A little information about the breed
The only naturally spotted pedigree cat, the Egyptian Mau (or Egyptian Mau) traces its origins back to the cats of ancient Egypt.
Her nature is characterized by the fact that she is very cuddly, intelligent, tender, sensitive, people-loving and playful. She is loyal to her family and bonds very closely to her people and develops a very strong bond, especially with their favorite people.
A Mau is a member of the family and wants to be treated as one :)
They have just the most amazing character you could wish for!
Most people who ever had the honor to own a good bred Mau once said to me:
Once a Mau always a Mau!- and I totally agree!
I, Bianca, met my very first Egyptian Mau cat 2016 and coming from a different breed I immediately not only saw the beautyful color pattern and the wonderful green eyes, but the totally different character too. I had and bred Bengals for years with the most amazing big, wild looking cloud rosettes and pelt like shiny coats, but to be honest I, my family and our home suffered badly under the destructiveness, overwhelming activity, imbalance and impurity. I know it sounds hard to say so, but Bengals as one of the wildcat-hybrid-breeds out there are just totally different from a normal cat we all know and love (and I know a few Bengals)- especially when they are not fixed and you have more than 3 cats at home. And I´m not talking about early generation with a lot of wildblood percentage- no mine were all about 15 generations away from the last ALC cross.
Meeting my first Egyptian Mau cats, seeing them interact with each other, talking with other Mau owners.... it honestly just blew my mind.
I can´t discripe it, but I fixed and rehomed all my Bengals withhin months.
So many of my former bengal breeder friends laught at me doing so, but it totally changed my view to own a wellbred Mau. Even if they do not have flashy wild looking rosettes to call their own, but they so much more special and beautyful with their heartwarming personalities, their soulful, big, gooseberry green eyes as mirrows of their soft nature and the wonderful million little dots all over their body...
it´s just a totally different world.
Mau demand love and attention from their human in a gentle but consistent way and like to talk with you too :) They are very eager to learn and have incredible empathy but also a strong sense of justice when someone does you harm.
The Egyptian Mau is a medium-sized, athletic, and muscular cat weighing around 5.5lbs to 12lbs, although females are usually slightly smaller and lighter than males.
There are 3 color variants listed in the breed standard - Black Silver Spotted Tabby (silver with black spots), brown (black) spotted tabby (commonly called "Bronze" - a brown base with brown to possibly black spots) and Black Smoke which the white/silver hair roots shining though creating a kind of smoke fog on which you can still see the black dots) and actually there is also the rare color variant black (a kind of melanistic- depending on the sunlight you can also see the spots shining though. In contrast to the Black Smokes, the silver hair base is missing here).
Another variante that is rarely seen and a legacy of the ancestors of some bloodlines is the "blue" color- cause by 2 copies of the dilute gen. It creates a very unique blue shadow other the orginal color, but is sadly not recognised in the breed standard.
The Egytian Maus should always be spotted!
The final green eye color needs up to 2 years to fully deverlope :)
The tabby "M" on her forehead-just above their eyes-and the mascara lines that are supposed to reach from the corners of her eyes to the end of her cheeks. In connection with these features and the special shape of the head and the position of the eyes, the "worried" expression that is so typical of the breed arises. Unique ^^
Their ears should be medium to large in size; the paws comparatively oval, fine and graceful. The hind legs, which are significantly longer than the front legs - which gives the Mau a leopard-like walk and also brings with it some potential for speed and jumping.
Here you can see a great example for the lonnger back legs
The history of the Egyptian Mau begins with the settlement of people in ancient Egypt. The cultivation of fields and the construction of granaries attracted many rodents at that time. Due to this food oversupply of rats, the Nubian wild cat settled there.
The Egyptians quickly realized that the cats kept rats away from their grain and soon people started keeping these cats as pets. Over time, they were treated like regular family members. If a cat died of natural causes, a family memorial service was held. This funeral service was followed by the ritual of embalming. Besides the cats, only the kings of Egypt were allowed to do something like that. Mice were also placed in the grave to give the dead cat a good start in its new life.
So the Mau had a very high status in ancient Egypt. In fact, there are even more cat mummies than human ones.
Like many cat breeds that are not too far away from the wild cat, Egyptian Mau kittens are also in the so-called fuzzy phase from the age of about 5 weeks. This stage varies in length and can also vary in severity. The drawing and fur color appears blurred at this time. The development of the color (contrast) and markings (sharpness of the spots) is not fully completed until the age of 2 years.
The reason for this phase can be found in the original wild part of the Egyptian Maus. Wild cats begin to leave the safe nest at 10 weeks of age and adopt a fuzzy pattern a few weeks earlier to be well camouflaged from predators. The Egyptian Maus still carry this legacy.
Apart from that, it should be mentioned that every cat, whatever breed (or not) it belongs to, is and always will be an individual.
It is all the more important for me that our cats can/may go through a good socialization process in all directions in their first weeks of life. The most important imprinting phase for cats on their environment takes place between the second and seventh week of life - accordingly, we get all our kittens used to all everyday noises, different smells and dealing with people, especially during this time.