High white British Shorthairs are cats that are more than 50% white. These cats can come in any of the colours and patterns of a normal British Shorthair cat. Tabby, cinnamon, chocolate, blue, colourpoint...you name it, the high white British Shorthair can be it!

The pattern: high white British Shorthairs, van and harlequin

High white British Shorthairs tend to have white tummies and white faces. Depending on the degree of white that they have, they then have a coloured tail with patches of colour on their body. Those with more colour look a little like cows, while those with more white can have as little as one or two patches of colour on their bodies. High white British Shorthairs are often referred to as Vans or Harlequins, and different cat registries have slightly different standards for each in terms of degrees of white and patches of colour.

The British Shorthair Van

Whilst the rules vary between registries, it is common for vans of show quality to be required to have a coloured tail, a coloured patch on their head, and then no more than two patches of colour on their body.

The genetics of the High White British Shorthair 

High white British Shorthairs are white because of the White Spotting gene. This is a dominant gene, and if a kitten inherits one copy of the gene they will be a bicolour. If they inherit no copies of the gene, they will be a self, if they inherit 2 copies of the gene they will be more than 50% white. That is when it gets interesting: if you put two high white cats together, then you start to get kittens that are almost all white - vans and harlequins. The gene is expressed as WS for white spotting, ws for non-white spotting. 

• ws/ws = no white, also known as 'self'

• WS/ws = bicolour 

• WS/WS = high white 

Read more about the bicolour British Shorthair cat.

Our high white kittens 

We have a home-bred lilac high white girl, who is a superstar and one of the most beautiful cats we have.  She also carries cinnamon. Read more about the cinnamon British Shorthair cat. 

Here are some of our previous high white British Shorthair kittens: 

Moo - a lilac high white girl 

Boo - a blue high white girl 

Phileas - a lilac van boy 

(images coming soon!)

Now and again, we get high white kittens, in a variety of colours and patterns. Have a look at our kitten page to see if we have any high white kittens available. 

If you are interested in genetics, have a look at our article on the genetics of breeding British Shorthairs. 

We are British Shorthair breeders, specialising in the more magical and unusual colours and patterns that this wonderful breed can be born with. Have a read through our website to get more of a feel for what we do.