Kittens of Ural Rex are usually born curly, by one month the waves go away.

At the age of 3-4 months the kitten already has well-defined semi-closed curve, but to tell the truth it goes to smooth waves a bit later, till the age of 6-7 months.
While the density of coat went better we discovered the presence of thinned guard hairs and top coat.
Probably this causes the fact that the wave being smooth and equal in density bears the semi-closed character.

It is also interesting to follow the color development at Ural Rex. Kitten’s coat gets the greyish undertone during the period of first adult molting. Kittens are likely to be intensively comb out because the combing process is very hard for them and old grey coat can stay for a long time. This will impact to the quality of curl and to intensity of color.
Adult coat of black and black-tabby color is easily oxidized and after age of 2 years black can go into brownish color and black-tabby goes to bright-golden undertone with dark basis of coat. This should be taken into account when expertizing a cat. From the point of view of classic color this is not right but it looks very attractive.

Breed type of Ural Rex is easily recognizable. The head has short and broad modified wedge. Slightly convex skull with a pronounced transition to the broad and short nose at the level of lower eye-lid. Nasal bridge is flattened, high cheekbones.
Adult cats can show noticeable cheeks. Muzzle is not so big, rounded, with a slight pinch. Chin is wide, prominent enough but not protruding. Whiskers can be crimped.

Eyes are of almond-shape, big, widely open, slanted and set as wide as possible (at least one width of eye between) with slightly straightened upper eye-lid and rounded lower eye-lid.

Ears are of medium size, set high, open a little to outer side, with rounded ear tips and broad at base.

The body is strong enough, with developed muscles on thin strong legs with small paws.Tail is thin with rounded tip. There is an impression of strong and muscular cat on thin legs with tender, dense and waved coat, with big oval widely open slanted eyes and with head of soft rounded lines, prominent cheekbones and with pinch.

Comparing Ural Rex with other Rex breeds we can see that Cornish Rex is more elegant, with wedged head, big ears, with shorter and softer coat, without guard hairs and top coat.

Devon Rex has sharper contours of broad head with higher profile transition, very big ears and shorter coat with less waved structure.

When compared with German Rex, Ural Rex has more elastic and flatter lying wave, the transition from forehead to nose is lower and more prominent, nose bridge is flattened and there is slight pinch. Eyes are bigger and are set wider.

Nowadays we have healthy livestock of rather typical cats with brightly expressed breed features.

Black bicolor curly male Vasily became the breed founder. He was born in 1988 in the family of Ludmila Semenovna Podurovskaya.
The kittens were born from the mating of Vasily and his mother, black spotted shorthair female Mura: one black bicolor male Bars and one black spotted female Murka. They were born in 1994.

Later on we used classic inbreeding schemes: Vasily х Murka, females from this litter were mated with Bars, and daughters of Bars again mated Bars. As a result we achieved two goals: first, livestock of Ural Rexes was checked for carriage of hazardous anomalies which influenced first cats, second, we got rapid consolidation of best breed features from ancestral couple and a stable growth of breed population.

It is very important to remark that during those years of close inbreeding we did not reveal any anomalies. Ural Rexes possess brilliant health. To expand the gene fund we used selective outcrosses with European shorthair cats.

In 90-s we made analytical matings with Cornish Rex and Bohemian Rex. As we got usual normal kittens with straight hair, this proves that Ural rex mutation and Cornish rex mutation are not allele to each other.

Our Russian breed becomes more frequent at cat shows attracting by its cheerful and balanced temperament, by its magnificent waved coat and unique exterior!

At present the main breeding work with Ural Rexes in Ekaterinburg and neighborhoods id done within URPFO “GRACE” and in catteries: "EMERALD URAL","SHURAVY","REVOLUTION","LABRELLE" and by separate cat owners.

The same breed work is done by leading catteries in other cities: “AMULET URALA"- Moscow, "Merlushka"- Perm, "Salgir” - Sevastopol, "From Uralland"- Kolomna,  "Ulan Praid" - Irkutsk, "Samocvet" -S.Peterburg , and also cat oners   Elizaveta Shuiskaya from Irkutsk.

In 1997 T. Emelyanova took two females to Moscow: Marlushe and Bonnie and also one male Clide, which were the starting point for Moscow Ural Rex breeding program.

The Standard of WCF, IFA, FARUS:

Ural Rex (URX(URS)/URL)

General characteristics:
Ural Rex is a well-developed cat of the medium size with wavy coat of short or medium length, which is different from the coat of Cornish Rex and German Rex. The gender dimorphism is expressed: males are bigger and heavier than females. Ural Rex cats possess sweet character, they are very loving, smart and sociable, easy make contacts and love humans.

Body:
The body is of medium size, muscular, moderately compact and at the same time slender. Torso is well rounded and proportional. Chest is rounded and well-developed.

Legs:
Strong and powerful, of medium length, slender, with rounded paws, in proportion to the body.

Tail:
Tail is in proportion to the body, of medium length, not wide at the base and is tapering to the slightly rounded tip.

Coat:
Coat is short, soft, silky and dense. The cat’s body is covered with dense, thin waves with excellently defined elastic curl. The curl finally closes till the age of two years old. Semi-long hair (SLH) – The wave on the body is less defined. There is a small mane. The curl resembles to kiss-curl or spiral, elongated and twisted coat on the tail. The longest hairs can be less colored.

Color:
All colors are recognized. Chocolate, cinnamon and their appropriate diluted colors are not recognized in any combination (including solids, bicolor, tricolor, tabby); as well as Burmese-factor and Abyssinian-ticking. Any amount of white is permitted.

Head:
The head has the form of short broad wedge with rounded shapes, in proportion to the body. The forehead is slightly rounded, profile with defined curve up Фото гуфри
Ural is famous not only for mineral resources but also for animals.

Curly cats (according to old-timers’ observations) are met periodically starting from 40-ies of the 20th century in the region of Sverdlovsk (now Ekaterinburg).
As felinology was not known in Soviet Union (and in Ural district) as a science these cats were taken by the population as the curiosity fact and no one was interested in breeding such cats.

During last 14 years breeders from URPFO “GRACE” under supervision of Elena Fedorenko created this new cat breed URAL REX on the basis of those curly cats.

With generations of inbred breeding the dense coat of fine texture with double flat-lying wave was formed.
to the slight stop not higher than the level of lower eye-lid. Bridge of nose flat and broad. Cheek-bones are well pronounced, there is a developed pinch. Muzzle is broad and rounded. Strong chin is slightly rounded. Vibrissae are frequently twisted.

Ears:
From medium to small size, preferably small, with the shape of equilateral triangle.
Ears are set high and upright, broad at base, tips are rounded.

Eyes:
Eyes are of almond-shape form, clean and bright, wide-open, slightly slanted, with slightly straightening upper eye-lid and rounded lower eye-lid. Eyes are set wide apart (at least one eye width distance between eyes). Any eye-color is permitted.

Possible outcrosses with other breeds - forbidden

Scale of points

Body:
Torso 10 points , Legs 5 points, Tail 5 points
Skeleton 5 points

Head:
Form and size 10 points
Muzzle and profile 10 points
Ears 5 points
Eyes 5 points

Coat:
texture, density, color 15 points
wave ?25 points
condition: 5 points

Ural Rexes are very friendly to humans. They have calm and balanced temperament, good behavior towards other animals in the house and are very tender with children.

INFORMATION LETTER

On April 22nd 2009 the expanded sitting of UROFO "Grace" was held and the Breeding Committee for the Ural Rex breed was created. It united most of the Ural Rex catteries in Russia registered in the WCF clubs.

The creation of this Committee is explained by the necessity to coordinate the breeding work within unified standard and strategy for the development of the Ural Rex breed, which was officially recognized on WCF General Assembly in Germany in 2006.

The Committee unites all of the Ural Rex cattery owners and interested Ural Rex breeders in Russia.

It needs to be emphasized that cross breeding only with European Shorthair was permissible and only up to 2011 according to the official decision of the WCF Breeding Committee (see Official standard). Animals born from mating with other breeds cannot be admitted to pedigree breeding and their descendants cannot have pedigrees as Ural Rexes.

Breeding Committee members:

Chairman: Elena Borisovna Fedorenko

Deputy board chairman: Natalia Kulikovskih

Organizing Committee: Olga Makarova, Denis Cherepanov, Tatiana Cherepanova