Siamese kittens are born pure white and the queen usually has about five in the litter. The eyes open from three days onwards, much earlier than in Longhaired or British Shorthaired breeds, and must be protected from too much light at this stage.

As the days go by the points begin gradually to colour up, and are quite distinct by the time the kittens are toddling out of the maternity box at four weeks.

The original Siamese were Seal-Points. This is the effect of the Himalayan factor on a shorthaired black cat. The black coloring is restricted to the extremities of the body, and is given a slightly paler appearance, known as Seal-Brown.

The coat, white in kitten hood, gradually becomes a warm buff, shading to fawn on the flanks as the kitten matures, and the mask, or muzzle, dark up to the eyeline at first, gradually extends towards the forehead, connecting with fine tracings from the eyebrows to the black cars at the age of nine months.

They have soft voices to match their colouring and are very gentle, loving creatures.

Experimental breeders decided to introduce other factors into the Siamese breed, and this was not undertaken lightly, for it is expensive and time-consuming to raise the necessary number of litters to create a new variety and to bring it to recognition point. The factors to be introduced were the red gene and the tabby gene.