Breed Codes EMS Colour Codes FIFe Titles GCCF Breed Numbers   EMS Colour Codes By Penny Bydlinski The letters EMS stand for 'Easy Mind System' and the system was intended to be both easy and logical - it is not a genetically based system. The first part of the code which is written in capital (or upper case) letters denotes the breed, thus: Recognised Breeds Category I    EXO  EXOtic    PER  PERsian    Category II    MCO  Maine COon    NFO  Norwegian FOrest   RAG  RAGdoll    SBI  BIrman  (SBI is used because the original name of the cat was 'Sacred Birman' and BIR could easily be confused with BUR)   TUA  TUrkish Angora    TUV  TUrkish Van    Category III    ABY  ABYssinian    BEN  BENgal    BML  BurMiLla   BRI  BRItish    BUR  BURmese    CHA  CHArtreuse    CRX  Cornish ReX    DRX  Devon ReX    EUR  EURopean    GRX  German ReX    JBT  Japanese BobTail   KOR  KORat    MAN  MANx    MAU  Egyptian MAU    OCI  OCIcat    RUS  RUSsian    SOK  SOKoke    SOM  SOMali    Category IV    BAL  BALinese    JAV  JAVanese    ORI  ORIental    SIA  SIAmese    Unrecognised Breeds Examples:   ASL non  ASian Longhair   ASS non  ASian Shorthair   CYM non  CYMric   SFL non  Scottish Fold Longhair   SFS non  Scottish Fold Shorthair   SIN non  SINgapura   SNO non  SNOwshoe   SPH non  SPHynx   TON non  TONkinese   XLH  eXperimental LongHair   XSH  eXperimental ShortHair   All right so far?  Next comes the colour and this is always in small or lower-case letters, thus: Recognised Colours n Black or Seal  (Seal in himalayan patterned cats,   Burmese, Burmillas and Tonkinese) or Ruddy (in Abyssinians and Somalis).   ('n' is from the French 'noir' meaning 'black') a  Blue    b  Chocolate    c  Lilac    d  Red    e  Cream    f  Black & Seal Tortie    g  Blue Tortie    h  Chocolate Tortie    j  Lilac Tortie    o  Cinnamon  (Sorrel in Abyssinians)   p  Fawn    q  Cinnamon (Sorrel) Tortie    r  Fawn Tortie    s  Silver    w  White    y  Golden   An unrecognised colour variety is denoted by an 'x'. Pattens Patterns also have codes, thus: With Whites: 01  Van   02  Harlequin   03  Bicolour   04  Mitted   09  Unspecified amount of white   Silver Shadeds and Shells: 11  Shaded   12  Shell   Tabby Patterns: 21  Unspecified Tabby Pattern   22  Blotched Tabby   23  Mackerel Tabby   24  Spotted Tabby   25  Ticked Tabby   Pointed Series: 31  Burmese shading pattern   32  Tonkinese shading pattern 33  Himalayan, pointed pattern   Eye Colour Codes for eye colour are as follows: 61  Blue eyed   62  Orange eyed   63  Odd eyed   64  Green eyed   65  Burmese eye colour   66  Tonkinese eye colour   67  Siamese eye colour   Those are the most important elements and from them you can work out most breed codes. For example a black shaded silver Persian would be PER (for the breed) followed by n (for black) s (for silver) and 11 for shaded giving: PER ns 11 A black smoke cat (which is also a silver cat but not tipped or shaded) would simply be: PER ns A black blotched (classic) tabby European (sometimes called a brown tabby) would be: EUR n 22 The colour of the tabby is the colour of the stripes, black, blue, red, etc. The background colour is assumed to be agouti brown unless it is silver or golden. Unrecognised Varieties Don't forget the little 'x' which signifies a variety not recognised within a specific breed. For example, at the moment the Seal Tabby Point Ragdoll is not recognised, however, the Ragdoll breed is recognised but not in this colour variety - thus the code for the Seal Tabby Point Ragdoll is: RAG xn 21 As a Birman is a cat with a himalayan pattern it is not necessary to add '33' to any of the varieties. A seal point Birman is written: SBI n The '04' is also unneccessary. In the same way the '33' is not needed with Siamese, since they are all pointed cats. There is an exception with the Siamese, since the all white cat, previously known as the Foreign White is actually a white Siamese and its code is simply: SIA w 67 This has brought us to another aspect of the codes, i.e. the eye colour. With some breeds it is necessary to identify the eye colour as they are judged in separate classes. In white Persians and white British for example, there are three colour classes: Blue-eyed white, Orange-eyed white and Odd-eyed white. The blue which comes with the himalayan gene in Siamese is also different to that of the other blue-eyed white cats and is given a different code. The orange or yellow of most Persian and British cats is also different from the yellow of the Burmese breed, this is also given a different code. We do not always have to actually use this code since it is is self-evident, for example a brown Burmese is written as a BUR n it is not necessary to add '65' since it is a Burmese and must have Burmese eye colour. The same applies with the Siamese and with Persians and British such as blacks, blues, creams, reds etc. which all must have orange eyes according to the standard. It is however necessary to write it with the white cats - Persians and British and some other breeds, as we have explained. So a blue eyed white Persian is written: PER w 61 an orange eyed white British would be written: BRI w 62 and an odd-eyed white Maine Coon would be written: MCO w 63 The silver tabby Persians also have to have it written down as they are now judged in two classes according to their eye colour, green or orange. Thus a silver tabby Persian with orange eyes is a: PER ns 22 62 (Note the breed code followed by 'n' for black and 's' for silver and '22' for a blotched tabby pattern and finally the eye colour). A green eyed silver tabby Persian would be written: PER ns 22 64 Are you getting the hang of it? Tabbies (Agoutis) The various tabby (also called agouti) patterns can present something of a problem, particularly in the longhaired breeds where the pattern is not very clear. In the case of tabby and white cats such as we get with Persians, Maine Coons and Norwegian Forest Cats it is sometimes written in as '21' which simply tells you that it is a tabby but not specifically which pattern. A Norwegian Forest black unspecified tabby and white would be written: NFO n 09 21 Note the number codes are written in ascending order. With the shorthairs it is easier to see and these patterns appear after the colour, For example a British black blotched tabby would be written: BRI n 22 A British silver spotted tabby would be written: BRI ns 24 Ticked Tabbies are confined to the Abyssinian/Somali and the Oriental Shorhair at present. The Abyssinians/Somalis are all ticked tabbies so it is not necessary to add the code '25' after the colour but in the case of the Orientals it is, and an example of this could be a Chocolate Ticked Tabby Oriental which would be written: ORI b 25 Manx & Cymric A special code which applies only to one breed is the tail code which is really an indication of the amount of tail and is used, of course, with the Manx and its longhaired counterpart, the Cymric. The code is: 51  Rumpy - totally without a tail   52  Rumpy riser - a tiny rising of the bone at the end of the spine   53  Stumpy - a rudimentary tail not longer than 3-4 cm (1 to 1 1/2 inches)   54  Longie - these cats are used for breeding but may not be shown   Now you have all the information you need to work out what your own cat's EMS code is without even looking at its pedigree. Follow this order and you will be surprised how easy it is. Firstly, what breed do you have? Look for the breed code, remember it is always written in capital letters, then write it down. Secondly, what colour is your cat? Go to the colour codes and find the small letter which is the code for your cat's colour and, leaving a space after the capital letters of the breed code, write the colour code in. If your cat is a silver cat it will always have an 's' after its main colour code, i.e. a black silver is 'ns,' a blue silver is 'as,' a red silver is 'ds.' BUT, unless it is a 'smoke' there will have to be a pattern code after it. With the Persians, the British and the Burmillas it might be a 'shaded' or a 'shell'. A chinchilla is a shell, which means only the very tips of the hairs have colour on them and it looks like a completely white cat, the code for this pattern is '12' and therefore after the 'ns' would come the '12', so we have a: PER ns 12 and we know immediately it is a chinchilla. The tipping on a shaded cat goes further down the shaft of each hair and can be clearly seen as a darker mantle, the code for this is '11', thus for a shaded silver Persian we have: PER ns 11 If the cat is a silver tabby we shall have a different code, a British Silver Tabby for example is: BRI ns 22 In this case it is a blotched tabby, if we make the code ns 24 we know it is a spotted tabby - but we always know it is a silver tabby. If your cat has white on it, this must also be recorded. A black and white bicolour is 'n 03' for example. A Turkish Van is of course a cat with a van pattern, but because it is intrinsic to the breed we do not write in the code 01 - we simply write TUV for the breed followed by d (for the red colour) and then we designate the eye colour as this is a breed which may have more than one eye colour. Unspecified white '09' is confined to those breeds where it is recognised, i.e. Maine Coons, Norwegian Forests, the Rex varieties and Manx. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------