General principles and restrictions

Please note the following general principles and restrictions:

• a * stands for any information according to the EMS System
• individual EMS codes will always be separated from each other by a space, unless specifically indicated otherwise
• individual numerical EMS codes are always shown in ascending order
• if a breed is limited to only one specific occurrence of a trait, the code for this trait is never used in the full EMS code of a cat belonging to the breed.

Recognised breed

For fully and preliminary recognised breeds: view a list of the EMS breed codes.

Non-recognised breed

Code	Description
ABL non	American Bobtail Longhair
ABS non	American Bobtail Shorthair
AMS non	American Shorthair
AMW non	American Wirehair
ALH non	Asian Longhair (GCCF)
ASH non	Asian Shorthair (GCCF)
AUM non	Australian Mist
BGL non	Bengal Longhair (sister breed: BEN)
BRX non	Bohemian Rex
JBL non	Japanese Bobtail Longhair (sister breed: JBS)
MBT non	Me-kong Bobtail
NEB non	Nebelung (sister breed: RUS)
RGM non	RagaMuffin
TGR non	Toyger
TIF non	Tiffanie
TOL non	Tonkinese Longhair
TOS non	Tonkinese Shorthair
XLH	non-recognised longhair
XSH	non-recognised shorthair

Non-recognised variety

Code	Description
x	non-recognised variety

Colour

Code	Description
n	black (“n” comes from the French noir, meaning black), seal (in pointed cats), brown (in BUR), ruddy (in ABY and SOM), tawny (in OCI)
a	blue
b	chocolate
c	lilac
d	red
e	cream
f	black tortie
g	blue tortie
h	chocolate tortie
j	lilac tortie
o	cinnamon (sorrel in ABY and SOM)
p	fawn
q	cinnamon tortie
r	fawn tortie
t	amber (in NFO), charcoal (in BEN)
w	white

Silver / Corin / Golden

Code	Description
s	silver
u	corin – non recognised variety (“x”) – only available to cats which are genetically proven to be corin and only to agouti varieties (11, 12, 21-25) in BLH/BSH, KBL/KBS and SIB/NEM – not available for red and cream cats, the EMS codes “d” and “e” may not be used with corin
y	golden

Dilute Modifier

Code	Description
m	modifier
am	caramel, based on blue
cm	caramel, based on lilac
em	apricot, based on cream
pm	caramel, based on fawn
*m	caramel, where the base colour is unknown

Amount of White

Code	Description
01	van
02	harlequin
03	bicolour
04	mitted (only applicable to RAG)
05	snowshoe (only applicable to SNO)
09	any other amount of white

Agouti Pattern

Code	Description
11	shaded (for BLH/BSH: tipped)
12	shell (not for BLH/BSH)
21	unspecified tabby
22	blotched tabby
23	mackerel tabby
24	spotted tabby
25	ticked tabby

Pointed Pattern

Code	Description
31	Burmese pointed
32	Tonkinese pointed
33	Siamese pointed

Tail

Code	Description
51	rumpy
52	rumpy riser
53	stumpy
54	longie

Eye Colour

Code	Description
61	deep blue
62	copper or deep orange
63	odd eyed: one deep blue eye, the other one according to the standard for the breed
64	green
65	golden yellow  – Burmese eye colour
66	aquamarine (bluish-green)  – Tonkinese eye colour
67	intense deep blue – Siamese eye colour

Ears

Code	Description
71	straight (only applicable to ACL and ACS)
72	curled (only applicable to ACL and ACS)

Coat Structure

Code	Description
81	longhair (only applicable to DSP and PEB)
82	shorthair (only applicable to DSP and PEB)
83	brush (only applicable to DSP and PEB)
84	straight (only applicable to LPL/LPS and SRL/SRS) non-roan (only applicable to LYO)

EMS System & Quick Reference Card

In the section Rules & Forms you can find:

• the EMS System document, which describes how to correctly apply the EMS System
• the EMS Quick Reference Card which is a colourful chart giving an overview (on one page only!) of all recognised and non-recognised traits within the recognised and preliminary recognised breeds.