Breed Description
Tonkinese are the most popular pedigree companion breed of cats. They are multifaceted. While active, playful, and muscular cats, they are also affectionate, social lap cats. The CFA Breed Profile is a general description of the Tonkinese pedigree cat.
Tonkinese Personality
People are attracted to the Tonkinese breed because they are beautiful, but more important, they have a wonderful personality. Although Tonkinese kittens are great fun, Tonkinese tend to remain kittens throughout their life. Visit our personality page to see lots of photos of Tonkinese with children, other breeds of cats, and dogs.
Tonkinese Colors
Tonkinese come in many color/coat pattern variations. Their coat patterns vary from high contrast between body and points (extremities: face, ears, tail, and legs) to low contrast (almost solid) coat and some in between with more subtle contrast. Tonkinese Color and Coat Patterns explains the basic color definitions and illustrate the color/coat pattern combinations.
Tonkinese Genetics
This article is a technical detailed explanation of the genetics and physical mechanisms that create the colors/coat patterns, and eye colors. It also contains probability tables giving the average number of kitten colors produced by the matings of parents of various colors.
Tonkinese Conformation
The CFA
Breed Standard specifies the conformation description by which all Tonkinese are judged in the show ring. The CFA Tonkinese Breed Council site has more in depth help interpreting the standard, including a detailed slide show that steps through the entire standard.
Historical Information
- June 1995 History of the Tonkinese by Mary L. Carsky, PhD
- March 2002 Almanac Breed Article 'The Tonkinese Breed' by Linda Martino
- History Time Line of Tonkinese events
- Tonkinese Archives
- CFA Tonkinese Statistics