With over 30,000 cats on here, there are only a handful of Birman cats. Is this breed fairly rare I wonder? There are some owners who have registered their cats as Birman on here but the paws of some of these cats do not have white gloves/socks. It is a trait that all Birman cats have these. However, Birmans can be mixed up with siamese and ragdoll cats who have similar markings but these do not have the important feature that make them Birman.

Pardon me, but you´ve made a mistake. Birman is a breed that is almost 100 years old, while ragdolls are quite new! You coild even add Snowshoes to your list, but they are almost never heard of in Europe. So it is the other way round - should we speak of mixing. Siamese are our ancestors, as well as Persians.

As for being rare: difficult to say. But definitely not widely and universally known. A lot of people take Rangoon for a siamese and have never heard of the breed. It happens even in France - and it is a French breed!
On the other hand i tis a difficult breed because of those white socks and perfect exemplars are rare. Recently they even began to accept birmans with small marking flaws for exhibitions, otherwise there wouldn´t be enough of them.

Yes you are right Rangoon, Birmans were bred from part Siamese and part Persian and/or Angora.

hi, i am confused now...is my cat a birman or a pesian? or something else? i saw his mom and she was indeed a gray pesrian cat. hes different..after seeing some other cats on this website i am not sure now, i thought he was a himalayan pesian...can someone tel me? thanks

I just looked at Mumu´s photos and was concentrating on her paws. It is a characteristic of all Birman´s that they have white socks and this is not the case with Mumu. Birman´s were bred from part siamese and part persian. There is no doubt that Mumu has the markings of a siamese cat but I can definitely confirm that Mumu is not Birman due to the absence of the white socks. She has long hair and is definitely of a mixed breed. It may be a good idea to ask around the other clubs to see if they can help to confirm. Good luck with your search.

Mumu might be a Himalayan - they have the same markings as siamese or Birmans but long fur. Or , possibly long haired Color Point. He is definitely not a Persian, since his tail is long, his feet are rather large and his nose is long. A very handsome cat,by the way, wouldn´t mind having such a beautiful blue point myself!
He looks to me like a pure breed, not a mix!