Burmese breed guide

Curious, clever and friendly, Burmese adore their people and are good with children. CFA says they like the family dog or at least tolerate it.

They spread affection to everyone within reach instead of focusing on one person.

Playful and engaging, Burmese learn fetch and other games and can amuse themselves when needed. Spirited as kittens, they mellow in adulthood but stay playful and active into old age.

Soft-spoken most of the time, they make it known when something is wrong, follow you from room to room and expect a place on or in your bed. Most are convinced it is their job to run the house.

Burmese are low-maintenance: the sleek coat sheds minimally and a weekly rubber brush removes dead hair and keeps the gloss. They need no regular bathing.

CFA calls Burmese a relatively healthy natural breed that can live very long lives with proper care. Past lines had an above-average number of cases of feline infectious peritonitis, a disease with a strong genetic component, but selective breeding has largely eliminated it. It now occurs no more often than in any other breed.

Some sources point to a genetic predisposition to diabetes in older cats, but CFA says research on its heritability is not yet conclusive.

Most Burmese trace back to one cat, Wong Mau, a small walnut brown female brought to America in 1930. Bred to a Siamese, she produced three types of kitten: Siamese-marked, mother-like and solid dark chocolate brown.

The solid browns bred true, CFA began registering them in 1936 and the breed reached championship status in 1959. Dilute colors that turned up along the way were accepted and renamed, so Burmese are now shown in sable, champagne, platinum and blue.