Birman (cat)

The birman is a longhaired, long (but heavy boned) cat which strikes a happy medium between the extremes of the cobby, heavy boned cats and long fine boned cats.

General: The Birman is a longhaired, long (but heavy boned) cat which strikes a happy medium between the extremes of the cobby, heavy boned cats and long fine boned cats. No single attribute is to be emphasized over the overall impression of a well balanced aesthetically beautiful cat. The cat has a good disposition and is easy to handle.

Head: Skull strong, broad and rounded. Slight flat spot just in front of the ears, forehead slopes slightly back. Nose, itself is Roman in shape, medium length with nostrils set low. There is a definite stop between the eyes. Cheeks full, jaws heavy (allow for delicacy in females). There is a definite muzzle, which comes out from the rest of the head and which carries the Roman shaped nose. Fur is shorter in appearance about the face, longer at extreme outer areas of cheeks.

Ears: Medium in size, neither large nor small but in pleasing proportion to the head, set moderately far apart.

Eyes: The inner corner of each eye should be set just to the side of the bridge of the nose at the stop. They are blue in color, the deeper the better, almost round in shape and medium to large in size, in proportion to the head size, giving a pleasing expression.

Body: Long, but heavy boned. Firm flesh but not fat. Males generally medium to large in size. Females generally small to medium in size.

Tail: Medium in length in pleasing proportion to the body. Fur long and flowing. Long light hair on back may spread over base of tail.

Legs and Paws: Legs medium in length and heavy (finer in females). Paws large, round and firm. Five toes in front, four toes in back. Paw pads - pink preferred. however, due to bicolor pattern, paws may be the same color as nose leather, mixed with pink or solid pink.

Coat: Abundant, medium to long, silken in texture. Ruff around neck (much fuller on males than females). Fur is of texture that does not mat with no undercoat (guard coat). Fur on belly slightly curly and very light in color (almost white).

Color:
Body: Even with subtle shading. Strong contrast between body color and points. Darker body color allowed in older cats. The golden hue coloring across the back and side is desirable. The hue is deeper in the seal points, but should be noticeable in all point color.

Points (except paws): Mask, ears, legs and tail dense and clearly defined, all of the same shade. Mask covers entire face and is connected to ears by tracings.

Gloves: In the ideal specimen, white gloves ending in an even line across the frontof the break of the feet of all four paws. Note that the description of the gloves applies only to the front feet. In general, low gloves are preferred to high gloves. In the absence of the ideal, which is difficult to achieve due to the white spotting factor, the following is the order of priority:
1. Evenly matched gloves on all four feet.
2. Evenly matched front gloves and evenly matched rear gloves, even though the front and rear may not match.
3. Evenly matched front gloves and uneven rear gloves.
4. Uneven front gloves and evenly matched rear gloves.

Laces: On the back paws, the gloves should continue up the back of the leg. This is referred to as laces. In the ideal specimen the laces should be evenly matched and should end in a point. It is preferred that the laces do not continue past the hock. Penalize: Point color in white.

NFA: Lack of white glove on any foot. White in points if not connected in gloves or laces.

Accepted Colors:
Lilac Point
Lilac Tortie Point
Lilac Lynx Point
Blue Point
Blue Tortie Point
Blue Lynx Point
Chocolate Point
Chocolate Tortie Point
Chocolate Lynx Point
Seal Point
Seal Tortie Point
Seal Lynx Point
Red Point
Cream Point
Lilac Tortie Lynx Point
Blue Tortie Lynx Point
Chocolate Tortie Lynx Point
Seal Tortie Lynx Point

Source: AACE >>>