The Singapura cat
The controversy over this cat breed is bigger than the cat itself. The Singapura is known for being the smallest breed of cat in the world.
But who cares about controversy, really? This cat breed is called “the love cat” by Singaporeans, and that may be everything you need to know.
But we’ll talk about all of it in this post about Singapuras. Let’s dive in.
What is the Singapura?
The Singapura is a supposed to be a native cat of Singapore, a true “natural” breed of cat.
Whether or not that’s true, the Singapura is an adorable little bit of a thing, with a beguiling, angelic expression. The wide eyes and oversized ears of the Singapura are the very definition of cuteness.
Singapuras are lively, curious, intelligent cats. They’re also true extroverts who are going to be up in your biz, all the time. This is not the breed of cat for people who spend long hours away from home, or who don’t want a little “helper” following them around the house.
But for the rest of us, we’re going to fall in love.
What and where is Singapore?
Singapore is a city and it’s a country. It’s located on a large island off of the Malay Penninsula and was once part of Malaysia. It became an independent country in 1965.[1]
Despite having few natural resources, Singapore is extremely prosperous. It’s an aviation, financial, and maritime shipping hub, and the country has one of the busiest ports in the world. Singaporeans enjoy long life expectancy, excellent healthcare and education, and a high standard of living.[2]
What does “Singapura” mean?
In the Malay language, Singapura is simply the word for Singapore.
In Singapore, they don’t call them Singapura cats, however. They call them Kucinta.
But this is not some ancient Southeast Asian name for the cat breed. It was the winning entry in a tourism contest in 1990, the result of a modern-day advertising campaign.
Kucinta is a made-up name that is combination of the words “cat” and “love” in Malay. It is like calling the Singapura “the love cat,” which actually is kind of accurate.
The history of the Singapura
This is official story about the Singapura cat’s history:
Hal Meadows, a geophysicist who worked for an oil company, and his wife Tommy, were in Singapore for Hal’s job in the 1970s.[3]
The couple happened to be cat breeders. They knew a good thing when they saw it in the “drain cats” living on the city streets of Singapore, and took home three Singaporean cats to Texas. These cats became the foundation of the Singapura breed.
In 1981, a Singapura breeder who visited Singapore, happened to see a cat at an SPCA shelter that looked like a Singapura. This kitty was brought to the U.S. and added to the breeding program.
Thanks to the growing popularity of the breed in the U.S., the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board adopted the cat as tourism mascot for the country in 1990.
What also happened in Singapura history
What also happened is that when the Singapore Tourist Promotion Board started their Singapura campaign, a local newspaper reporter started to do a little digging.
She learned that an American Singapura breeder, who had been in Singapore looking for cats to add to his breeding program, had quietly tried to correct the official Singapura history.
He had noticed that import/export documents actually showed that the Meadows’ three cats were first imported to Singapore from the U.S., before being exported back to Texas again.
These cats had some weird names, so there was no mistaking them on the documents: Puss’e, Tes, and Ticle.
The cats were registered as Abyssinians on their import certificates, not Singapuras. Coincidentally, or not so coincidentally, the Meadows were breeders of Abyssinian, Burmese and Siamese cats.
When cat breed registries confronted the Meadows about this new information, the couple offered an explanation. According to Tommy and Hal, the cats they picked up were truly street cats from Singapore. They’d been acquired during a secret business trip, which is why the paper trail was deliberately muddled. The cats they brought back with them to Singapore, were the grandchildren of those original street cats.
The Cat Fanciers’ Association (CFA) accepted the explanation as sufficient, adding that the fourth foundation cat – the cat rescued from the SPCA in Singapore – made the Singapura a legitimate cat breed, no matter the truth about Puss’e, Tes, and Ticle.
Is the Singapura a “natural” cat breed?
That may have been the end of the story for the CFA, but lots of cat people aren’t buying it.
Some speculate that the Singapura is actually Abyssinian/Burmese mix, because they do look a lot like the offspring of deliberate crossings of those two breeds, and because the Meadows were breeders of both types of cats.
Another clue about Abyssinian/Burmese crosses is that they have small litters. Singapuras are known for having litters of only two or three kittens.[4]
“Natural” cat breeds – if that’s what the Singapura is – don’t tend to have small litters. From an evolutionary standpoint, it doesn’t make sense for wild animal parents to invest in small litters because so few babies survive until adulthood.[5]
Another thing is that the Singapura is noticeably missing from the streets of Singapore. One of my favorite cat bloggers, Sarah Hartwell of The Messy Beast, spent time in Singapore in the 1990s while her husband was working in Malaysia.
“When I visited Signapore in 1994,” she wrote, “the Singapura cat seemed to be everywhere except for real life – books, leaflets, sales brochures, badges, porcelain statues, silver and gold statues, and tourist teeshirts.”[6] She recalled the street cats of the city as mostly bob-tailed tabbies, tortoiseshells, and bi-colors.
And finally, recent studies of feline DNA show very few differences between the Singapura and the Burmese, suggesting that it is unlikely to be the natural breed the Meadows claimed it was.[7]
What is a drain cat?
I had to know what a drain cat is, and maybe you do, too.
Singapore has two monsoon seasons, which produce strong winds and sometimes very heavy rain. Singapore deals with these water surges with a network of canals, rivers, and drains, that collect rainwater and channel it to reservoirs.
It makes sense that stray or feral cats would gravitate toward these drains because they are somewhat protected from people. In fact, it’s thought that some humans might be using the drains the same way.
While members of the public are prohibited from entering the drains, a local reporter captured some mysterious “drain walkers” on film – likely illegal immigrants emerging from their hideouts.
What does a Singapura cat look like?
The Singapura is a tiny but athletic, muscularly built cat. Females usually weigh around four pounds, up to six, and males might be six to eight pounds.[8]
They have captivating, baby-doll faces, with big almond-shaped eyes, and oversized, slightly pointed ears.[9] Their heads are round and their foreheads sport the traditional tabby “M” marking. They also have “cheetah lines” on their faces: dark markings that extend from the inner corners of the eyes alongside the nose.
A Singapura’s coat is short and glossy. It comes in exactly one color and coat pattern: all Singapuras are sepia-toned ticked tabbies. Being ticked tabbies means that they have stripes on each individual hair, alternating bands of dark and light color, typically two of each, ending with the dark color on the hair tip.
Sepia means that the ticking is dark brown on an “old ivory” background.
Read about tabby cats, and especially ticked tabby cats in this post.
Their tails are slender with a blunt tip and shorter than the length of their bodies.
Kittens develop very slowly and remain small longer than other growing cats. This is important to know, because if your veterinarian has never met a Singapura, he or she might assume that there is something wrong with your seemingly undersized young kitty.[10]
What is the personality of a Singapura?
The Singapura has never met a stranger. They’re extroverted and openly friendly to everyone, whether feline, canine, or human.[11]
That doesn’t mean they’re not sensitive creatures; they are. Singapura guardians describe their cats as seeming to sense their moods. They describe them as caring cats, who seem to know if, for example, their guardian isn’t feeling well.[12]
They’re deeply connected to their people. They will follow their guardians all around the house, which can be charming, or slightly annoying, depending upon your point of view. Their deep connection to their families means they really can’t be left home alone all day, though. It just wouldn’t be fair to them.
Singapuras are lively and intelligent. It’s been said that they might be a bit too intelligent! They observe and sometimes mimic behaviors of their humans, like learning to open doors. See the video below:
Singapuras are playful all their lives. They don’t grow out of some of their kitten-ish behaviors. They’re also busy cats, who sometimes continue to play well into the night.[13]
Singapuras assiduously avoid household drama. If other cats in the house are fighting, the Singapuras will simply leave the room. Even intact male cats can live together in peaceful harmony. [14]
Female Singapuras make excellent mothers. They allow their kittens to nurse for as long as they want to, and the babies often don’t leave the nest box at all for the first four weeks of their lives.
Is the Singapura a healthy cat?
Singapuras have among the lowest DNA diversity of 22 cat breeds studied.[15] This is due to the small founding gene pool, and subsequent inbreeding. Low genetic diversity can lead to an increased risk of serious inheritable disorders being passed on to future generations of Singapuras.
Currently, only one cat breed registry, the U.K.’s Governing Council of the Cat Fancy (GCCF), allows the outcrossing of the Singapura to help address these concerns, unfortunately.[16]
There currently are two known genetic problems in this breed:
Uterine inertia
Uterine inertia involves a weak uterus that is unable to move a kitten into the birth canal. Cats who suffer from uterine inertia will require their kittens to be delivered by C-section. This disorder is known to have been present in one of the foundation cats.
Pyruvate kinase deficiency
PKD is caused by a gene mutation and leads to anemia, in which the number of red cells is too low for cat health. This disease can cause lethargy, lack of appetite, a poor coat quality, weight loss, and jaundice.
Mildly affected cats can live a normal life span, while severely affected cats may only survive for a few years. The only treatment available is bone-marrow transplantation, which is expensive and carries its own severe risks.
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Dawn LaFontaine is a lifelong animal lover who always seems to have a little pet hair in her keyboard. Her blog, Kitty Contemplations, helps cat guardians better understand and care for the special beings they share their lives and homes with. Her cat-products business, Cat in the Box, sells beautiful, well-made, and award-winning products that she designed to meet the biological needs of cats.
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FOOTNOTES
[1] “Singapore.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., 20 Aug. 2024, www.britannica.com/place/Singapore.
[2] “Singapore.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Aug. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore.
[3] Maggitti, Phil. “The Singapura.” Cats and Kittens Magazine Singapura Breed Profile, web.archive.org/web/20081208153303/www.petpublishing.com/catkit/breeds/singapura.shtml. Accessed 15 Aug. 2024.
[4] Association, Cat Fanciers. “The Singapura.” Singapura Article (2006), web.archive.org/web/20150414214155/www.cfainc.org/Breeds/BreedsSthruT/Singapura/SingapuraArticle(2006).aspx. Accessed 15 Aug. 2024.
[5] “Litter (Zoology).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 2 Jan. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Litter_(zoology).
[6] Hartwell, Sarah. “KUCINTA - THE LOVE CAT OF SINGAPORE - AND THE BOBTAILS OF MALAYSIA (OR ‘MOGGIES AND MERLIONS’).” Kucinta - Cats of Singapore and Malaysia, messybeast.com/kucinta.htm. Accessed 15 Aug. 2024.
[7] “Singapura Cat.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 3 Aug. 2024, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapura_cat.
[8] ibid
[9] “Singapura Cat: What to Know.” WebMD, WebMD, www.webmd.com/pets/cats/what-to-know-about-a-singapura-cat. Accessed 16 Aug. 2024.
[10] ibid.
[11] Association, Cat Fanciers. “The Singapura.” Singapura Article (2006).
[12] ibid
[13] “Singapura Cat: What to Know.” WebMD.
[14] Association, Cat Fanciers. “The Singapura.” Singapura Article (1996).
[15] Lipinski MJ, Froenicke L, Baysac KC, Billings NC, Leutenegger CM, Levy AM, Longeri M, Niini T, Ozpinar H, Slater MR, Pedersen NC, Lyons LA. The ascent of cat breeds: genetic evaluations of breeds and worldwide random-bred populations. Genomics. 2008 Jan;91(1):12-21. doi: 10.1016/j.ygeno.2007.10.009. Epub 2007 Dec 3. PMID: 18060738; PMCID: PMC2267438. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2267438/
[16] “Singapura Cat.” Wikipedia.