The History of the Sphynx: From Natural Mutation to Modern Breed

Despite its name, the modern Sphynx does not originate from Ancient Egypt.

Hairless cats have appeared spontaneously in different parts of the world throughout recorded feline history. Some of these populations disappeared without becoming established breeds, and they should not automatically be regarded as ancestors of the modern Sphynx.

GCCF records earlier examples of naturally hairless cats, including the so-called Mexican Hairless cats Nellie and Dick in New Mexico in 1902, as well as experimental breeding of hairless cats by the French geneticist Professor Étienne Letard. Neither developed into the pedigree breed we recognise today.

The Canadian beginnings

The documented history of the modern Sphynx begins in Ontario, Canada, in 1966.

A black-and-white domestic shorthair named Elizabeth, owned by Mrs Micalwaith, gave birth to a naturally hairless male kitten named Prune. Elizabeth and Prune were subsequently acquired by Riyadh Bawa, who had studied genetics at the University of Toronto, and his mother, an experienced Siamese breeder. Working with another couple, the Tenhoves, they began attempting to establish the hairless trait through selective breeding.

Prune was bred back to his mother, producing both coated and hairless offspring. These early matings helped establish that the hairless phenotype behaved as a recessive trait.

The programme continued for several years, but the population was extremely small. GCCF records that problems associated with the limited gene pool ultimately contributed to the programme ending, and the original Prune line is believed to have died out during the early 1970s.

Prune is often described as the foundation of the modern Sphynx, which can give the impression that every Sphynx alive today descends directly from him. But the original programme ended, and other naturally hairless cats were subsequently incorporated into the breeding programmes that established the breed.

New hairless cats appear

Further naturally hairless cats appeared independently during the 1970s.

In Wadena, Minnesota, the ordinary barn cats belonging to Milt and Ethelyn Pearson produced two hairless females: Epidermis and Dermis. GCCF dates this foundation pair to 1975 and records that they proved genetically compatible with the Canadian hairless lines.

In Toronto, another group of hairless cats was discovered.

In 1978, Siamese breeder Shirley Smith encountered a black-and-white hairless male named Bambi. His mother later produced two further hairless kittens in separate litters, Punkie and Paloma.

By this point, the cats from the original Prune programme had already been neutered, so the two Canadian populations could never be test-mated to demonstrate directly that exactly the same mutation was responsible. GCCF acknowledges this and states only that their occurrence in the same geographical area makes a common genetic basis appear likely.

The modern Sphynx therefore developed not from one uninterrupted family line, but from several naturally occurring hairless cats incorporated into breeding programmes in North America and Europe.

Punkie, Paloma and the European programme

Punkie and Paloma were sent to Dr Hugo Hernandez in the Netherlands, where they became important to the emerging European breeding programme.

Hernandez needed suitable mates and bred Punkie to a white Devon Rex male, Curare van Jetrophin.

At the time, the underlying molecular genetics were unknown. Hernandez reportedly expected normally coated offspring carrying the Sphynx mutation, but instead hairless kittens were produced.

The result was unusual because the breeders were working on the assumption that the two coat mutations were independent. The genetic relationship between Sphynx and Devon Rex would not be explained until decades later.

The Devon Rex connection

The Devon Rex became an important historical outcross during the early development of the Sphynx in both Europe and North America. Breeders were attempting to enlarge a very restricted gene pool, and Devon Rex appeared to offer a practical means of doing so.

However, the Sphynx and Devon Rex coat mutations turned out not to be independent genes.

In 2010, Gandolfi and colleagues identified different mutations in KRT71 associated with the Sphynx and Devon Rex phenotypes. Their study proposed the allelic relationship:

KRT71+ > KRT71hr > KRT71re

In other words, the normal-coat allele is dominant to the Sphynx hairless allele, while the Sphynx allele is dominant to the Devon Rex allele.

Sarah Hartwell describes the same relationship in her Messybeast Genes and Alleles Summary, explaining that molecular analysis demonstrated that the Canadian Sphynx and Devon Rex mutations are different variants of the same gene rather than mutations at completely separate loci.

The 2010 study also found Sphynx cats that were compound heterozygotes, carrying one Sphynx-associated KRT71 variant and one Devon Rex-associated variant while retaining the hairless phenotype. A Sphynx can therefore carry the Devon Rex variant without displaying a Devon Rex coat, something that would not necessarily have been apparent to breeders before genetic testing became available.

Why Sphynx × Devon Rex is no longer permitted by GCCF

The Devon Rex played an important part in the development of the breed, but that does not mean that Sphynx × Devon Rex remains an acceptable breeding practice.

The GCCF Sphynx Registration Policy explicitly states that crosses to Devon Rex which were previously accepted for the production of foundation stock are no longer acceptable. Existing historical Devon Rex ancestry was allowed to remain within established pedigrees, but new Devon Rex outcrosses were discontinued.

One of the problems was that continued use of Devon Rex did not provide as much new genetic diversity as originally hoped. The GCCF breeding policy states that an early over-reliance on Devon Rex failed to provide sufficient diversity, leading breeders to move towards other outcrosses.

There was also the Devon Rex-associated KRT71 allele, which could remain hidden within Sphynx lines.

If two Sphynx carrying the Devon Rex allele are bred together, GCCF notes that there is a 25% probability that an offspring could inherit two Devon Rex alleles and no Sphynx allele. GCCF therefore regards the Devon Rex allele as undesirable within the modern Sphynx gene pool and recommends DNA testing where historic Devon ancestry may be relevant.

The two breeds also differ substantially in type, particularly in head shape, muzzle, ears and eye shape. GCCF advises breeders to select away from Devon Rex-like characteristics where they appear in Sphynx descended from historic outcrosses.

The GCCF breeding policy additionally attributes increased blood type B frequency, inherited myopathy and HCM-related concerns within some historic Sphynx lines to the use of Devon Rex.

I would be careful, however, about interpreting that last statement as evidence that Devon Rex caused HCM in the Sphynx. It is GCCF’s historical explanation, but HCM is genetically complex, and the movement of susceptibility between individual breeding lines cannot be reconstructed simply from the fact that Devon Rex was used as an outcross.

The KRT71 relationship is different because the genetic connection between the coat variants has been demonstrated molecularly.

GCCF policy is equally clear in the opposite direction: cats with Sphynx ancestry should not be introduced into Devon Rex breeding programmes. Its Devon Rex policy states that offspring of Sphynx × Devon Rex matings cannot be used as Devon Rex breeding stock.

Devon Rex was used when the Sphynx population was still being established and breeders had very limited alternatives. Once the breed developed further, and more became known about the genetics involved, the reasons for continuing those crosses became much less convincing.

Development of the European lines

The European breeding programme produced cats that became influential in later Sphynx pedigrees, although some of the surviving accounts are difficult to reconcile.

Later breeder histories give names such as Q. Ra, Q. Ramses, Hathor de Calecat, Hanna/Hannie Nathans and Tonia Vink and attempt to reconstruct the movement of individual cats between European programmes.

Some of those accounts may well be accurate, but many are retrospective breeder histories rather than contemporary registry records. Spellings of names and even some ownership details differ between sources, so without original pedigrees or contemporary documentation it is difficult to establish precisely how every cat moved between the early European programmes.

For that reason, I have not treated every detail in those later reconstructions as established historical fact.

The first Sphynx in the United Kingdom

The British history is better documented.

The Sphynx Cat Club records that in 1988, a four-year-old female named Hathor de Calecat, known as Tulip, became the first Sphynx to enter the United Kingdom from Holland.

Tulip was jointly owned by Jan Plumb and Angela Rushbrook, although some later accounts credit Jan Plumb alone with introducing the breed to Britain. The surviving UK club history specifically records both women as Tulip’s owners.

Tulip was subsequently exhibited at three GCCF shows, where she introduced many British cat enthusiasts to the breed for the first time. The Sphynx Cat Club records that she lived to more than fifteen years of age.

There is some uncertainty around the name of Tulip’s breeder. The Sphynx Cat Club lists it as “Hattie Nathon”, while later breeder histories use similar but different names, including Hannie or Hanna Nathans, often associated with the Calecat prefix.

Those names may refer to the same person and may simply have changed through transcription over the years, but without an original pedigree or contemporary registry document that cannot be confirmed conclusively. I have therefore retained the spelling used by the Sphynx Cat Club when referring to its account.

From natural mutation to established breed

The Sphynx was not created by one breeder or descended from one single hairless cat.

Its history involved a number of naturally occurring hairless kittens, followed by breeding programmes in Canada, the United States and Europe and the deliberate use of outcrosses to build a viable population.

Some of the decisions made during the breed’s early development, particularly the extensive use of Devon Rex, would not be repeated under modern breeding policies. At the time, however, breeders were working without DNA tests and without the molecular knowledge available today.

Modern genetics has subsequently explained some of what they observed in their breeding programmes.

The Sphynx-associated and Devon Rex-associated coat variants are now known to involve the same gene, KRT71, while later population studies have also shown that the genetic picture is not necessarily complete. Some phenotypically hairless Sphynx have been identified without the commonly tested Sphynx KRT71 variant, suggesting that additional genetic factors may exist.

There are still gaps in the historical record as well. Some events are well documented, while others have been reconstructed from breeder accounts written many years later, and those accounts do not always agree.

The history of the Sphynx is still being clarified as historical records are revisited and genetic knowledge develops. Where reliable evidence exists, we can use it. Where accounts conflict or cannot be independently verified, it is better to acknowledge that uncertainty than to repeat a convenient version of the story as fact.

Sources and further reading

Governing Council of the Cat Fancy (GCCF) — Sphynx: Origins and History. GCCF records the Prune line, Shirley Smith's cats, Punkie and Paloma, Hugo Hernandez, Devon Rex outcrossing and Tulip's arrival in the UK. The Governing Council of the Cat Fancy

GCCF Sphynx Breed Advisory Committee — Recommended Breeding Policy for the Sphynx Cat. Particularly useful for the historical gene pool, Devon Rex outcrossing, the KRT71 relationship and GCCF's reasons for moving away from Devon Rex. The Governing Council of the Cat Fancy

GCCF Sphynx Registration Policy — states explicitly that previously acceptable Devon Rex foundation crosses are no longer acceptable as new Sphynx outcrosses. The Governing Council of the Cat Fancy

Gandolfi B, Outerbridge CA, Beresford LG, et al. (2010). The naked truth: Sphynx and Devon Rex cat breed mutations in KRT71. Mammalian Genome 21:509–515. This is the primary scientific source for the molecular relationship between the Sphynx and Devon Rex KRT71 variants. PubMed Central (PMC)

The Sphynx Cat Club, UK — History & Origins. Principal UK breed-club source for Tulip, her 1988 arrival from Holland and her joint ownership by Jan Plumb and Angela Rushbrook. Sphynx Cat Club

Anderson H, Davison S, Lytle KM, Honkanen L, Freyer J, Mathlin J, et al. (2022). Genetic epidemiology of blood type, disease and trait variants, and genome-wide genetic diversity in over 11,000 domestic cats. PLOS Genetics 18(6): e1009804. This large-scale genetic study identified 22 phenotypically hairless Sphynx cats without the commonly tested KRT71 c.816+1G>A hairlessness variant, suggesting that an additional, currently unknown variant in KRT71 or another gene may cause the hairless phenotype in some Sphynx.

Author: Maria Niewiadomska

Published: 25 September 2026

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