ABOUT FELIS BELGICA
Founded in 2008, Felis Belgica followed in the footsteps of the Royal Cat Association of Flanders, founding member of the Fédération Internationale Féline (FIFe) in 1949. Felis Belgica unites and represents Cat Lovers, breeders and sympathisers.
We stand for International cooperation under FIFe with regard to breed standards, breeding and registration rules, cattery names, shows, judges and student judges. Felis Belgica acts as national Umbrella Organisation, to which both individuals as other Belgian Cat Associations, who wish to set the same high standards and wish to cooperate on an international level, can associate themselves and join FIFe. Also breed Clubs, who want to promote their breed, can do so under the banner of Felis Belgica.
The primary goal of Felis Belgica is to promote responsible breeding and ownership of cats and to support all initiatives in this regard. This include safeguarding the health and well-being of the cats during breeding, showing and in their daily lives, but also supporting our members and society in obtaining this goal. For every pedigree registered under Felis Belgica, € 1,00 is made available for scientific research and projects which benefit our primary goal.
Felis Belgica is a democratic organisation of individual members and each individual member of associated clubs has individual voting rights at the Felis Belgica General Assembly of Members in order to set the direction of the organisation.
The members also elect every 5 years the Felis Belgica executive board and its commissions. 6 commissions act on behalf of the members:
- Breeding & Registration Commission: they keep the Felis Belgica pedigree book
- Show Commission: they organise the Felis Belgica shows and assist regional show clubs
- Health & Wellbeing Commission: they support members and commissions with issues regarding Health & Welfare of the cats
- Disciplinary Commission: They advise the board in disciplinary cases and handling of complaints
- Editorial Commission: They are responsible for website, Public relations and editorial work
- Controllers: They check the work of the treasurer and report to the General Assembly of Members
All work is done as volunteers for the love of cats.
If you can relate to this way of working and want to support Felis Belgica, feel free to join us!
BECOME A MEMBER
Do you like cats? Do you believe that national and international cooperation is necessary? Do you put the cat’s well-being above all else? Then become a member of Felis Belgica, because we think the same way!
Membership can be applied for via this online application form. The request will then be handled by our member manager who will always send you a confirmation email. After that aproval and payment instruction will be sent to you. As soon as the payment of the membership fee is confirmed, the membership card will be sent to you.
There are several ways in which you can become a member of our association, but only full member can register a cattery. If you would rather submit your application via email as a word document, you can download the forms here. You can also see the costs for various applications here.
- voting rights
- catteryname & pedigree registration
- showdiscount
- 2nd person on same address
- voting rights
- showdiscount
- < 18 years old family member
- no voting rights
- showdiscount
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- no voting rights
- showdiscount
MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION
Only full members of Felis Belgica can request a cattery. This name is registered in a central database of FIFe and remains assigned to the applicant for life. A cattery name is also not transferable. So think carefully about the name you specify.
You must also always enter 3 names. The name you prefer is placed first. The name may never contain more than 15 characters, including punctuation marks and spaces. You can choose to always put the cattery name before the name of the cat, then you choose it as a prefix. If you prefer to see the name of the cattery after the name of the cat, register the name as a suffix.
After submitting the application, you will receive a confirmation email and once payment has been received, the application will be processed. As soon as the cattery name is approved by FIFe, you will receive a cattery registration card. Please note that this can take a few days.
ATTENTION: When choosing a cattery name, you cannot use a cat breed, abbreviation of a cat breed or the word “cat” and “cattery”.
You can always try searching the FIFe cattery list database here for your desired name. Two cattery names that are really close cannot exist. You are on the correct track if your search returns no results; the FIFe Cattery name administrator may approve your name.
CATTERY APPLICATION
Do you want to know some facts about cats?
Do you want to test your knowledge?
Click on the yellow button.
NEWS
DISCUSSION ABOUT FIFe FELINE FUND ON GA 2024
As was stated by our President Joeri Vanrusselt during GA Assembly, Felis Belgica is proud to say we will be donating 1€/each...
SHOW ARENA
JUDGING A CAT AND OBTAINING TITLES
All FIFe titles will be registered for recognised and preliminary recognised breeds in accordance with FIFe Show Rules and Breeding & Registration rules in the pedigree book. As soon as an exhibit has obtained the required certificates towards a FIFe title, it must be exhibited during shows in the following higher class.
A cat can obtain different types of titles:
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- Championship / Premiorship titles (Show titles) – by collecting certificates at shows. Premiorship titles are for neuters.
- Winner titles – by winning Best in Show
- Merit titles – by earning merit through show results or results from offspring over a longer period of time
Show titles are place before the name of the cat. Premiorship titles stand before Championship titles
Winner titles, including the year, are placed before the name of the cat and before Show titles, except for Junior Winner and Distinguished Senior Winner, which are placed after the full name of the cat. The most prestigious title stands first (WW), National Winner stands last.
Merit titles are placed after the full name of the cat, behind the name, before possible winner titles (DM, DSM, DVM, DSW, JW).
Titles for preliminary recognised breeds will be proceded by a “P”, indicating the preliminary title.
It is the full responsibility of the exhibitor to send in all required certificates (diploma’s) and judges reports for registering a title to the title registrar within 1 month after obtaining the last certificate. In order to facilitate this, you may find a special form in the section Rules & downloads.
FIFe BREEDS & FELIS BELGICA CATTERIES
At the moment FIFe fully recognised 48 different breeds divided in 4 Categories. Also as addition to that we have House Cat Longair and House Cat Shorthair. In stage of Preliminary Recognised Breeds, we have Bombay and Lykoi.
Below you can find all above mention breeds in FIFe category order. If you move mouse over picture, you will see the name of the breed; by clicking on picture you will go to specific breed page with general information, breed standard, Flemish decree file and with the list of registered breeder in Felis Belgica.
Within the framework of the Flemish Breeding Decree, approved on 31/05/2024, each pedigree association is required to prepare breed sheets, which include the compulsory and recommended tests for the breed as a condition for issuing pedigrees on the Flemish territory.
The sheet for the General Part (for all breeds) can be found here. Breed sheets for each breed can be found on a separate breed page.
NATIONAL WINNERS
The competition for the Nation Winner is determined by the registration requirements and formalities outlined in the FIFe regulations as well Felis Belgica National Winner Rules. Only cats that are listed on the names of FBe members, are registered in the FBe pedigree database, and belong to one FBe member are eligible. Only during FBe shows are points given out. The competition runs from January 1st to December 31st of each calendar year. Male, female, and neuter cats (those 4 months of age and up) as well as House Cat are awarded NW titles in each category. You can find the National Winner Rules here.
An honourable gallery of the 2024 & 2023 National Winners may be found below. Below the honourable gallery, clicking on the button, you can find all winners from the year 2013 till 2024.