American Shorthair vs Turkish Angora — Side by Side

	American Shorthair	Turkish Angora
Lifespan	15-20 years	15-20 years
Size	Medium	Medium
Weight	8-15 lb	5-10 lb
Energy	Moderate	High
Grooming	Low	Moderate
Shedding	Low	Moderate
With kids	Good with kids	With supervision

What actually separates them

Less hair on the sofa with the American Shorthair. More with the Turkish Angora.
Less brushing with the American Shorthair. More with the Turkish Angora.
Calmer of the two is the American Shorthair. The one that needs more exercise is the Turkish Angora.
With young children, American Shorthair is the safer default — Turkish Angora is listed as "With supervision".

The honest downside of each

American Shorthair

The 'all-American working cat' story implies a hardy, mixed-heritage constitution, but this is a closed pedigree bred like any other purebred, and Cornell's feline health center lists American Shorthair among the breeds with an elevated rate of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy — the same silent heart disease people specifically worry about in Maine Coons.

Turkish Angora

A white Turkish Angora — especially one with blue eyes — carries a meaningfully higher risk of being born completely deaf, a well-documented side effect of the same gene that gives the breed its prized pure-white coat, which is why responsible breeders BAER-test white kittens' hearing before selling them.

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American Shorthair · Turkish Angora
Health problems, origin and what living with each is actually like.