About the breed
The Burmese is a small, deceptively heavy cat built more like a boxer than a ballerina, wrapped in a short coat that comes in a rich, solid brown ('sable') and several other colors. What sets it apart isn't just build: nearly the entire breed traces to one cat, and it carries a handful of well-documented, breed-specific health quirks worth knowing before bringing one home.
A Single Founding Cat
In 1930, psychiatrist Dr. Joseph Thompson brought a small walnut-brown female cat named Wong Mau from Burma (today Myanmar) to San Francisco. Many assumed she was simply a dark-colored Siamese, but Thompson partnered with breeders Virginia Cobb and Billie Gerst and geneticist Dr. Clyde Keeler to test that idea through planned matings. Crossing Wong Mau with a seal-point Siamese, then breeding her brown-coated offspring back to her, produced a true-breeding solid brown cat: the Burmese. The Cat Fanciers' Association registered the new breed in the United States in 1936. British breeders imported their own foundation cats starting in 1949 and secured recognition from the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy in 1952, eventually developing a more slender standard of their own. Every Burmese alive today, in any country, still descends from Wong Mau and the small group of Siamese cats she was crossed with.
Extroverted, People-First Temperament
Burmese are famous for treating solitude as a design flaw. They follow their owners from room to room, greet visitors at the door, and are often described as 'dog-like' for their loyalty and trainability; many learn to fetch or walk on a harness. They are also unusually vocal and tactile, seeking laps and physical contact rather than independence. This sociability is a genuine breed trait, not just cat-lover exaggeration, and it means Burmese generally do poorly when left alone for long stretches; many owners keep a second cat or a dog specifically as company.
Traditional vs. Contemporary Type
As the breed spread through 20th-century America, breeders increasingly favored an extreme, very rounded 'Contemporary' head shape, distinct from the more moderate 'Traditional' type closer to the original British/European look. The Contemporary look became especially popular in US show lines from the 1970s onward. This cosmetic preference turned out to have a genetic cost, described next.
The Head-Shape Defect Behind the Divide
Breeding toward the rounded Contemporary head concentrated a variant of the ALX1 gene, which controls facial development. Cats with one copy are simply more brachycephalic; cats that inherit it from both parents develop a severe, non-survivable craniofacial malformation, sometimes called Burmese Head Defect, involving a duplicated upper jaw and an incompletely closed skull. Affected kittens cannot survive and are euthanized. This is a genuine, documented welfare issue in some Contemporary-type lines, similar in spirit to the flat-face problems seen in other breeds, though far more severe when it occurs. It is also avoidable: a DNA test identifies carriers, and reputable breeders now use it to avoid pairing two carriers, so kittens from tested parents are not at risk.
A Genetic Muscle-Weakness Disorder
A second, unrelated inherited condition affects some Burmese: hypokalemic periodic paralysis, caused by a recessive mutation in the WNK4 gene. Affected kittens, usually between two and six months old, develop episodic muscle weakness, often with the head and neck drooping and the shoulder blades protruding; signs typically resolve with potassium supplementation. As with the head defect, a straightforward DNA test distinguishes carriers, affected cats, and clear cats, letting breeders avoid producing affected litters.
An Elevated Diabetes Risk
Burmese cats are also over-represented among cats with diabetes mellitus, with studies estimating a risk several times higher than in non-pedigree cats; onset is typically after age eight. The predisposition appears strongest in UK, Australian, and New Zealand bloodlines, and notably weaker in US lines, likely reflecting decades of limited interbreeding between the populations. There is no genetic test yet, so keeping a Burmese at a healthy weight throughout life is the most practical safeguard.
Everyday Care
Day to day, the Burmese is easy to maintain: the short, glossy coat needs only occasional brushing and sheds relatively little. The real investment is time and attention rather than grooming; this is not a cat suited to being left alone all day. Given the breed's narrow genetic founding population and its documented health predispositions, asking a breeder for hypokalemia and, where relevant, head-defect DNA test results is a reasonable and increasingly standard request.
Temperament
affectionate, extroverted, playful, vocal, people-oriented
Suitable for
social households wanting an ever-present companion cat
Living environment
Comfortable in apartments; prefers company over being left alone
Grooming
Weekly brushing only; monitor weight and glucose given breed diabetes risk
Pros & cons
Advantages
bonds intensely with its people and follows them from room to room, is playful and trainable enough to learn fetch and other games, sheds little and needs only minimal coat care
Things to consider
struggles with being left alone for long stretches and can become anxious or destructive, carries a breed-specific risk of diabetes mellitus and, in some lines, hypokalemic periodic paralysis, comes from an unusually narrow genetic founding population that makes health testing important
Notes
Burmese cats can carry a recessive WNK4 mutation causing hypokalemic periodic paralysis (episodic muscle weakness, usually in kittens 2-6 months old); a DNA test identifies carriers. The breed also has a well-documented, several-fold higher risk of diabetes mellitus than the general cat population, particularly in UK/Australian/New Zealand bloodlines, so lifelong weight management and glucose monitoring are advisable.
