Minuet
“The Napoleon: a Persian's face on a Munchkin's legs, renamed but never quite”
By Priya · The careful onePublished August 21, 2026Updated August 26, 20268 min read
Contents
Minuet photos
Real photos, so you can see what the breed actually looks like: coats, ear tufts, ruff and build.
White and grey Minuet loafing on a sofa, forelegs tucked
Photo: Parkerwh · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons
Got a Minuet? Share them with the community. Photos from our members round out this page.
Vital stats
Origin
United States
A documented 1990s American creation. A 12 June 1995 Wall Street Journal article about the Munchkin caught the eye of Joe Smith, a former Basset Hound breeder, who set out to cross the Munchkin's short legs onto the Persian family (his first foundation cats bought in February 1996). The breed was the Napoleon Cat until 's 2015 rename to Minuet, and reached full TICA Championship on 23 January 2016 by unanimous Board vote. On the name itself we correct rather than repeat. TICA's page attaches a middle name 'Minuet' to Napoleon Bonaparte that no credible historical source records. The Emperor is the namesake; the middle name is not history.
Coats
White and grey (the doll-face classic)
Cream
Colourpoint (via the Himalayan channel)
Chocolate (via the Persian Group)
The second breed in our files, after its own Munchkin parent, whose registry standard carries no color exclusion list at all: 'COLORS: All', no named exceptions. It goes one step further than the Munchkin. The standard's own 'PERMISSIBLE OUTCROSSES: Persian Breed Group, Munchkin Breed Group' line names the exact channel through which pointed patterning, chocolate and lilac, excluded by most breeds, entered this gene pool. defines the Persian Group as Persian, Himalayan and Exotic combined, so the Minuet inherits the whole palette.
Understanding the coats (and their genetics)Size
No registry standard in any of six markets checked states a height figure for the Minuet, so this page publishes none as though one existed. What TICA's own seminar material offers instead is one cat's demonstrated athleticism: an illustrative 8-inch shoulder height clearing a 36-inch counter, quotable as exactly that, never as a breed range. The build is a low-set, round-boned cat with the Persian's sweet open face and, in standard cats, the Munchkin's short legs. Long-legged (nonstandard) Minuets are the same breed on TICA's own paperwork.
Did you know
Both of the breed's names still live. 'Napoleon cat' carries real search volume in every market beside 'minuet cat', a decade after the rename, and 's own explanation is candid: the new name 'never met with total acceptance'. Meanwhile the bare plural 'minuets' belongs to the dance, which is why this page says 'Minuet cat' everywhere it matters.
Personality
Affection5/5
Energy3/5
Intelligence3/5
Friendliness4/5
Independence2/5
Vocal2/5
Shedding4/5Compatibility
Good with children4/5
Good with other pets4/5
Apartment friendly5/5Editorial ratings on our five-point scale, anchored in the registry descriptions and the measured behaviour studies cited on this profile; individual cats vary, and our members' own ratings below are the counterweight.
Still torn between this breed and another?Compare the Minuet trait by trait, or filter every breed by what matters to you.
What our members say
What our members say
Nobody has described their Minuet here yet. As soon as the first profiles come in, this is where the community averages will show up: temperament, food, lifestyle.
Describe my Minuet
Pros & cons
Strong points
- The Persian's sweet doll face and calm on an easier-coated, playful chassis (in the shorthair)
- A fully documented founding story and a candid two-name history this page tells straight
- 'COLORS: All' with the Persian Group channel: the widest palette in the rules
- Real market transparency: the leg-length price mechanism explained, not hidden
Things to consider
- The recognition split is real: TICA championship on one side, GCCF's named Red-Status refusal on the other, and this page quotes both
- A health file that is almost entirely inherited from two parents, with three tiny breed-named findings
- Persian-grade coat work in the longhair, and PKD homework in every line
- 'Teacup'/'micro'/'Persian Munchkin' marketing names the SAME cross: the words are softer than the biology
Is a Minuet right for you?
Someone who wants the Persian's face and calm with a lower, busier chassis. Someone who will keep up the coat work, and does the welfare homework this cross deserves: reading both 's registration facts and 's named refusal before deciding, and buying only from breeders who test and talk plainly.
Is the Minuet right for YOUR home?
Answer a few questions and we'll email you your personalized result.
Take the quiz · 2 min
Getting to know the Minuet
A Persian's face on a Munchkin's legs, and every institutional consequence of that sentence. The Minuet, formerly the Napoleon, is 's deliberate cross of the Munchkin's short-leg mutation onto the Persian Group (Persian, Himalayan, Exotic): a Category IV breed with full Championship since 23 January 2016. The recognition map has four genuinely different tiers: TICA's active registration; 's real-but-non-standard content under the old name; the complete silence of , and ; and 's named refusal, which places the Minuet by name in its Red Status welfare tier.
Both ends of that map are real documents, and this page quotes rather than adjudicates. One naming fact with welfare stakes: 'Persian Munchkin', 'teacup' and 'micro' are marketing names some sellers, including -registered, PKD-tested breeders, use for this SAME breed. The words suggest a smaller, different animal; the paperwork says identical cross. The market prices the legs: short-legged (standard) kittens sell far above long-legged littermates at every tiered cattery we read ($2,800 vs $1,200; $2,000 vs $1,000), because only Standards currently show. Same litter, same genes, one axis of price.
Health: what to watch for
A few predispositions are well documented. The good news: they can be screened for or avoided by choosing a reputable breeder and keeping an eye on the right signals.
This is information, not veterinary advice, and it cannot tell you what is wrong with your cat. Our rule is a simple one: if something is wrong with your cat, call your vet, and call an emergency clinic if it is out of hours. Nothing you read here is a reason to wait.
Layer one, inherited: the short-leg mechanism (Munchkin)
MEDIUMThe Minuet's legs come from the Munchkin's UGDH-associated mutation, with everything our Munchkin page says carried over at its original scope: heterozygous-only breeding, an embryonic-survival finding in the genetics, and NO published joint-disease rate in either direction. The absence of a measured rate is itself the finding. TICA registers the trait as harmless; GCCF's Red Status names it a welfare risk. Neither side has a rate to cite, and we adopt neither voice.
Layer one, inherited: PKD (Persian)
MEDIUMThe Persian side brings polycystic kidney disease, and one genuinely hopeful 2026 finding, scoped exactly: a large Japanese genetic-testing study found widespread testing has controlled PKD across tested breeds while avoiding inbreeding, with the study's own caveat that carrier frequency did not fall in every breed. TICA's own page recommends buying from PKD-tested lines. That is a buyer recommendation, not a formal standard requirement, and worth following. Ask for the parents' PKD-1 results by name.
Our full guide on this topicLayer two, Minuet-named findings, exactly as small as they are
MEDIUMThe breed-named literature is three items, each printed at its true size: one case report of thoracic vertebral canal stenosis and instability in a single young Minuet (Kihara 2024, one cat); an ALMS1/MYBPC3 HCM-variant cohort containing exactly two Minuets (Akiyama 2023, n=2); and the PKD paper above. Small, real, and easily overstated. That is why the sample sizes travel with every mention.
The practical program
MEDIUMBuy from breeders who show PKD-1 results and discuss the leg genetics unprompted. Keep weight down (short limbs, round body). Treat mobility changes or hindlimb weakness as a vet visit, not a personality trait. Anything wrong with your own cat means your vet, out of hours an emergency clinic.
Go deeper on health
Prevention, warning symptoms, costs and insurance: our guides, researched and sourced.
Also worth a look
Grooming & living with one
Grooming
The Persian coat sets the routine: regular brushing, more in the longhair, with mats the main enemy. On eyes, we follow the standard's own design intent rather than importing the Persian page's tear-duct mechanics. The Minuet standard asks for a moderate, NON-tearing eye, and persistent tearing in any individual cat is a vet conversation. One inherited note at one sentence: short-legged cats' self-grooming reach is documented in the Munchkin parent; watch the hard-to-reach spots.
Living together
Gentle, people-oriented and adaptable by the registry portrait: an easy multi-pet housemate on paper, with the usual caveat that none of it is measured. One practical house rule: mobility changes or hindlimb weakness in any short-legged cat warrant a vet visit, not a wait.
Food & diet
No breed-specific feeding literature exists. Portion control matters more than a nutrient chart for a low-set, round-bodied breed where extra weight loads short limbs. Life-stage feeding and body-condition scoring with your vet are the whole honest program. Nothing here is a prescription for a specific cat.
Price & budget
$1,000 to 2,800
Price of a kitten from a registered breeder, in the United States
This price reflects the quality of the breeding program: parents' health tests, registry pedigree, socialization. A very low price should raise a red flag. The real cost, though, plays out over the years.
Find a verified breederKitten price, by market
United States
$1,000 to 2,800
United Kingdom
£495 to 5,500
Canada
CA$950 to 2,000
Each figure is that country's real market price, researched separately, not a conversion of the others. The smaller line is only there so you can gauge one against your own money: European Central Bank reference rates of 2026-09-18, refreshed daily.
Work out your food budget
Type of food
Estimated monthly budget
$14
≈ 2.4 oz (68 g) per day
A ballpark figure, food only, using the same arithmetic as our portion tool (resting energy requirement × 1.2, a neutered adult). Real needs vary with age, activity level and body condition. Ask your veterinarian for advice.
Verified catteriesThe registry-checked directory, plus a kitten alert near you. Filter it by breed.
Should you insure a Minuet?
Our sources list several predispositions in the Minuet: Layer one, inherited: the short-leg mechanism (Munchkin), Layer one, inherited: PKD (Persian), Layer two, Minuet-named findings, exactly as small as they are, among others. A predisposition is not a foregone conclusion, and many of these cats live their whole lives without ever developing anything. It does change the nature of the follow-up, though: you monitor, sometimes for life, and it's that monitoring that weighs on a budget, more than a one-off accident.
Minuet cats in our community
This breed is barely covered by free photo libraries: we only found 1 photos we could verify. Your cats are especially welcome here.
No Minuet here yet
Got one? Add a photo and yours gets to open this page.
The vet's take
Veterinary review
Are you a vet?
Your professional read belongs here: every verified practitioner can leave a note, published once our editors have reviewed it.
Sign in and get your license number verified. We check it in the public register, we never ask for or keep a copy of your diploma, and your number is never published.
Frequently asked questions
+What is a Minuet cat?
TICA's deliberate cross of the Munchkin's short legs onto the Persian Group (Persian, Himalayan, Exotic): a low-set, doll-faced breed in two coat lengths and two leg lengths, at full TICA Championship since 23 January 2016. It was called the Napoleon Cat until TICA's 2015 rename.
+Is a Napoleon cat the same as a Minuet?
Yes: one breed, two names. The Napoleon was renamed Minuet by TICA in 2015, and TICA's own explanation for the lingering old name is candid: the new one 'never met with total acceptance'. Both names still carry real search volume in every market.
+Is a 'Persian Munchkin' the same as a Minuet?
Yes, and the point matters: 'Persian Munchkin', 'teacup' and 'micro' are marketing names some sellers, including TICA-registered, PKD-tested breeders, use for this identical Category IV cross. The softer words never mean a smaller, safer or different animal.
+What is the difference between a Minuet and a Munchkin?
The other parent: the Munchkin is the short-leg breed itself; the Minuet is that mutation crossed onto the Persian Group, bringing the Persian face, bone and coat. The leg genetics, and everything our Munchkin page says about them, are shared.
+Are Minuet cats healthy?
The honest structure is two inherited layers (the Munchkin's leg mechanism, with no published joint-disease rate in either direction; the Persian's PKD, with testing that demonstrably works) plus three tiny breed-named findings (one vertebral case report; two cats in an HCM cohort; the PKD paper). TICA registers the breed; GCCF refuses it by name on welfare grounds. Read both, then buy from testers.
+How much does a Minuet cat cost?
US: the legs set the price: short-legged (standard) kittens at $2,000-2,800 against long-legged littermates at $1,000-1,200, with named kittens above ($3,200-3,800). UK: £495-5,500 on one platform, the top tier all self-described show quality. Canada: CA$950-2,000 marketplace listings. Australia: no price of any kind could be found.
+How long do Minuet cats live?
Nobody has measured it: no study and no registry publishes a Minuet lifespan, and the circulating consumer ranges have no source, so we print the absence instead. The nearest measured facts are parental and labeled as such on this page.
+Are Minuet cats banned anywhere?
No document we read bans the Minuet by name. The Netherlands' conformation rules and Victoria's heritable-defects code both name the MUNCHKIN, and their breed-neutral reasoning would plausibly extend to a Munchkin-based cross: that extension is our own clearly-labeled reading, not the documents', which perform no such analysis.
+Why does TICA have four pages for one Minuet breed?
Because coat length and leg length are variables, not breeds: TICA maintains separate URLs for shorthair/longhair and standard/nonstandard, while its own text describes one breed. Long-legged Minuets are the same breed on the same paperwork; they simply do not show in Championship.
Community questions
Got a question this page doesn't cover? Ask it: the best ones get published here with their answer.
Sources & references
Data checked against reference sources (TICA and CFA standards, genetics laboratories, veterinary schools).
- TICA: Minuet breed page(s) (the 2016 championship, the Persian Group outcross channel, the PKD buyer advice, the four-URL quirk)
- GCCF: Unrecognised Breeds page (the Red Status tier naming the Minuet)
- Kihara et al. 2024, JAAHA: thoracic vertebral canal stenosis in a young Minuet, one case (PMID 38394696)
- Akiyama et al. 2023, PLoS One: ALMS1/MYBPC3 variants in a Japanese HCM cohort, the two Minuets (PMID 37071642)
- Ukawa et al. 2026, BMC Genomics: widespread PKD testing controls the disease while avoiding inbreeding (PMID 42316006)
Worth keeping a paw on
Pin this profile
To compare later, or to show someone still torn between two breeds. One click and it sits in your board.
Pin it on Pinterest
Purr or PassStill deciding? Find the perfect breed for your home.
A quick quiz that factors in your lifestyle, your kids and your other pets.
Which breed fits my home?Keep exploring
The floor belongs to our members. Keep it kind, links are not allowed, and images go through moderation before anyone else sees them.