Longhair Burmilla Cat Profile

About

The longhair Burmilla is a cousin to the Burmilla, which occasionally threw a longhair kitten due to their Chinchilla origins. In the 1990’s it was decided to establish a breed.

Like their Chinchilla cousins, the Longhair Burmilla is an easygoing and relaxed breed of cat who gets along well with everyone, including children and pets.

History

As you can guess, the Longhaired Burmilla is a long haired version of the Burmilla cat. Both breeds came about as the result of an accidental mating between a Chinchilla male named Jemari Sanquist and a Lilac Burmese female named Bambino Lilac Faberge who were owned by Miranda Bickford-Smith of Astahazy Cattery.

The chance mating occurred in 1981 when the cleaner accidentally left Faberge’s door open while she was in heat and she escaped and mated with Sanquist. The resulting litter produced four female kittens, all short-haired like their mother, but with the black shaded silver colouring of their father.

A quick lesson in genetics. The gene responsible for long hair in cats is recessive to short hair, which means the cat needs two copies of the gene to have long hair. One from the father, one from the mother. This mating between Burmese and Chinchilla could only have produced short-haired kittens, however, those kittens could have inherited the longhaired gene from their father, meaning if they mated with another cat who also carried the longhaired gene, they could produce longhaired kittens. These kittens were desexed and sold as pets until the 1990’s when it was decided to establish them as a breed in their own right.

Appearance

Face:

The stunning green eyes are highlighted with black eyeliner, the ears are relatively small, the nose ending in a brick red tip, outlined with pencilling.

Body and coat:

Medium in size, the Longhair Burmilla has a luxurious, semi-longhair coat on a snow-white background and silver ticking. It feels fine and silky to the touch.

They come in the following colours:

• Blue shaded and tipped
• Brown shaded and tipped
• Black shaded and tipped
• Chocolate shaded and tipped
• Lilac shaded and tipped

Shaded and Tipped:

The shaded coat has the colour extending down approximately half to two-thirds of the hair, with a white/ivory ground colour.

The colour of the tipped coat doesn’t extend down as far, and therefore the tipped coat looks much lighter than the shaded. This shading should have a uniform distribution.

Temperament

The longhaired Burmilla is a lovely combination of both the Chinchilla and the Burmilla. They are placid, laid back, quiet and gentle, don’t be fooled though, they also love to play.

Burmillas get along with all members of the family including other pets and children and make a wonderful family pet.