frisson

Born Curly - obvious ripples     2wks - curl straightening

 4wks - nearly bald

 6wks - Yikes!

 8wks

 close-up ^     curl coming back but still sparse
 8 wks

             - top coat first -     /\  10wks \/

14wks - undercoat filling out and starting to grow into his ears

LaPerm kittens are born either with a curly coat BC, or straight coat BS, or are quite bald BB.

Born Straight kittens usually stay that way, although there have been a few cases in the past when this coat has dropped out and regrown curly. But otherwise this is called a LaPerm Varient, still with the wonderful LaPerm personality, size and shape but no curls.

Born Bald kittens are no longer common but still occur. (Rouge Homme was one of these.) Although having little or no fur at birth, when the coat does come in it is curly, the same as the Born Curly littermates. 

Born Curly kittens will end up curly coated adults, but how and when they achieve this varies from cat to cat, even within the same litter.

By two weeks old the ripples have straightened to a light fluff, and by four weeks become thin and sparse, sometimes even completely bald. It can be hard to imagine this gawky kitten with long legs, skinny neck, huge ears and no fur, ever becoming the beautiful creature we love!

When the coat does finally come in (somewhere between 6-10 weeks) our patience is rewarded with the return of curls, which will continue to change and improve over the months until maturity at about 2 years old.

It can also be hard to tell if the kitten will end up shorthaired or longhaired (unless both parents are longhaired) as even the longhaired cats can be shorter-coated on the body for a while, especially in the warmer months.

The guide is mostly the tail, which in the longhair develops a full plume, and in the shorthair more of a bottlebrush with the fur standing out from the tail itself in waves or curls.

These photos are all of Frisson BC Cardamom, now Sooty, who lives happily with Princess (Lucy's sister) and their family in Sydney. My many thanks to them for his update photos and reports on his new life.

I chose him to illustrate this page as he had the most extreme coat change of his litter. Not all LaPerm kittens experience it to the same extent, but all will go through some coat loss and change as they grow. This is one of the many things I find fascinating about this breed, and I hope you do too.

 7 months