The Birman

birman


Standard Fife

General

Size

Medium size

Head

Shape

Strong bone

 

Forehead

Slightly rounded

 

Cheeks 

Full, somewhat rounded 

 

Nose

Of medium lenght without stop, but with a slight indentation

profilo correct profile

profilo2 acceptable profile

profilo3 wrong profile

 

Chin

Firm 

Ears

Shape 

Rather small with rounded tips

 

Placement

Set slightly tipped, not too upright on the skull with good width between

Eyes

Shape 

Not quite round, slightly oval 

 

Colour

Deep blue 

Body

Structure 

Slightly long body. Meles must be more massive than females 

Legs

 

Short and strong

 

Paws

Rounded

 

Gloves

 The special feature of Sacred Birman is the white feet, called "gloves", on both the front and hind feet.
These gloves must be absolutely pure white. They should stop at the articulation or at the transition of toes to metacarpals, over which they should not extend.
Slightly longer white gloves on the hind feet can be tolerated.
On the back of the hind feet the white gloves end in points. The ideal "gauntlets" end in inverted "V's" ans extend 1/2 to 3/4 of the way up the hock. Lower or higher gauntlets are acceptable but should not go beyond the hock.

It is important that the gloves are equally long and show a symmetry of white, on either the two front or two hind feet, or even better, on all four feet.

Tail

 

Of medium length, forming a plume

Coat

Structure

 Long to semi-long, according to the actual parts of the body: short on the face, gradually growing longer on the cheeks to a full frill, long on the back and the flanks.
Silky texture.
Little undercoat.

 

Colour

 Shows all characteristics know from the Siamese pointed cats, but all four feet are white (gloves).
The points include the face, ears, legs, tail and genitals.
The points shall be even and good contrast to the body colour.
The body colour and colour of the belly is a very pale eggshell; the back is golden beige in all varieties.
Only in adult cats are the colour of the points and the body colour fully developed.

Remarks

 

 The Sacred Birman shows a special morphology, which in unique for the breed.
Faults precluding the certificate

Coat

 Pure white or coloured patches on the chest or the belly.

 

Nose

Incompletely pigmented nose leather.

 

Legs

Creeping up of the white on the sides or the reverse sides of the gloves of front and/or hind feet (known as "runners").
Absence of "gauntlets" on the hind feet.

 

Coat

 White patching in the coloured areas or the reverse.
A white patch on the genitals



Scale of points

Points 100

Head

Eyes

 general shape, cheeks, nose, jaws and teeth, forehead, chin placement and shape of the ears

20 points

Eyes shape and colour

5 points

Body

shape, size, bone structure, legs and shape of paws

20 points

Tail

 length and shape

10 points

Coat

body colour and points

10 points

 

quality and texture, lenght

10 points

Gloves

on the front feet

5 points

 

on the hind feet

5 points

 

gauntlets

5 points

 

uniformity and symmetry of gauntlets and gloves

5 points

Condition

 

5 points