Codes used in PawPeds for Cat Breeds and Colours

The breed and colour system we use is based on FIFe's Easy Mind System. The codes have however been slightly modified, since the codes partly depend on what breeds and colours a cat organisation has accepted. For instance, we do not use "non" for breeds that are not recognized by the FIFe.

If you have found a code in a pedigree database which is not in this list, please contact one of the maintainers for that database (click on the "Submit info" link at the top of the page where you see the irregular code to find the maintainers).

Latest update: 2022-04-03

Breed Codes

ABL = American Bobtail Longhair
ABS = American Bobtail Shorthair
ABX = American Bobtail, not known if shorthaired or longhaired
ABY = Abyssinian
ACL = American Curl Longhair
ACS = American Curl Shorthair
ACX = American Curl, not known if shorthaired or longhaired
AMS = American Shorthair
AMW = American Wirehair
ALH = Asian Longhair
ASH = Asian Shorthair
AXH = Asian, not known if shorthaired or longhaired
AUM = Australian Mist
BAL = Balinese
BEN = Bengal
BGL = Bengal longhair (Cashmere)
BML = Burmilla
BOL = Bombay Longhair
BOS = Bombay Shorthair
BOX = Bombay, not known if shorthaired or longhaired
BRI = British Shorthair
BRL = British Longhair
BRX = Bohemian Rex
BUR = Burmese
CEY = Ceylon
CHA = Chartreux
CHS = Chausie
CRX = Cornish Rex
CYM = Cymric
DRX = Devon Rex
DSP = Don Sphynx
EUR = European Shorthair
EXO = Exotic Shorthair
GRX = German Rex
HCL = Domestic cat, longhaired
HCS = Domestic cat, shorthaired
HCX = Domestic cat, not known if shorthaired or longhaired
JBL = Japanese Bobtail Longhair
JBS = Japanese Bobtail Shorthair
JBX = Japanese Bobtail, not known if shorthaired or longhaired
KBL = Kurilean Bobtail Longhair
KBS = Kurilean Bobtail Shorthair
KBS = Kurilean Bobtail, not known if shorthaired or longhaired
KMA = Khao Manee
KOR = Korat
LPL = La Perm Longhair
LPS = La Perm Shorthair
LYK = Lykoi
MAN = Manx
MAU = Egyptian Mau
MCO = Maine Coon
MNL = Munchkin, longhaired variety
MNS = Munchkin, shorthaired variety
MNX = Munchkin, not known if shorthaired or longhaired
NEB = Nebelung
NBS = Nebelung, shorthaired variety
NEM = Neva Masquerade (= colourpoint SIB)
NFO = Norwegian Forest Cat
OCI = Ocicat
OLH = Oriental Longhair
OSH = Oriental Shorthair
PBL = Pixie-Bob Longhair
PBS = Pixie-Bob Shorthair
PBX = Pixie-Bob, not known if shorthaired or longhaired
PEB = Peterbald
PER = Persian
RAG = Ragdoll (always colourpoint, 33)
RGD = Ragdoll type cats, registered as Ragdolls in their association, but they are not colourpoint (33) like the RAG.
RGM = Ragamuffin
RUS = Russian Blue, but we also use this code for Russian type cats of other colours than blue
SAV = Savannah
SBI = Birman LH (Sacred Birman)
SBS = Birman SH (Temple Cat)
SFL = Scottish Fold Longhair
SFS = Scottish Fold Shorthair
SFX = Scottish Fold, not known if shorthaired or longhaired
SGT = Serengeti
SIA = Siamese
SIB = Siberian
SIN = Singapura
SNO = Snowshoe
SOK = Sokoke
SOM = Somali
SPH = Sphynx
SRL = Selkirk Rex Longhair
SRS = Selkirk Rex Shorthair
SRX = Selkirk Rex, not known if longhair or shorthair
THA = Thai
TIF = Tiffany
TOL = Tonkinese Longhair
TOS = Tonkinese Shorthair
TOX = Tonkinese, not known if longhair or shorthair
TOY = Toyger
TRX = Tennessee Rex, not know if longhair or shorthair
TRL = Tennessee Rex, Longhair
TRS = Tennessee Rex, Shorthair
TUA = Turkish Angora
TUV = Turkish Van
UKL = Ukrainian Levkoy
URL = Ural Rex Longhair
URX = Ural Rex Shorthair
XHL = Hairless hybrid
XLH = Longhaired hybrid
XSH = Shorthaired hybrid
XXH = Hybrid, not known if shorthaired, longhaired or hairless

Other codes used to identify non cat populations within PawPeds

APH = African Pygmy Hedgehogs
AZA = Azawakh
BAR = Barbet
BDB = Braque du Bourbonnais
BIF = Bichon Frise
BPI = Berger Picard
BRF = Braque Francais
CAS = Castillonnais horses
CHI = Chihuahua
COL = Collie
CRN = Cairn Terrier
FOS =
FOW =
GAL = Galgo Español
FER = Ferret
FRI = Friesian horses
GRI = Griffon
HOS = Hollandse Smoushound
LHE = Lionhead rabbits
LUN = Norwegian Lundehund
MAG = Magyar Agar
MER = Mérens horses
NMA = Neapolitan Mastiff
POS = Polish Sighthound
PEK = Pekingese
PUL = Puli
SAL = Saluki
SHU = Siberian Husky
SLO = Sloughi
TAI = Kirgiz Sighthound Taigan
TAZ = Kazakh Tazh
TIN = Tosa Inu
TRI = Thai Ridgeback
WSH = White Swiss Shepherd Dog

Var(iant)

The term "Var" may be added at the end of the breed and colour code to indicate that a shorthair cat carries or may carry the gene for longhair. An example: "ABY n Var" is a shorthaired Aby, but it carries longhair, or it is suspected of carrying longhair, since there is Somali among the ancestors of the cat.

For the Siamese, Oriental & Peterbald database we have had to decide on a policy for how many generations after a known longhair carrier we mark as Var. We also had to decide how to register some other types of cats, like for instance cats who are registered as Colorpoint Shorthairs in the CFA but as Siameses in the FIFe. See below!

Policy for registration in the Siamese, Oriental & Peterbald database

There is a problem with shorthair (SH) cats who carry the longhair (LH) gene or who might carry the LH gene. If one parent is LH, then the progeny must be a Variant (carrying the LH gene). But what to do when one or both parents are Variants? Then the offspring might be a Variant, but we do not know for sure. Should we also mark those cats who might be carriers of the LH gene as Variants?

The problem here is that different clubs/associations handle this problem differently. It is also handled differently for different breeds. In some clubs LH and SH with the same type are bred together without any restrictions, while in other clubs they try to keep the SH breed/variety free of the LH gene.

PawPeds does not wish to take a stand in the question of how to handle the breeding in this respect. This means we have a problem here. How to handle this issue so that breeders from all clubs will think it is reasonably acceptable? It is particularly tricky to decide in the Siamese and Oriental group of cats, since here some clubs also have restrictions on which colours are accepted to be called a Siamese. We simply had to come up with some kind of a compromise in order to be able to register these cats at all.

The compromise we have chosen to follow is:

  • All pointed SH cats in the Siamese/Oriental group get the breed code SIA
  • White (white all over) SH cats with siamese blue eye colour get the code SIA w 67
  • All non-pointed SH cats in the Siamese/Oriental group get the breed code OSH
  • All pointed LH cats in the Siamese/Oriental group get the breed code BAL
  • White (white all over) LH cats with siamese blue eye colour get the code BAL w 67
  • All non-pointed LH cats in the Siamese/Oriental group get the breed code OLH

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The following is an old policy, which we will work to remove over time. But in the mean time, you might want to know what these codes meant.

For Variants we mark proven carriers Var-0. This could be cats with a LH parent or a LH offspring, or it could be a cat who is carrying LH according to a gene test.

Offspring of Var-0 cats are marked Var-1
Offspring of Var-1 cats are marked Var-2
Offspring of Var-2 cats are marked Var-3

Etcetera up to Var-8. After that we drop the Var mark. Breeders who want to check further than that will simply have to search back in the database for themselves.

Note that the offspring of for instance a Var-1 cat and a Var-5 cat will be marked Var-2. We are going by the lowest number parent.

Some examples:

  • CH Southview Unacassiopeia, OSH b, has a LH offspring, so she must have been a LH carrier. Because of this she is marked Var-0.
  • Southview Duae, SIA n, is the son of a SIA with no Var mark and CH Southview Unacassiopeia, OSH b Var-0. Duae is then marked Var-1.
  • Southview Quasue, SIA b, is the daughter of Southview Duae, SIA n Var-1, and Southview Alice who is SIA n (no Var mark). Quasue is marked Var-2.
  • Siavana Charlie Brown, OSH b, has a sire who is Var-2 and a dam who is Var-1. He would be Var-3 from his sire and Var-2 from his dam. We go by the lowest number, so Charlie Brown is marked Var-2.
  • Gaynells Theseus, SIA c, has two Var-0 parents. He would have been marked Var-1 because of this, but since Theseus also has LH offspring we do know that he carried the LH gene, and then he is marked Var-0 instead.
  • Yakshi Hi-Fi, SIA d, is SH and his parents are BAL b x SIA h. He is of course then carrying LH since his sire is LH (Balinese), so he is marked Var-0.

We can not guarantee that the database is fully updated when comes to the Var mark. If you find Var without a number, it is probably a Var mark that was added earlier, before the new routines were implemented. Then the Var-0 cat might be found further back than 8 generations. It is also so, that if the ancestry of a cat is updated and new info added, we might not yet have updated the Var marking should this be necessary.

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Policy for registering Maine Coons

The Maine Coon is what you call a "natural breed", meaning it is not a breed created by humans but it occured naturally in a certain area of the world. In the case of the Maine Coon breed this area is in and around the state of Maine in the USA.

For that reason breeders in general feel very strongly that cats of other breeds or founders from other parts of the world should not be mixed into the breed. In order to follow the general opinion with our registrations, PawPeds has decided not to register cats from breedings, which almost all Maine Coon breeders consider not to be acceptable, as MCO. Instead we have decided to register them as XLH, longhairs of not recognised breed or hybrids (mixbreeds).

Since the breed in the past have been based on founders from all over the USA and also Canada, PawPeds will register offspring from founders from these two countries as Maine Coons if that is how the registering association has registered them. Normally founders will be taken from the area more close to Maine, but we have chosen to accept a wider area here, since in general it is not up to PawPeds to decide what should be registered - it is up to the cat associations. However, the breeder community wanted us to set some limits, so this is the limit we have decided to use.

If the founders are unregistered cats from other parts of the world than the USA or Canada, we will register that cat and three generations of its descendants as XLH. If a cat of an other breed is mixed in, we will register four generations of its descendants as XLH (or XSH/XXH).

Colours

a = Blue
b = Chocolate
c = Lilac
d = Red
e = Cream
f = Black tortie
g = Blue tortie
h = Chocolate tortie
j = Lilac tortie
m = Dilute modifier together with dilute colours (caramel = am, cm, gm, jm, pm, rm / apricot = em)
n = Black (seal in Himalayan-patterned cats, ruddy in Abyssinians and Somalis
o = Cinnamon (sorrel in Abyssinians)
p = Fawn
q = Cinnamon (sorrel) tortie
r = Fawn tortie
s = Silver, smoke
t = Amber, light amber for NFO, charcoal for BEN and SAV
u = Sunshine
w = White
x = Indicates an unrecognized colour
y = Golden
z = Russet

For caramel cats it is sometimes not known to us if the caramel colour is based on blue, lilac, or fawn. We do however know that the cat is either a black gene cat or a tortoiseshell cat, so just saying that it is *m (any type of dilute modifier) would not give all the information we have. In these cases we guess a base colour, and indicate the fact that it is a guess by adding a * after the code, for instance SIA am*.

Patterns

01 = with white, van (5/6 of the cat white)
02 = with white, harlequin (1/2 to 2/3 of the cat white)
03 = with white, bicolour (1/3 to 1/2 of the cat white)
04 = with white, mitted
05 = with white, less than mitted
09 = Unspecified amount of white
11 = Shaded
12 = Shell, chinchilla
21 = Unspecified tabby pattern
22 = Classic (blotched) tabby
23 = Mackerel tabby
24 = Spotted tabby
25 = Ticked tabby
31 = Sepia (Burmese) colour restriction
32 = Mink (Tonkinese) colour restriction
33 = Pointed (Siamese) colour restriction (Himalayan)
34 = Recessive white with blue eyes

Eye Colours

61 = Blue eyed
62 = Orange eyed
63 = Odd eyed
64 = Green eyed
65 = Sepia (Burmese) eye colour
66 = Mink (Tonkinese) eye colour
67 = Pointed (Siamese) eye colour
68 = Dominant blue eyed
69 = Dominant odd eyed

Tail Codes

51 = Rumpy
52 = Rumpy riser
53 = Stumpy (up to 3 cm)
54 = Longie
55 = Bob (between 3 cm and half to hock)
56 = Hock (between half to hock and hock length)
57 = Three quarter (a naturally short tail but longer than hock)

Ear Codes

71 = Straight
72 = Curl
73 = Fold

Coat and Skin Codes

80 = Naked
81 = Longhair
82 = Shorthair
83 = Brush
84 = Straight

Paw and Leg Codes

90 = Non-polydactyl, normal paws
91 = Polydactyl front (one or both paws)
92 = Polydactyl back (one or both paws)
93 = Polydactyl, both front and back
94 = Polydactyl, unspecified
97 = Legs of normal length, not "Munchkin"
98 = Short legs, "Munchkin"

Colour Groups

If you come across codes like MCO 3, or DRX 5, it should be noted that these are not really EMS codes. The first three letters indicates the breed of the cat, as usual, but the number after that indicates the FIFe colour group. Sometimes this is the only information about the colour of a cat that you get in a show catalog.

 

The groups are according to the following system for Maine Coons, Norwegian Forest Cats, Siberians, and Turkish Angoras:

1 = Black and blue
2 = The same as group 1, but with white
3 = Browntabby, bluetabby (any pattern)
4 = The same as group 3, but with white
5 = Red, cream, all kinds of torties. All these varieties with or without agouti (tabby).
6 = The same as group 5, but with white
7 = All silver and smoke varieties
8 = The same as group 7, but with white
9 = White

 

The above groups are also used for American Curls, but then with the addition of the following two groups:

10 = Colourpoints of all varieties
11 = The same as group 10, but with white

 

The groups for Cornish Rex, Devon Rex, German Rex, and Sphynx are:

1 = Black, blue, chocolate, lilac, cinnamon, fawn, and these colours with smoke (ns, as, bs, cs, os, ps)
2 = The same as group 1, but with white
3 = Red, cream, all kinds of torties. Red smoke, cream smoke, all kinds of tortie smokes. Redtabby, creamtabby, all kinds of tortie tabbies (any pattern).
4 = The same as group 3, but with white
5 = All tabby varieties, except redtabby, creamtabby, all kinds of tortie tabbies (any pattern). All silver tabby varieties, including shaded silvers and shell/chinchilla.
6 = The same as group 5, but with white
7 = All cats with siamese colours, burmese colours, or tonkinese colours. With or without agouti (tabby) and silver. With or without white.

Older colour groups

Earlier there were only four colour groups for Maine Coons, Norwegian Forest Cats, and Turkish Angoras. In those cases is this colour group, we use the following "codes":

* = Nonagouti without white (or solid white)
* 21 = Agouti without white
* 09 = Nonagouti with white
* 09 21 = Agouti with white

 

If you find any code in a database that does not correspond to this system, please notify the database maintainer!

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