Coat

Short-haired cat breeds

The lower-maintenance coats, and why one of them carries a Persian's problems behind a short-haired face.

Quick answer

Short-haired cat breeds carry far less grooming load than long-haired ones, which matters in Indian humidity where a matting coat becomes a skin problem. Coat length is not a health grade though. The Exotic Shorthair is a short-coated Persian and inherits the flat face with it, so it shares the Persian's airway and eye issues despite the easier coat.

40Guides in this group
40 of 40Rated for heat tolerance
1,320Sources cited across the group

The breeds

A short coat is the single biggest reduction in grooming work an Indian cat owner can choose. It says nothing about the rest of the cat.

AbyssinianWhat an Abyssinian actually costs in India, the two cheek-swab DNA tests that decide whether your kitten stays healthy, why the...American ShorthairWhat an American Shorthair actually costs in India, why published prices differ by 38 times, the four points in the breed...American WirehairWhy no Indian source publishes a price for this cat, what the crimped coat mutation actually is sixty years after it appeared,...Aphrodite's GiantA Cypriot mountain landrace with two published WCF standards, a contested TICA status, and no lawful route into India.Arabian MauOne registry recognises this Gulf street cat, no study has ever measured its famous desert adaptation, and no Indian seller could...AsianA British breed group of five varieties with an adjective for a name, one registry in the world, 121 registrations last year, and...Australian MistOne of the few cat breeds with a founder, a dated permission-to-experiment, a published foundation ratio and a genuine...BengalWhat a Bengal cat actually costs in India, why published prices disagree by 25 times, what the law says about a breed descended...BombayAn American breed with an Indian name, two inherited risks borrowed from the Burmese, and four registries that cannot agree on...Brazilian ShorthairA standardised Brazilian street cat, the first Brazilian breed to reach international recognition, held by the World Cat...British ShorthairWhat a British Shorthair actually costs in India, why published prices disagree by 34 times, the two DNA tests the British...BurmeseWhat a Burmese actually costs in India, why the country's largest cat marketplace lists none at all, the two head types that...BurmillaThe 1981 accident that made the breed, what the registries actually require a breeder to test for, and whether a silver...ChartreuxWhat a Chartreux actually costs in India, why the one Indian figure describes a market that does not exist, which four registries...ChausieA domestic cat crossed with a protected Indian wild animal. Read the legal position before you read the price.Colorpoint ShorthairWhether the Colorpoint Shorthair is a breed or a colour of the Siamese has no single answer, and this page publishes the...Egyptian MauA naturally spotted breed with three founders, an Indian bloodline, and one health risk that changes how you keep it here.European ShorthairThree registries publish a written standard for this cat and three do not hold it at all. France's studbook registered two...Exotic ShorthairWhat an Exotic Shorthair actually costs in India, which Persian health findings have been measured in Exotics and which are being...Havana BrownWhat the Havana Brown actually is depends on which registry you ask, and the answer changes the rarity story. Here is the...KanaaniOne registry, six accepted colour varieties, a closed register since 2008, and a wildcat story that appears nowhere in the...Khao ManeeA white Thai cat whose Indian price comes from a carousel containing eight dogs, and whose history two Thai state and university...KoratA Thai natural breed with a heart-shaped head, one permitted colour, two fatal recessive diseases with DNA tests, and 97...ManxOne in five short-tailed Manx cats carries a further congenital anomaly, and nine in ten of those are the tailless rumpy the show...Mekong BobtailThe only breed standard this cat has anywhere requires two things at once: a tail nobody has genotyped, and a tyrosinase allele...OcicatA spotted cat with no wild ancestry, a short coat that genuinely suits India, one published Indian price, and a urinary stone...Oriental ShorthairWhat an Oriental Shorthair actually costs in India, why four registries disagree about whether it is a Siamese, why no Indian...RaasOne island, four colours, a mandatory kinked tail, and about 500 cats left. Almost nothing written in English about this cat is...Russian BlueWhat a Russian Blue actually costs in India, why published prices disagree by 20 times, the four free checks that separate the...Russian White, Russian Black and Russian TabbyWikipedia's title says three breeds. Not one registry on earth agrees, and the registry that holds these cats bars the third one...SavannahA serval crossed into a domestic cat, sold worldwide as a domestic breed, banned outright by one national registry and absent...SerengetiA long-legged spotted cat built by a conservation biologist to look like a serval without using one, recognised by exactly one...SiameseWhat a Siamese cat actually costs in India, why published prices disagree by eight times, why your cat's coat colour tracks your...SingapuraThe world's smallest pedigreed cat, from a homeland that barely has any, with the lowest genetic diversity ever measured in a cat...SnowshoeA pointed bicolour cat built in Philadelphia, with mandatory blue eyes, a documented neuropathy in young cats, and no Indian...SokokeA short-coated Kenyan forest cat with a bark-like coat, recognised by three registries, and registered zero times by the largest...SuphalakA solid copper-brown Thai cat with a single recognised colour, held by one registry of six, and the subject of exactly one...ThaiThe old-style Siamese, recognised under four different registry filings, absent from every Indian price list, and called a...TonkineseA Siamese and Burmese cross with three coat patterns, three eye colours, no FIFe recognition, and the highest breed odds of...ToygerA designed breed whose own standard calls it a designer cat, whose foundation includes a street cat imported from Kashmir in...

Compare the breeds side by side

To compare these 40 breeds directly, read across the table rather than down the guides. Heat tolerance is a Bonbeno rating out of 5 for Indian conditions, and the reasoning behind each one sits on the breed's own page.

Every cat breed in this group, with its Bonbeno heat rating and its published Indian price. Where a page publishes more than one price band, the lowest is shown; open the guide for the full comparison and its sources.
BreedHeat tolerancePublished price, India
Abyssinian4 of 5Rs 15,000 to Rs 50,000
American Shorthair3 of 5Rs 10,000 to Rs 40,000
American Wirehair3 of 5None. Neither of India's two main cat price guides carries the breed at all
Aphrodite's Giant2 of 5See page
Arabian Mau4 of 5Rs 0 to Rs 2,000
Asian3 of 5None, for any of the five varieties
Australian Mist4 of 5No published figure
Bengal3 of 5Rs 20,000 to Rs 5,00,000
Bombay3 of 5Rs 10,000 to Rs 30,000
Brazilian Shorthair5 of 50 of 206,421 characters
British Shorthair2 of 5Rs 20,000 to Rs 2,06,999 across eight sources
Burmese4 of 5Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000, availability Rare
Burmilla4 of 5Zero of 14 breeds priced
Chartreux2 of 5Rs 30,000 to Rs 80,000, on a page whose healthcare and grooming cost lines are identical to the rupee on four other cat breeds
Chausie4 of 5See page
Colorpoint Shorthair4 of 5Rs 30,000 to Rs 60,000, on a page whose healthcare, food and monthly cost lines are identical to the rupee on unrelated breeds
Egyptian Mau3 of 5Rs 40,000 to Rs 80,000, one source
European Shorthair3 of 50 of 12. The rest return British Shorthair and Exotic Shorthair
Exotic Shorthair2 of 5Rs 20,000 to Rs 1,50,000+
Havana Brown3 of 5Rs 20,000 to Rs 50,000 on one and Rs 50,000 to Rs 1,00,000 or more on the other, a disagreement of a factor of two at both ends
Kanaani4 of 5None sourced. India's cat-price guide and its 40-breed climate guide both return zero for Kanaani
Khao Manee5 of 5Not verifiable. The one Indian guide prints Rs 30,000 to Rs 70,000; the listing page cited alongside it prices only dogs
Korat5 of 5None sourced. India's leading cat-price guide lists 16 breeds and the Korat is not one of them
Manx2 of 5Rs 30,000 to Rs 60,000, described as very rare in India
Mekong Bobtail4 of 5Rs 13,895, for a gold necklace
Ocicat4 of 5Rs 50,000 to Rs 90,000 pet quality and Rs 1,00,000 to Rs 2,00,000 or more show quality, on a page that also heads a section How to Choose a Healthy Puppy
Oriental Shorthair5 of 5Rs 20,000 to Rs 60,000
Raas5 of 5None sourced. India's 40-breed cat guide and its cat-price guide both return zero for Raas and Busok
Russian Blue4 of 5Rs 30,000
Russian White, Russian Black and Russian Tabby3 of 5None sourced. India's leading cat-price guide names no Russian at all, in any colour
Savannah4 of 5None found. Six Indian commerce pages checked, zero carry the breed, with three control breeds on all six
Serengeti4 of 5None found. Six Indian commerce pages checked, zero carry the breed, with three control breeds on all six
Siamese4 of 5Rs 15,000 to Rs 40,000
Singapura4 of 5None found. The overseas range is 1,200 to 2,500 US dollars for a pet kitten and up to 4,000 for show lines
Snowshoe4 of 5None found. The overseas guide range is about 1,500 to 3,000 US dollars for a pet-quality kitten
Sokoke5 of 5None found. Six Indian commerce pages checked, zero carry the breed, with three control breeds on all six
Suphalak5 of 5None found. Six Indian commerce pages checked, zero carry the breed, with three control breeds on all six
Thai5 of 5None sourced. India's leading cat-price guide lists 14 breeds and the Thai is not one of them
Tonkinese5 of 5Rs 25,000 to Rs 45,000 on two Indian sites that print identical figures, so one data point rather than two
Toyger4 of 5No Indian supply and no reliable figure. The only Indian rupee listing is a children's book at Rs 8,808

What matters in this group

The points below are what the evidence on these 40 guides actually supports, not what the category is assumed to mean.

  • The Exotic Shorthair is the trap in this group. It is a short-coated Persian, bred deliberately to carry the Persian head on an easier coat, and it inherits the flat face along with it. The grooming saving is real and the airway, eye and tear-duct issues come with the package.
  • Short-haired does not mean low-shedding, and neither means hypoallergenic. The Fel d 1 protein that people react to varies far more between individual cats than between breeds, so no breed on this page can be sold to an allergic buyer as a solution.
  • Health screening in cats is breed-specific rather than shared, and a certificate naming the wrong gene tells a buyer nothing. Each guide states which test actually applies to that breed instead of listing every cat DNA panel a seller might wave.
How this page is built

Membership is generated from the breed data itself, not typed by hand, so this list cannot drift from the guides it points at and fills in as more publish. The 40 guides here cite 1320 sources between them.

Health information on this page

This page is a directory of published Bonbeno guides, generated from their data rather than written as clinical guidance, so no veterinarian reviewed this page itself. Each linked guide carries its own veterinary review and its own health sections. Breed level evidence describes populations, and your animal is an individual, so consult your nearby vet before acting on anything you read here.

Common questions

How does Bonbeno decide which breeds belong on this page?

Membership is generated from each breed's own published data rather than chosen by an editor. The group is defined by a shared trait rather than a rating, so its members are named in the site's own cluster definition and each one is checked against the published guide before it appears. A breed appears here the moment its guide publishes and meets that rule, and never before, which is why no link on this page can point at a guide that does not exist.

What is a Bonbeno heat tolerance rating?

It is a 1 to 5 rating of how well a breed copes with Indian conditions, where 5 is best. Almost no international breed reference publishes one, and in a country where summer temperatures pass 45 C it is the most decision-relevant trait there is. It is Bonbeno's own judgement, built from published heat-illness evidence where that exists and stated as inference where it does not.

Are the prices on this page current?

Each price is read from that breed's own guide, where it is compared across published Indian sources and cited. Published Indian breed prices disagree widely between sellers, sometimes by more than a lakh for the same breed, so treat the figure here as the lowest band Bonbeno found and read the guide for the full range.

Does Bonbeno sell or broker any of these cats?

No. Bonbeno does not sell pet food, products or animals and does not broker puppy or kitten sales. Nothing on this page is a listing, and no breeder or seller can pay to appear on it.