A Siamese With A Dense Undercoat?

[oriza]

I inherited my cat from my grandmother, who says she got him from a vet who bred Siamese cats. (There's no pedigree or anything, though.)

I've become skeptical that he actually is Siamese. He's got quite a voice on him, and he's certainly talkative and clingy, but he doesn't quite have the Siamese yowl that I've seen in videos. Plus, he sheds like CRAZY! And not the thick "guard" fur, this fine layer of fur, kind of like down on a bird. I looked it up and apparently this is called the undercoat, but I thought Siamese weren't supposed to have an undercoat?

I'm just curious, because I definitely wasn't expecting to have this much fur flying around the house when I agreed to take him. (I love him to death, but the FUR!)

Here's a couple pictures of him.

 

[Furballsmom]

oh WOW what an absolutely GORGEOUS!!!!!!!! meezer.

He's an old style Siamese to the max, in my opinion (also called applehead). What a totally fabulous cat - thank you, you just took me back to years ago, my mom bred these wonderful guys and gals for a while.

Your boy is maybe just a little wee bit darker in the face than my most favorite best loved never-ever-ever-to-be-replaced baby buddy boy meezer from then.

So, back to the present. You could, if you wanted to, look into adding a little raw egg yolk (egg white much always be cooked) and/or some fish oil (human type, 1000 mg supplement) now and then.

Also, just in case it helps I'll post a couple cat food databases below as the food can make a difference in the coat. -- here are a couple of websites that allow small quantity ordering; Only Natural Pet, The Big Bad Woof, LifesAbundance, and Koha.

CatFoodDB - Cat Food Reviews to help you find the best cat food for your cat

Pet Food Guide

Also, if you don't have these already, pick up a zoom groom and a furminator and/or maybe a gripsoft cat comb. The price has come down significantly on the furminators from a few years ago. Use a slightly dampish cloth or paper towel during the brushing process to help cut down on static electricity buildup.

And, maybe there's something in here or in this article's links to a couple other articles that might help to conquer the shedding issue.
7 Reasons Why You Really Should Groom Your Cat Regularly

 

[Azazel]

He’s definitely a gorgeous Siamese. Not all cats are going to portray every trait associated with a breed.

You can try adding some fish oil supplement to his food to make his coat softer. Unfortunately, most cats shed. It’s just a part of having a cat. Brushing daily should help reduce it somewhat.

By the way, sorry to be nosey but is that a bottle cap, hair tie, and plastic can holder in the background? All of those things are potential hazards to your cat.

 

[abyeb]

He’s so handsome! He does look like an oldstyle Siamese. Oldstyle Siamese do seem to have denser coats than modern Siamese.

 

[1CatOverTheLine]

.
O oriza - While naturally-occurring long-haired Siamese are very uncommon (and not truly long-haired but semi-longhaired), now and again one pops up in a litter. Feline fibroblast growth factor 5 M(utation)4 (Fc2735, identified by DNA sequence analysis) is seen in Siamese populations here and there, and documented here:

Four Independent Mutations in the Feline Fibroblast Growth Factor 5 Gene Determine the Long-Haired Phenotype in Domestic Cats

in Table 2, isolated a little over ten years ago (although semi-longhaired Siamese mutations have been known time out of mind. If you're truly curious, U. C. Davis offers a Feline fibroblast growth factor 5 Mutation Test to identify which, if any, mutation is present:

Cat Long Hair

Said before in this thread, but worth a reiteration: what a gorgeous kitty! Welcome to TCS!
.

 

[StefanZ]

Yes very gorgious of good old style siamese type.

 

[oriza]

Wow!!! You guys gave me so much great information!! Thank you! I super appreciate it, I am looking at my little Malachi in a whole new light!

Furballsmom : I'm glad he could bring back memories! I had no idea he is one of the OG old-style Siamese. That's so cool!! I just googled "applehead" and am learning so much great information about them. And your kitty sounds like a great guy
I will try the fish oil...he's a little picky but maybe he'll like it (can't switch food since he's on a special kidney diet for his 13-year-old kidneys). I do brush him every day with one of these (although it has rounded blunt tips):

it gets a lot of the fur, but no matter how much I brush, it doesn't seem to make a difference, haha. I'll look into acquiring a furminator-- the price tag made me run screaming when I googled it a few years ago, but it's good to know they've become cheaper.

A Azazel : thank you for pointing that out!! I am very lucky that he is an old, old man and although he's very affectionate and sweet, he's not playful at all. He shows absolutely no interest in random knick-nacks like those, and has never tried to eat anything off the floor...I think that hair tie and bottle cap has been there for like a week now (it's been a busy month) and he has never noticed them (and even if he did he wouldn't give a crap about them). He stays in that same spot on the sofa basically every day except when he gets up to eat, or to hang out with my roommates, or to pester me for some of my human food when I'm eating dinner

abyeb : thanks! I didn't know that about appleheads

1CatOverTheLine : Whoa, neat! I don't think he's *truly* longhaired, more like a mediumhair if that's a thing. And thank you for the compliment, I will pass it along

 

[10009891]

He's a Balinese