My understanding is that there are four basic colors;
seal, chocolate, blue, lilac. See above post for description. There are also the other colors: red (Flame), cream points
Then there are pattens that are mixed in with color, such as tortie, and lynx and tabby (which may be the same as lynx, referring to the "M" pattern on the head)
Yeilding the sub-catagories of:
Blue tortie point, chocolate tortie point, seal tortie point, red lynx point, seal lynx point, cream lynx point, lilac lynx point, blue lynx point, chocolate lynx point.
And the sub-sub catagories of: lilac tortie lynx point, blue tortie lynx point. chocoate tortie lynx point, seal tortie lynx point.
That's all my book lists.

By far the most popular is the standard Seal Point and I believe the Blue or Lilac point.

There are many Siamese look-a-likes. Some of them are not orientals, but have color points.
Such as:
1)Himalayan (a long haired cross between a Persian and a Siamese)all colors represented,
2)Birman (longhaired color point)
3)Ragdoll (long haired cat noted for going limp when you pick them up)
4)Balinese and Javanese (long haired crosses between Angoras and Siamese)
5)Color Pointed British Shorthair (Siamese and British Shorthair cross) (looks like Siamese but has a stocky body type)
6)Exotic, (cross between American Shorthair and Siamese) (US version of British cat)
7)Snowshoe, (resembles a stocky Siamese cat with mittens)
8)Color Pointed European Short hair
9)Rex (curly haired cats) can also be color pointed as well as
10)Burmese and
11) Tonkinese

Oriental short hair cats are descendents of Siamese but no long show any color points. Siamese are often mistaken for being an Oriental Shorthair.

Lastly, Siamese cats have blue eyes.
If you get a cat that they call Siamese that doesn't have blue eyes, they are mixed with Siamese at best. Not that there's anything wrong with that!
My Siamese is a mix (with sky blue eyes) and I wouldn't trade him for the world.



I'm sure there are many people on this site that have more information than I, please feel free to correct me if necessary.

Refer to the thread: How they sleep in funny positions... to see pictures of some of the wonderful Siamese shades, and other pictures of precious cats here on board.

Thanks for listening.

rosethecopycat