The Turkish Van is a semi-long-haired breed of domestic cat, which was developed in the
United Kingdom from a selection of cats obtained from various cities of modern Turkey, especially
Turkish Kurdistan . The breed is rare, and is distinguished by the van pattern, where
the colour is restricted to the head and the tail, and the rest of the cat is white; this
is due to the expression of the piebald white spotting gene, a type of partial leucism.
A Turkish Van may have blue or amber eyes, or be odd-eyed. The breed has been claimed
to be descended from the landrace of usually all-white Van cats, mostly found near Lake
Van, though one of the two original breeders' own writings indicate clearly that none of
the breed's foundation cats came from the Van area.
Then called the Turkish Cat, the breed was first recognised as such by a breeder/fancier
organisation, the UK-based Governing Council of the Cat Fancy, in 1969. It was later renamed
"Turkish Van" to better distinguish it from the Turkish Angora breed. The term "Turkish
Vankedisi" is used by some organisations as a name for all-white specimens of the formal
Turkish Van breed, nomenclature easily confused with the Van kedisi landrace cats, which are
also often all-white.
Breed standards Breed standards allow for one or more body
spots as long as there is no more than 20% colour and the cat does not give the appearance
of a bicolour. A few random spots are acceptable, but they should not detract from the pattern.
The rest of the cat is white. Although red tabby and white is the classic van colour,
the colour on a Van's head and tail can be one of the following: red, cream, black, blue,
red tabby, cream tabby, brown tabby, blue tabby, tortoiseshell, dilute tortoiseshell,
brown-patched tabby, blue-patched tabby and any other colour not showing evidence of hybridization
with the point-coloured breeds. Not all registries recognise all of these colour variations.
While a few registries recognise all-white specimens as Turkish Vans, most do not. The
US-based Cat Fanciers' Association and Fédération Internationale Féline recognise only van-patterned
specimens, as they define the breed by both its type and pattern. The Germany-based but
international World Cat Federation considers the all-white specimens a separate breed,
which it calls the Turkish Vankedisi, a name that is easily confused with the landrace
Van kedisi. Varieties
Origins
In 1955 two British women, Laura Lushington and Sonia Halliday, were given some local
cats on a trip to Turkey and decided to bring them home. They bred true, and were used as
foundation cats for the breed. According to Lushington, her imported cats were: Van Iskenderun
Guzelli, a cat that came from Hatay Province, Iskenderun, in 1955; Stambul Byzantium, a
cat given by hotel manager in Istanbul in 1955; Antalya Anatolia, from Antalya in 1959,
and Burdur, from Burdur in 1959. Lushington did not see Van city before 1963, and only
stayed there "for two days and two nights". It is unclear why the name "Turkish Van" was
chosen.
"I was first given a pair of Van kittens in 1955 while traveling in Turkey, and decided
to bring them back to England, although touring by car and mainly camping at the time – the
fact that they survived in good condition showed up the great adaptability and intelligence
of their breed in trying circumstances. Experience showed that they bred absolutely true. They
were not known in Britain at that time and, because they make such intelligent and charming
pets, I decided to try to establish the breed, and to have it recognised officially in Britain
by the GCCF."
The first Vans were brought to the United States in 1982 and accepted into championship
for showing in the Cat Fanciers' Association in 1994. Since then, CFA has registered approximately
100 Vans born each year in the US, making them one of the rarest cat breeds. However,
the gene pool thrives because it still uses cats imported from the Lake Van area of Turkey.
Imported Vans have no human breeding intervention and are quite robust. No other breed is allowed
to be mixed into the breeding schedule, and all registered Turkish Vans can trace their
ancestry back to imported cats of Laura Lushington. Called the Turkish cat when first given breed
recognition in 1969, the name was changed in 1979 in the UK to Turkish Van to better
distance the breed from the Turkish Angora cat which had its origins around Ankara, in
central Turkey. Physical characteristics
The coat on a Turkish Van is considered semi-long-haired. While many cats have three distinct hair types
in their coat – guard hair, awn hair and down hair – the Turkish Van has no evident
undercoat, only one coat. This makes their coat feel like cashmere or rabbit fur. The
lack of an undercoat gives a sleek appearance. The coat is uncommonly water-repellant, which
makes bathing these cats a challenge, though the coat dries quickly.
The Turkish Van is one of the larger cat breeds. Ideal type should feature broad shoulders
with a body that is "top-heavy", that is, a cat with its center of gravity forward.
The cat is moderately long, and its back legs are slightly longer than its front legs, but
neither the cat itself nor its legs are so long as to be disproportionate. These cats
are large and muscular. Males can reach 16 pounds and the females weigh about 12 to 14 lb.
They have large paws and rippling hard muscle structure which allows them to be very strong
jumpers. Vans can easily hit the top of a refrigerator from a cold start on the floor.
They are slow to mature and this process can take 3 years, possibly longer. Vans have been
known to reach 3 ft long from nose to tip of tail.
Behaviour The Turkish Van is an excellent hunter. Although
early bloodlines had a tendency to be aggressive, today the breed is generally very social,
with a friendly disposition toward people, and the cats tend to develop a strong bond
with their owners. They are very playful and lively. Many Turkish Vans will play fetch,
and may bring a toy to their owner to initiate play.
The native Van cat landrace of Turkey have been nicknamed the "swimming cats", due to
an unusual fascination with water, Despite the modern Turkish Van breed consisting almost
entirely of pedigreed, indoor-only cats with no access to large bodies of water, and despite
dubious connections between them and the cats of the Lake Van area, some feel that the Turkish
Van has a notable affinity for water; for example, instead of swimming in a lake, they
may stir their water bowls or play with water in the toilet, and some may even follow their
owners into water. However, the idea that the breed likes water more than other cats
may be mistaken according to some pet writers. Genetics
The piebald spotting gene appears in other different species. It also shows up in the
common house cat, and other breeds of cat, since the van pattern is merely an extreme
expression of the gene. A Turkish Van may have blue eyes, amber eyes,
or be odd-eyed. The variability of eye colour is genetically caused by the white spotting
factor, which is a characteristic of this breed. The white spotting factor is the variable
expression of the piebald gene that varies from the minimal degree, as in the blue-eyed
cats with white tip on the tail to the maximal degree that results in a Van-patterned cat,
as in Van cats, when coloured marks occupy at most 20% of the white background, but the
white background in the breed covers about 80% of the body. Breeding two cats together
with the same level of white spotting will produce cats with a similar degree of spotting.
Van-patterned Turkish Vans are not prone to deafness, because their phenotype is associated
with the van pattern semi-dominant gene. Solid-white Turkish angoras carry the epistatic white
colour dominant gene associated with white fur, blue eyes and often deafness. All white
Van cats may share this gene. All three types of cat may exhibit eye colours that are amber,
blue or odd. Deafness is principally associated with cats having two blue eyes.
See also Cat coat genetics
Deaf white cat References
External links Turkish Van Breed Profile
Turkish Van Breed Article Turkish Van Breed Article
Turkish Van discussion group