The Nebelung and the Russian Blue

The relationship between the Nebelung and the Russian blue is not the same throughout the world. Several European based organizations consider the Nebelung to be a long-haired blue Russian, like the Somali is a longhaired Abyssinian. This opinion, which I share as a lover of the Russian Blue and the Nebelung, is given by the experiences of long-haired kittens born of Russians blue parents. The TICA recognizes the Nebelung to be a separate breed. Both point of view aim to keep and to get the longhairgene visable on the pedigree. This is in best intrest of the Nebelung and Russian blue allike.

All the organizations allow a Nebelung to mate with a Russian blue to work on a wider genetic pool and to enhance the type of the Nebelung. Kittens born from this mating will all be shorthaired (the short hair gene is dominant over the longhair gene). In Europe these kittens are called Russian blue variant. The TICA calls them shorthaired Nebelung. Russian blue variant kittens are not easy to be distinct from a Russian blue. The only thing that gives away that they have the longhair gene is the result one gets when the kittens is bred with another cat with longhair genes; kittens with longhair. Nebelung and Russian blue breeders prefer to know which cats do have the longhair gene. To keep a clear track of the longhair gene, a Russian Blue variant is only to be used for Nebelung breeding.