Update July 2010: A discussion on the prevalence of Feline Infectious Peritonitis (FIP) in cat breeds. The Birman comes out badly, I am afraid.
I am reporting what I see and no criticism is intended. See also Birman health problems expanding on some of these.
The above picture links to a large format high quality version together with some notes about how the photograph was captured.
| Time line | |||
| Before 563 BC | Legend that the Birman’s color and markings are a result of the death of a temple priest who was murdered and who’s soul was carried to heaven by the cat, when (s)he died. | ||
| c.1919 | Female and Male Birmans imported into France from Burma by or with the help of a certain Mr Vanderbilt and/or MmeThadde Hadisch. Female survives and is pregnant thereby establishing the Birman in the West. | ||
| 1925 | Birman recognized by the French Cat Registry as “Sacre de Birmanie”. | ||
| 1927 | Birman referred to in the Paris Cat Show run by the Cat Club of France. The judge’s description of the cat is still applicable. | ||
| WWII | Decimated Birman population – 2 left in Europe. | ||
| Post War | Birman outcrossed with long hair breeds to rebuild breed. | ||
| 1955 | Birman recognized as a pure breed again. | ||
| 1960 | Birmans imported into UK from France. | ||
| 1965 | Recognized by GCCF (UK). | ||
| 1966 or 1967 | CFA recognize the Birman Cat. | ||
There is a convention that can be adopted for naming the Birman Cat. There is also a naming convention for another cat that originates in France, the Chartreux. The Chartreux truly does originate in France, while the Birman’s presence in the Western World started in France.
If the convention is followed, the first letter of the name, in the USA, should begin with “A” for cats born in 2003 (it was “Z” for 2002). For each subsequent year the first letter advances through the alphabet.
The full name of “Happy” at the top of this page is “Happy New Year”, “Y” being the alphabetical character for that year (born 2001). The full name of “Hidden” above is “Hidden Agenda”. “A” being the relevant character (born 2003).
For Boss below, this tells us that he was born in 2004.
Photo of Boss: © Helmi Flick
The Birman Cat Club (UK) [link
]. Founded in 1969 so very well established.
The South and Southwest Birman Cat Club [link] where Birmans come first (and they mean this). Located in the UK. Formed 1999 and affiliated to the GCCF.
Next some birman kittens for sale. Here is a short list of breeders. I would also check out TICA and CFA breeder referral lists. These are the two top cat associations and they do list breeders.
There are of course many more breeders of this cat than listed here, but these are the only cat breeder sites, as non-directory sites, in the first 30 Google listings.
Update June 2010: Since creating this v.short list I have built a pop-up page: Breeders
Taron Birmans – link broken 8th Jan 2013, sorry.
Located Pittsboro, North Carolina, USA. Nice website with a good Google PageRank.
Felonie Birmans
Located near Salisbury, England, Breeding for about 20 years (at 2008).
Russpurrz (link broken April 2016 – sorry. Probably shut down)
Located in Central/Southern Illinois, USA. Breeding since 1991.
More Birman photos — click on the pictures to see large format versions
photo ©copyright Helmi Flick
photo ©copyright Helmi Flick
Notes:
Felonie birmans ate great I had goodgollymissmolly from Mrs mason she was an exquistly beautiful cat sadly she passed over the rainbow last year at 15/1/2yrs one of the most gorgeous cats ever