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Tiffanie
Breeders (Australia only)
Breed
profile by Jann Merchant Tristone
Cattery
Photos by
Isabella Wong Leung of
Isabella Catography
Longhaired
Burmilla History
The Longhaired Burmilla is an elegant and beautiful
breed developed from the shorthair Burmilla programme, which began with an
accidental mating between a Burmese and a Chinchilla in the UK. It
combines a longer but still relatively easy care silver coat with the
delightful personality combination of clever affectionate Burmese and easy
going sweet tempered Chinchilla. The breed was developed by using the
naturally occurring longhairs that came through the shorthair programme,
and by crossing back to Chinchilla in the early generations.
Called an Australian Tiffanie in the early
days, the breed is now developing more in line with the Burmilla programme
and in most of the major groups in Australia it is referred to as the
Burmilla Longhair. This has encouraged breeders to keep the breed type
truer to the Burmilla standard and benefits the breed by using the larger
gene pool available in the shorthair programme
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Longhaired Burmilla Appearance
In
Australia, the breed has developed with an emphasis on the quality of the
silver pattern being very important. Ideally the coat should have a silver
base with a band of colour on the end of the strand of hair. A deeper
proportion of colour on the hair strand results in a shaded coat rather
than the pale effect of a tipped (Chinchilla) pattern. It is most
important that this pattern be evenly distributed over the coat and that
there be no tarnishing of the silver – called ‘rufussing’ it appears as
areas of reddish colour marring the silver. The colour of the tips should
reflect the colours of the cats allowable in the programme – black, brown,
chocolate, blue and lilac with the red, cream and tortoiseshell colours
allowable under the ACF Burmilla standard, as they are in Europe. The
longhair coat should be a fine and silky coat, medium long, except over
the shoulders and without a woolly undercoat. Ear tufts and furnishings
are preferable.
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Longhaired Burmilla
Personality
The longhair Burmilla is bright and funloving, but more
laid back than its shorthair relative in most cases. It is an ideal cat
for single people or families, being quite happy to wait until you come
home for attention. They are not a demanding cat, but still love to spend
as much time with you as possible.
Many of them are very good “fetch-it” cats too!
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