Blue DLH - Nebelung?

cattypolly

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I just got the sweetest cat from the shelter today. You know those stories of cats choosing you and not the other way round? That's what happened!

I usually stop by the shelter to have a look and play with the kitties on my way back from work from time to time. Today I saw a beautiful calico bobtail and I was playing with it when I heard a soft mew from the next cage. A gorgeous long-haired silver-blue cat was pawing at his cage wanting to be let out. I stroked his fur through the cage and he started purring like an engine! He head butted me and tried to lick me...


After about 1.2 seconds, I grabbed a volunteer and asked them how he got in there - he was apparently a stray with multiple cuts and bruises from fighting in the street... was desexed at the shelter and was now up for adoption as nobody has reclaimed him. So I filled in the paperwork and he was mine!


I was intrigued by his colour - I thought he looked like a Russian Blue, but with long hair -so I looked it up. There's a breed called the Nebelung - not even AVAILABLE in my country... how is it possible that a stray cat could end up looking like a rare cat breed from the other end of the globe? Strange.

But he's settling in nicely - he got frightened by the sound of the TV and washing machine before but he seems to be snuggling nicely with me on the couch. Such a sweetie!

Here's some info on the NEBELUNG:

The Nebelung is a longhaired, solid blue cat that resembles the Russian blue. The German word nebelung (pronounced nay-bel-ung) means "creatures of the mist," which brings to mind exotic animals roaming mysterious forests, fading away into shadows just before you get close enough to catch a really good glimpse – an appropriate name for a feline with a long, luminous coat, glowing green eyes and an intelligently cautious nature.
1. He has a full luxurious silky SOLID BLUE coat...
2. He is not cautious - I was taking a shower and he jumped right into the bath-tub to see what I was doing (and jumped right back out)... not sure about intelligent. Will post back in 2 days.

The primary difference between the Nebelung and the Russian blue is coat length. The Russian blue's coat is short and dense, while the Nebelung's fur is medium-long, fine, soft, silky and double layered. The coat is semi-long over the body beginning at the shoulders, where the coat is slightly shorter. The hind legs possess pantaloons, and the tail sports an elegant plume.
Yep, describes him to a tee.

This breed comes in only one pattern, solid, and one color – what cat fanciers call blue, but what is actually a light gray. The color is contrasted with lighter, silver-tipped guard hairs, making the coat catch the light and giving it a luminous quality. Eye color is always green, although kittens may have yellow eyes that deepen to green as they mature. By eight months, a green ring should have appeared around the pupil.
Yup, he's got the silver tipping too. He has yellow eyes with a green ring.

The Nebelung's body style is semi-foreign, which means long, slender, and athletic with medium bone structure. Although the Nebelung's body is slim, it is still muscular and strong; a Nebelung can easily leap to the top of the tallest bookcase. The head is a modified wedge shape, more pointed than rounded, although the long hair may give a rounded look to the face. The eyes are slightly oval and widely spaced, and the ears are large and pointed.
Yup, eyes a little rounded though.

Like Russian blues, Nebelungs are sweet, gentle, soft-spoken companions that dislike change and usually need a "getting to know you" adjustment period. They are reserved around strangers, ranging from hiding under the bed in terror to warily eyeing the intruders from a safe distance. But once they adjust and learn that they can trust their human friends, Nebelungs become playful and affectionate companions. They tend to bond with one person and shower him or her with love and devotion.
Nope, he went straight for me ala headbutt. When I brought him home, he snuggled right into my comfy couch. Not a scaredy-cat, this one. He seems pretty laid-back.

While loyal to their family, Nebelungs are not in-your-face intrusive. Some enjoy lap sitting while others prefer sitting beside you, and most refrain from driving you crazy asking for attention. That doesn't mean you can leave them alone for days and expect them to take care of themselves. They need the love and attention of their human family and particularly from their chosen person if they are to lead happy lives. If you must leave them alone while you earn the cat food, provide a cat companion to keep your Nebelung company while you're away.
Yeah, he's not intrusive although he was a little adamant at the shelter that he wanted a pat.

Nebelungs are still quite rare and can be hard to obtain. In the United States, breeders can be found in Washington State, Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, and Mississippi. Check out the Fanciers Breeder Referral List at www.breedlist.com for a list of breeders, or check with the cat associations that accept the breed, such as TICA (www.tica.org).
WOah.
 

goldenkitty45

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It would be rare if it really is a Nebulung. There are many strays that can look like pedigree cats. Maine Coons, Ragdolls, Brits - all have been found in stray groups - at least they look close enough to almost pass for the real thing.

I had an odd-eye bicolor (black/white) domestic shorthair that could easily pass for a pedigree American Shorthair. I even had breeders ask if she was spayed or not - she was that good!
 

cjh27

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Hi,

your cat is probably not a Nebelung, though he really does look like one


To get a solid blue cat with semi longhair you need parents who both passed on the genes for solid, semi-longhair and the dilution factor that causes a genetically black cat seem gray/ blue. The gene for black would have come from the mothers X chromosome (as the father had to pass on the Y chromosome
)

Both the dilution factor and the semi- longhair are common genes found in pedigree cats and can be found in many breeds. In other words- three genes have to come together in the right combination, which isn't all that seldom when people start randomly mating pedigree cats.

By the way- Nebelung doesn't mean anything in German as its a made up word. Nebel does means fog or mist though


A good thing he was de-sexed, blue cats in particulare are often used to breed with as people have friends who'd like a blue kitten, with people then breeding them to black DSHs- and ending up with a litter in the "unpopular" colour black.

In my German forum we have a few Nebelung owners (and one breeder I think) who regularly show pictures- the cats are absolutely stunning.... one of the few breeds I would consider breeding


regards,

Christine
 

alleygirl

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Blue is actually a quite common color. I have one myself




Your kitty is beautiful, but he is not a Nebelung anymore than mine is, lol.
 

cjh27

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Originally Posted by AlleyGirl

Blue is actually a quite common color. I have one myself




Your kitty is beautiful, but he is not a Nebelung anymore than mine is, lol.
nothing about your cat is common, he or she (?) is quite beautifull
, there's a reason why people are breeding the Nebelung on purpose
.

My kitty (well, she's 15 now) is a short hair blue/ white fluff ball, found in a dumster a few days after her birth.


regards,

Christine
 

cococat

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Congrats on rescuing a kitty!!! So glad you guys have each other.

To me, that is kinda of like saying every short haired blue cat is a "Russian Blue" and every long hair blue cat is a "Nebelung".
There are a lot of blue cats out there, but they are not all pedigreed kitties. Blue is a normal color in domestic short and domestic long hair cats.
 

cjh27

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Originally Posted by AlleyGirl

Thank you christine. cattypolly's blue boy is beautiful also. I didn't mean to make them sound boring
No, you didn't make him sound boring.


Yes, Blue is a popular colour, though it is a seldom colour for our shelter cats here or for strays/ farm cats.

Mostly they are BSH, BLH, Russian Blue, MCs, Norwegian Forrest cats, TUAs or mixes of these races.

regards,

Christine
 

goldenkitty45

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I don't know how many times I've had people ask "is my cat a Snowshoe?" because its a pointed and white bicolor cat (or if longhair....is my cat a Ragdoll?"

And every cat that has spots is a "Bengal" or "Ocicat" or "Mau"

There are so many look alikes for breeds, but the chances of them really being a purebred cat are slim.
 

missymotus

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I would imagine there are just a handful of Nebelung breeders around, the chances of finding one are incredibly slim.

And of course, without pedigree papers you can never prove what a cat might be that's why we have papers...
 
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cattypolly

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Awesome replies guys - yes he is absolutely stunning (although his eyes are a little rounder and closer together making him look a bit more like a teddy bear). I picked him for his character; he is the most affectionate kitty I've ever met! The others were either sleeping or yowling but he just came up to me and headbutted me... that darling. He's been an absolute doll - the other cats are getting a little jealous and being extra affectionate to me to keep up.
I could live with this.

After admiring his colour, I looked up blue DLH on the internets and got a little confused as there was mention of 'long hair Russian blues' which are non-existant now, and then there were a handful of pages on the Nebelung, which breeders have been attempting to breed in order to recreate the LHRB look - which I understand, comes from domestic black cats X Russian Blues.

Keke, sorry about the noobie generalisation - I figured that if it was that difficult to recreate the Russian Blue look in a DLH, it must be rather lucky for me to find one pretty specimen...


But really, all that is a bonus. I got him because he was being such a mooch. And he's funny too. :p Definitely a stray, he was so obsessed with the couch and purred like crazy when he found out how snuggly it was. It's winter here in AUS so he has been tucked in next to the heater...

He has a touch of cat flu though... so he's in quarantine for a while. Sigghh...

PS: Alleygirl >> your cat is beautiful! He looks absolutely stunning!
 

mews2much

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My Sasha has a Russian Blue mom.
She is half RB and took after the RB side.
Meeko has the same mom and did not get the Rb side at all.
People always try to pass all the cats in the rescues and pounds off as Russian Blues.
Your cat is pretty.
I did get to see a purebred RB at the last cat show.

 
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cattypolly

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Ehh, semi decent photo of little Benny. Decided to name him after the cute fat cat in TOP CAT from the 1960's.

 

nekochan

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I recently babysat for an adorable longhaired blue and white kitten (domestic longhair rescue,born feral or stray). A friend of mine has a blue/white tabby longhair cat and a blue shorthair.

This is the kitten:








This is my friend's blue shorthair (with my dog):





I don't have photos of the blue tabby I can post but you can see her photos here:
http://www.catster.com/cats/116274
 

epona

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AFAIK Nebelung do not exist as a breed where you are, in fact they do not exist in most countries of the world, so there is no way on this earth that your cat could be Nebelung - if there are no sires there and no dams there, then a kitten of that breed could not appear by magic out of nowhere!

But oh my word I am sure you have a beautiful cat
I ADORE blue cats, I have a blue Oriental Shorthair (Sonic Boom) and he is just the sweetest cat ever. Blue cats are the best
 
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cattypolly

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Mmmm yeah that's why I got confused. The websites made it sound like it was extremely difficult to breed a long haired blue cat, which they dubbed Nebelung and registered as a 'Long Hair Russian Blue' standard.

So I was a little confused about the genetics of it all.
 

epona

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Don't worry about it, blue cats are all beautiful and special


Longhaired blue cats are the result of a combination of 2 recessive genes, so it is more unlikely to get a longhaired blue cat than a shorthaired black cat, if you're breeding a cat breed that can have both long and short hair and can be a range of different colours. And most Russian Blues don't carry the longhair gene (it isn't allowed if you are registering RB kittens) But that doesn't mean that longhaired blue cats are uncommon. Although they are utterly gorgeous of course
 

goldenkitty45

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I'm sure that Russian Blues probably do have a longhair in the background. Its just so far back and buried that it is just "chance" they show up every so often. Maybe the RB breeders just quietly petted these LH kittens out that might have occurred.

I also know (because I knew a RB breeder that got one) that the American RB's are carrying the pointed gene (ghost or white Russians in the USA) because they used the Blue Point Siamese to help get the breed going after WWII when the RB's in Europe were just about wiped out during the war. That is one reason why the American and Europeon RB's are so different looking (but both have the silver-tipped coats.

On a side note, there was an accidental breeding of a Persian to a Cornish Rex in the first few generations of the breed. So the Cornish Rexes do carry the longhair gene too. I've known only 2 longhair CRex's born in the US - one was a white one I saw at a show in the 70's and the other was a very well known breeder - she only had ONE LH born and her mother kept it as a pet.
 

cjh27

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Originally Posted by cattypolly

Mmmm yeah that's why I got confused. The websites made it sound like it was extremely difficult to breed a long haired blue cat, which they dubbed Nebelung and registered as a 'Long Hair Russian Blue' standard.

So I was a little confused about the genetics of it all.
Hi,

no, it's not dfficult breeding a solid blue long haired cat- the difficulties probably lie in getting things like a a good eye colour and making sure inbreeding is kept as low as possible


Christine
 
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