Breed Profiles

Her name was Wong Mau, she was a small walnut-brown female of uncertain parentage, and a retired naval doctor called Joseph Thompson brought her back from Rangoon and decided she was not simply an odd Siamese. There were no other cats like her to breed to, so she was mated to a seal point Siamese, and the litters were sorted out over the following years by a group that included geneticists rather than just fanciers. That programme produced the Burmese. The whole breed is the descendant of one imported cat and a considerable amount of careful record keeping.

The early history stayed bumpy. American recognition came in 1936, was withdrawn in 1947 because too many breeders were still crossing back to Siamese and calling the results Burmese, and was restored a decade later once the studbooks were cleaned up. That gap explains something you still see today: two distinct types. The American or contemporary Burmese is rounder in every direction, with a short broad head, a definite stop in profile and a compact body. The European Burmese, which is also the type usually seen in Britain and Australia, is more moderate and elegant, with a slightly longer wedge and a less extreme face. They are the same breed on paper and noticeably different cats in a room.

Colour depends on where you are. American registries recognise four: sable, which is the original rich dark brown, plus champagne, blue and platinum. European registries accept a wider palette including chocolate, lilac, red, cream and tortie. Whatever the colour, the coat is the same and it is one of the real pleasures of the breed. It is very short, close-lying, almost without undercoat, and has a satin quality that makes a Burmese feel warmer and denser than a cat that size has any right to.

Which brings us to the phrase every breeder uses: a brick wrapped in silk. Pick one up expecting an average cat and you will misjudge it. Females usually sit around six to eight pounds, males eight to twelve, but the weight is muscle and bone rather than fluff, and the density is startling the first time. They are also physically bold. A Burmese will take a run at a bookcase it has no business climbing, land badly, and try again from a different angle, and it will do this at the age of nine.

Grooming is close to nothing. A rubber brush or a damp hand once a week collects the loose hair, and that is the entire routine. They shed, but the hairs are so short and fine that most households barely notice. What they do need is teeth cleaning, because gum inflammation is common in the breed and a Burmese with sore gums hides it well until it stops eating dry food.

The temperament is the reason people become repeat owners. Burmese are relentlessly social and unusually people-directed even by oriental standards. They follow you between rooms, sit on whatever you are reading, get into bags, greet visitors at the door and quite often fetch. The voice is there, but it is lower and rougher than a Siamese, more of a conversational rasp than a wail, and they use it to comment rather than complain. Many of them sleep under the duvet, pressed against a leg, and object loudly when you turn over.

That sociability has a cost, and it is the single most important thing to weigh before buying one. A Burmese left alone all day, every day, in a quiet flat is a miserable animal. They do not self-entertain the way a more independent breed does. They get clingy, they overgroom, they yell, and some of them start soiling outside the tray. Two cats is the standard advice and it is good advice, ideally two who came up together or a Burmese with another sociable breed. If your household is out from eight until seven with nobody coming home at lunchtime, choose a different cat.

They are also more trainable than most people expect, and more inclined to get themselves into trouble. Burmese learn to open cupboard doors, work out where the treats live, and walk on a harness with less protest than average. Many of them get on well with dogs and with children who have been taught to be reasonable, which is not something you can say about every pedigree cat. The prey drive is intact, though, so this is not a good breed to leave loose near a bird cage.

The health picture needs honest handling. Burmese have a well-documented predisposition to diabetes mellitus, and the risk appears markedly higher in some populations, particularly lines in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. That makes weight control genuinely medical rather than cosmetic in this breed, and it means an owner should take increased thirst and urination seriously rather than assuming it is the weather. Hypokalaemic polymyopathy, an inherited condition causing episodes of muscle weakness and a characteristic drooping head carriage in young cats, occurs in Burmese lines and has a DNA test, so ask.

Two others belong on the list. Flat-chested kitten syndrome shows up in the breed, affecting newborns whose ribcages flatten in the first weeks; some recover, some do not. And the contemporary American type carries a serious craniofacial defect associated with the extreme head shape, which is lethal in affected kittens and is one reason responsible breeders of that type are careful about which head types they double up on. Corneal sequestrum, a dark patch of dying corneal tissue, also turns up more in Burmese than in random-bred cats.

None of that means the breed is fragile. Burmese are typically robust and long-lived, with fourteen to eighteen years being unremarkable and some going further. They stay playful into old age in a way that surprises people used to cats who retire at nine. What they will not do is leave you alone, share you graciously, or accept being ignored. If you wanted a cat who decorates the house quietly, you have picked wrong. If you wanted something that behaves like a small, warm, opinionated dog and sleeps on your head, this is very close to the top of the list.