Siamese Cat Breed - Facts and Personality Traits | Hill's Pet (2024)

Attributes

About the Siamese

Siamese personality

The Siamese cat is not only beautiful, but also she is highly intelligent. She can be trained to walk on a lead. This intelligence does not mean, however, that she can be trained to do everything you might wish. Like most other highly intelligent breeds, the Siamese has her own desires.

The Siamese is an affectionate cat and requires her parent to be as dedicated to her as she is to her parent. Her parent must be affectionate to the Siamese and make time to play with her.

What to expect

With her long, muscular body, weight gain will show quickly in the Siamese. Siamese show a pot belly after indulging in one day of over-eating. The nutrition must be carefully controlled. The long, slim legs are not made to hold a fat body.

Siamese are great jumpers and love heights, so perches and cat trees should be provided. Siamese love to play and appreciate toys around the house for their pleasure. While the coat needs little care, Siamese tend to associate brushing with affection and will enjoy spending time being groomed.

The Siamese, as elegant as she looks, can be quite a lap cat. She is extremely affectionate and will sleep next to her parent.

History of the Siamese

The beautiful Siamese is the legendary temple cat of the King of Siam. The cats were not only valued by the king for their exquisite beauty, but also they were used as guard cats. Siamese would be perched on tall columns around the throne of the king. If anyone threatened the king, the cats would jump down from the pillars onto the individual. Between the size of the Siamese, their strength and their ability to jump down from a height, they would knock the person to the floor. If need be, they would scratch at the face of the person who thought he could harm the King of Siam.

No one knows if this legend is true, but the cat seen by the German naturalist and explorer Peter Simon Pallas may have been a Siamese. This cat was noted in Pallas' reports on explorations of the Caspian Sea in the 1700s. Pallas described her as having ears, paws and tail … quite black. It is of a middle size, has somewhat smaller legs than the common cat and the head is longer toward the nose.

The first Siamese cats in Europe were a gift from the King of Siam to the English consulate general in Bangkok in the late 1800s. The first Siamese cats in western cat fancy were named Pho and Mia. They were a breeding pair brought into England in 1884 by Owen Gould. The kittens from Pho and Mia were exhibited by Mr. Gould's sister at the London show held in the Crystal Palace in 1885. The first Siamese cat in the United States was also a gift from the King of Siam to a friend. In the late 1890s and early 1900s, Siamese cats were imported into North America from Britain, France, Japan, and Siam. The Siamese remained somewhat rare until after World War II, when they quickly became number one in terms of registrations.