The North American Russian White Association (NARWA) is an organization that was formed to promote the White Russian Blue in North America. NARWA was formed by concearned Russian Blue Breeders who wanted to bring the Russian White to North America and adapt it to meet the US standards. The White Russian Blue is identical to the Russian Blue except for the coat color which is pure white. Russian Whites have been bred in Australia since the 1970s. NARWA was established on January 1, 1999 as a Stud/Queen Book. The first Russian Whites to be certified were two White Russian Blues that were imported from Australia in 1995 and 1996.
NARWA is simply stated a Stud/Queen Book for Russian Whites that have been proven to be White Russian Blues and have no colors other than Blue or White in their pedigrees. NARWA was formed to help moniter the White Russian Blue breeding program here in the US to help insure that any problems that might arise from the program could be identified and dealt with in an expediant matter. While we do not expect to see any genetic problems in the program, we do acknowledge that when breeding with two lines (ie; the North American and the Australian lines)that have been seperate for a long period of time, there can always be "surprises".
There has been recently a considerable amount of "mis-information" and even lies being spread by uninformed persons on the Subject of White Russian Blues. We are attempting to clear up any questions as people ask them:
1) White Russian Blues are Accepted as Russian Blues in the US by TICA in accordance with their bylaws. Since the White Russian Blue is identical to the Blue Russian Blue in all ways (including , conformation, Eye color, and coat texture) they are being shown at this time in the NBC (New Breed Color) class at TICA shows.
2) There are very few White Russian Blues in the US, at the time of this writing there are only 4 whole adults and a handful of kittens and alters.
3) Currently breeding is still being down with Odesa Lady Adelide of Bluezars, the imported White Russian Blue female. We also have a seperate program using Lady's son ,Bluezars Count Andrei . Recently Count was shown in Raliegh NC. He was met with over all approval and lots of intrest.
There are now 4 NARWA Certified Whites Russian Blues in North America. All are owned by Ed & Maragrethe Luce of Bluezars in Lynchburg, VA.
There has been some confusion over "Russian Whites" and "White Russians". "White Russian" is another name for Blue Point or Color Point Russian Blue. There are from time to time "white" kittens born to Russian Blue cats, these are not Russian Whites; these kittens are "pointed" and like all pointed kittens are born white and the points come in as they age. They also retain their blue eyes into adulthood. This pointed gene is recessive and is a result of the use of Siamese in the post World War II breeding programs. True Russian Whites have Green Eyes and are the product of the breeding of a Russian Blue and a Russian White.
During the development of the Russian White, a Russian Black and a Russian Tabby were produced. These coat patterns have been further developed by Breeders in Australia and New Zeland. There is now a White Russian Brown Tabby in the US. He has produced White(unknown masked coat color), Black and Tabby kittens. For more information on Russian Black, Russian Tabby and their White counterparts, please see the web site for River Lite Cattery (accesible from the Russian Blue Web Ring). In the US contact Andrea Tompson at [email protected].
The Russian White Program in the US is not designed, as some people will tell you, as a plot to make all Russian Blues white. We like the look of the Whites and they are a TICA accepted NBC of the Russian Blue, we see them simply as a complement to standard (or Blue) Russian Blue, a mixed White and Blue litter is a nice site to see. We are also not trying to creat a "designer" cat , in fact we (Serebyani and Bluezars) charge basically the same for the Whites as we do for the Blues, even though they are much rarer.
If you have any questions about the Russians (Blues or Whites) please contact us via e-mail or check out the sites listed below. We will be udating this site soon and changing the overall feel of the page, please visit again!!
NARWA Application