Burmilla

The burmilla is a breed of cat originating in England. This medium-sized cat is characterized by its silver-colored short-haired coat and its mixture of Persian and Asian physique. For many feline associations, the burmilla is considered an Asian.

The creation of the breed dates back to 1981 and results from an accidental crossing. It was Baroness Miranda von Kirchberg who bought a male Chinchilla Persian for her husband. Shortly before the date scheduled for his castration, he met a Burmese female with a lilac dress. From this union were born four kittens with a silver shaded black coat. There were four females and two of them, named Galatea and Gemma were purchased by the Baroness. She decided with another breeder to create a new breed and again crossed her Persian with another Burmese. A male was born in 1982, who, with his two half-sisters, is at the origin of many lines of burmillas. It was decided that this new breed would resemble the English Burmese and they wrote the standard on this basis. At present, the standards of Burmese and Burmilla are still identical. The work for the recognition of the breed began in 1983. The Baroness had chosen to develop other colors and these cats are currently recognized under the name of asians1. The other breeder continued to work the silver lines and certain feline associations recognized the burmillas as a breed in their own right in 1989 for the GCCF and in 1994 for the FIFé3. Many other associations group burmillas with asians. For both breeds, it was necessary to have recourse to inbreeding in order to fix certain traits, in particular the short hair. Indeed, the contribution of the Persian had brought the gene producing the semi-long hair and it was undesirable. The name burmilla comes from the contraction of "burmese" and "chinchilla". This breed remains rare in France. Between 2003 and 2008, there were only 119 registered Burmillas, or 0.11% of the total pedigree cats in France. The average number of births per year is twenty.

The Burmilla, the Asian and the Burmese would share the same character: sweet, playful, and a little talkative. However, these character traits remain perfectly individual and are functions of the history of each cat, regardless of its breed.