The Burmese descends from a single cat taken from Rangoon to the United States in 1930. It is a muscular short-haired breed with a satin coat and a bold, sociable character.
The American and British types have diverged; the cat American registries call the European Burmese is simply the Burmese in Britain.
The Burmese is a muscular, medium-sized short-haired cat with a satin coat and golden eyes, known for an outgoing, people-centred character.
Almost all Burmese descend from one cat, a small brown female called Wong Mau, who was taken from Rangoon to San Francisco in 1930. She was bred to a Siamese, and selective breeding of her descendants fixed the solid brown coat. Burmese reached Britain in the late 1940s and were recognised by the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy in 1952.
The Burmese is heavier than it looks, with a strong chest and a straight back. The coat is short, fine and glossy, lying close to the body, and the eyes are yellow to gold. The original colour is a rich dark brown, called sable in America. British breeders added blue, chocolate, lilac, red, cream and tortoiseshell.
From the 1950s the breed developed differently on each side of the Atlantic. American Burmese became rounder and more compact, with a short, broad head. British and European cats kept a more moderate shape, with a gently wedge-shaped head and a slimmer body, and a wider range of colours. American registries treat the two as separate breeds and call the second the European Burmese. In Britain there is one breed, simply called Burmese, and it is the moderate type.
Burmese are confident, playful and demanding of attention, and are often compared to dogs for the way they follow people and greet visitors. They remain active into old age and need company; many breeders will home a kitten only with another cat or where someone is at home in the day.
The coat needs almost no grooming. Burmese are among the longer-lived pedigree breeds, but several inherited conditions are known: a form of low blood potassium that causes episodes of muscle weakness, for which there is a DNA test; a higher rate of diabetes than in other cats in Britain; and a facial pain syndrome. A severe skull defect occurs in American lines.
The Burmese is recognised by all the major registries and is regularly among the five most registered pedigree breeds in Britain. Cats of Burmese type in other colours and patterns are registered there as Asians, a group that includes the Bombay.