Turkish Van Breeder Directory

More Breed Information

The Turkish Van is a longhaired breed of domestic cat that is descended from the landrace of Van cats found near Lake Van in modern Turkey. The breed is rare, and is distinguished by the van color pattern, where the color 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 Van may have blue or amber eyes, or one eye of each color. Also known for its unusual love of water and swimming, the Turkish Van is nicknamed the swimming cat. The breed was developed in Britain from a selection of Van cats obtained from Eastern Turkey in 1955.

Temperament

While loyal, loving and affectionate, the Turkish Van is highly intelligent and highly active meaning it can have some mischievous ways. Their powerful hind legs mean they are great jumpers and climbers so expect to find them atop the bookcase or in some other aerie they have located as a great place to ensure they can see everything going on in their world. They love to play games and will learn to retrieve, amusing you at the same time with their antics as they catch toys in mid-flight or turn somersaults in their enthusiastic chases.

Health

The breed is a healthy one, with no known genetic defects; deafness is not association with the Traditional Turkish Van.