the standard’s own description is “Gradually longer from shoulders to rump with a tendency to a frill and knickerbockers.”
Drawn from sources rather than written as an opinion — cited health research, the registry’s own standard, and peer-reviewed longevity. The Cat API; Universities Federation for Animal Welfare (UFAW), compiled with veterinary surgeons, citing Deforest & Basrur 1979 (Canadian Veterinary Journal) and Robinson 1993 (Journal of Heredity) among other peer-reviewed sources; FIFe breed standard. 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 · Cymric
Coat and colour
As the FIFe standard sets it out. Every line below is the standard’s own wording, tagged permissible.
Coat
Medium length double coat.
Soft and silky overcoat.
Undercoat soft and thick, well-padded all over the body.
Gradually longer from shoulders to rump with a tendency to a frill and knickerbockers.
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 CYM — each label is the standard’s own wording with the verdict lifted into the tag beside it. Read the full clause at source.
TICA divisions
TICA lists the Cymric in these divisions. They are the registry's own groupings — usually hair length — not a list of colours: no registry we hold publishes one. Ask a breeder what colours their line produces.
- Tailed
Temperament
GentleLoyalIntelligentPlayfulDevoted
Breed-level information from The Cat API. It describes the Cymric in general; any individual animal can differ.
Health guide
Health & screening guide for the Cymric
Known hereditary risks for the Cymric 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)Bones & joints
Manx syndrome (sacrocaudal dysgenesis / spina bifida complex)
SeriousInherent to the breed
Cymric is the longhaired variant of the Manx and carries the same autosomal dominant 'M' gene responsible for taillessness. The same mutation frequently disrupts development of the sacral and caudal spinal cord and vertebrae, producing a spectrum of spina bifida-type defects. Reported signs include an abnormal hopping gait, urinary and faecal incontinence, loss of sensation around the perineum, and (in stumpy-tailed cats) painful arthritis in the tail stump. A 1979 study found 7 of 44 Manx kittens (16%), all completely tailless 'rumpy' cats, affected. Severely affected kittens can die in utero or require early euthanasia. Homozygous cats (two copies of the mutant gene) do not survive to birth.
What to ask for
No DNA test for degree of expression exists. Diagnosis of the spinal defects is by veterinary neurological examination, radiography, myelography or MRI. Tail length/type (rumpy, rumpy-riser, stumpy, or fully tailed) can be assessed on physical examination but does not reliably predict which cats will have spinal cord involvement.
Gallery
No photographs yet
This is where Cymric 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 Cymric 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.