Singapura
The Singapura is the smallest recognised cat breed, with adults weighing between 2 and 4 kilograms.
It has a ticked sepia-toned coat, very large ears and disproportionately large eyes, giving a permanently kittenish look that it keeps for life.
Its origin is genuinely disputed. The founding story is of street cats collected in Singapore in the 1970s, but records showed the foundation cats had been taken from the United States to Singapore first, and genetic studies find the breed close to the Burmese and Abyssinian. Singapore adopted it as a national mascot regardless. The small founding population is the main practical concern: the gene pool is narrow.
- Origin
- Disputed — Singapore and the United States both feature
- Size
- 2–4 kg — the smallest recognised breed
- Lifespan
- 11–15 years
- Coat
- Short, ticked, in a single sepia agouti colour
- Temperament
- Curious, active, people-oriented, stays kittenish
- Health
- Narrow gene pool; PK deficiency and uterine inertia
Related: Abyssinian · Burmese
2 singapura photos, newest first
Living with a singapura
The narrow gene pool is the issue that matters. Ask what a breeder does about genetic diversity and whether they test for pyruvate kinase deficiency, which occurs through the Abyssinian-related ancestry.
Uterine inertia — a failure of labour to progress — is reported in Singapura queens, which is a breeder concern rather than an owner one but says something about the population's health.
They are small but not delicate, and they are extremely active and curious, favouring high places and shoulders. Give height.
They are people-oriented and dislike solitude.
The short coat needs a weekly brush. Being small, they are easy to overfeed by eye — measure.
General guidance, not veterinary advice. Individual cats vary, and anything about a specific animal is a question for a vet who has seen it.
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