The Standard
The Sacred Birman is an elegant cat, with a massive build, white gloves and blue eyes. The morphology of the Burmese cat is unique and differentiates it from all other breeds.
Body Structure:
The Birman has a medium build: males can reach 4-5 kg (some even 6 kg) in weight while females, on average smaller than males, can weigh between 3 and 4 kg. The bone structure is robust; the body is slightly elongated compared to the legs, which are not particularly long; the tail, whose length is proportionate to the body, usually reaches the shoulder.
The head:
The forehead is slightly rounded and the cheeks are full; the nose, of medium length, is without stop and its profile is slightly rounded; the strong chin must be vertically aligned with the nose. The eyes are slightly oval, of intense blue color and distant on the muzzle. The ears are positioned on the sides of the skull, always facing forward and well spaced from each other, they are small sized, not too straight on the head and of a triangular shape with a wide base, the tips are slightly rounded.
The cloak:
The Birman's fur has a silky consistency to the touch, its structure is long to semi-long, depending on the parts of the body: short on the muzzle, gradually longer on the cheeks until a complete ruff; long on the back and sides. There is a light undercoat.
The Birman as a whole appears to be a light cat because the color is intense only on the tips of the body: the so-called "points". Hence the name colourpoint (colored points). The points are the coldest parts of the body: muzzle, ears, paws, tail, and in males also the genitals. On the rest of the body, where the body temperature is warmer, it has the same coloration but in a more "discolored" version, almost white.
The glove:
White gloves, both on the front and back paws, are a distinctive feature of the Birman cat, it is the only purebred cat whose standard prescribes their existence. They must be absolutely pure white, must not exceed the joint of the paws and must be symmetrical to each other. Slightly longer gloves on the hind paws can be tolerated. On the plantar surface of the hind feet the white gloves end in a point (spur). The ideal termination of the gloves is an inverted "V", between ½ and ¾ of the sole of the foot. Shorter or longer spurs are acceptable but must not exceed the joint. It is important that the gloves are of equal length and that they have symmetrical white, respectively on the two front paws and the two hind paws, or even better, on all four paws.
Standard defects:
On show, the Birman can easily be penalized for small deviations:
- Body: thin structure, too slender or long-limbed, short tail.
- Muzzle: triangular Siamese shape, straight nose profile, depigmented nose, receding chin.
- Eyes: small in size, uneven in colour and/or too light.
- Ears: Too pointed, too large and set high.
- Gloves: white exceeding the standard limits, presence of runners, absence of one or more gloves, absence of "V" or "V" that exceed the hock on the hind legs, gloves that are not symmetrical to each other.
- Color: White tufts of hair on the body, colored tufts of hair on the gloves, phantom markings present in adult cats (except for the tabby variants, and the red-point and cream-point colors and red areas of the tortie), white or colored spots on the chest and belly, white spots in the colored parts or opposite.
- Coat: too long and with a lot of undercoat, rough or too woolly coat, hair that creates knots and becomes felted, short hair.
