About the breed
The Birman cat is a striking cat with beautiful blue eyes, a pale semi longhaired coat, & those signature white feet. They come in 20 colours with the six solid colours, seal, blue, chocolate, lilac, red, & cream & the variations with tabby & tortie. It is not as big as most of the other cats in the semilonghair category, varying in weight beween 3 & 5 Kg, depending on sex & age. On the whole they have a soft gentle voice, & nature, very inquistive, & interferring. Never leave a cupboard door or drawer open with a Birman around, as they will be inside & exploring in no time. They are super affectionate, & attention seeking, sitting on your paper to stop you reading it, & on your chest to block your view of the TV, or computer screen. Despite their appearance they are also quite good climbers, & like most cats like to have a vantage point up high to snooze & watch the world go by.
Health
Birmans have no more health problems than any other cat, & usually live well into their teens, some reaching the ripe old age of 19/20. The most vulnerable years for a cat is when they are young & we would always recommend that they are insured to cover them through this period, certainly to 5 years of age, after this Insurance premiums for all cats seem to increase dramatically, although, unlike dogs, their health seems to keep stable for many more years. Of course the most important thing to keep a cat healthy is to keep them indoors unless closely supervised or in an escape proof garden outside.
Some things to be aware of :-
Most animals get some degree of kidney failure as they get older, but as a breed Birmans tend to have slightly higher kidney values than other cats, even in some young cats, but this doesn’t seem to lead to more kidney problems than any other cats, just something for your vet to be aware of. Danielle Gunn-Moore, Professor of Feline Medicine in Edinburgh, published a paper on it in 2002.
As Birmans get their blue eyes & pale coats from the Colourpoint gene, as do Ragdolls, Siamese, & some British, their eyes, particuarly the tapetum is a diiferent colour when viewed in the dark, red not green, you may notice this when you take a photograph with flash. Vets who don’t know this may take it for an abnormality, when they examine the cat, however it is just due to the absence of colour in the tapetum, which gives them their blue eyes.
They can also have a tiny fast movement of their eyes, when they stare at something, or at extremes of vision. Again this is to do with the colourpoint gene & will not affect them in any way.