Talk:Burmese cat

Untitled

Is it just me, or does this sentence not make much sense?This breed was first recognized in 1936 by the CFA and that postponed the registration between 1947 and 1953. [[User:Lachatdelarue|Lachatdelarue (talk)]] 20:12, 28 Sep 2004 (UTC)

This sentence makes NO sense. I can't edit the grammar because I have no idea of what the writer is trying to say.

" Unfortunately for the breed many who followed after these dedicated researchers were not so well versed in genetics. Whether from lack of knowledge, from lack of available breeding stock, or because the demand for pure Burmese outstripped the available supply, some hybrids were being sold as pure Burmese. For this reason in 1947 the recognition the Cat Fanciers' Association had granted to the Burmese in 1936, was withdrawn and only restored in 1953 when the Burmese Cat Society of America had brought the situation under control." http://www.burmesecatclub.com/history.htm This seems to me to be a distinctily different reason than people simply thinking that Burmese were brown Siamese.

Improve

This article is in need of improvement. It is far too short and completely useless to people who want in depth information about this breed. Will be improving it mysef when I find some sources. TydeNet 00:35, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

Doesn't that make this a stub article instead - would prefer that over the improvement tag Blackjack4124 06:45, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

Odd wording

(Burmese females tend to be princesses. With her beautiful big eyes and sassy personality, she will have you trained in no time. The boys are true lap cats and have that laid-back personality. They both love to greet your guests at the door and follow you around the house to "help" you do your chores. Anything that includes you interacting with them, whether it is watching TV or doing the laundry, your Burmese will be there with you. Most Burmese have been known to "fetch" small favorite cat toys. They also love other animals, whether it be another Burmese or a even a dog or another cat. Whether male or female, Burmese are true people cats.)

I wouldn't say this is a copyedit-worthy paragraph, and the rest certainly doesn't need grammatical copyediting, but this phrasing feels wrong. Perhaps rephrase this to just describing their personality in brief (but then again, isn't it just that Burmese cats, like their Siamese cousins, are more openly affectionate than average, and are otherwise like other cats? - source this somehow) Blackjack4124 06:44, 25 September 2006 (UTC)

I've tried to rewrite paragraph to highlight what makes Burmese different from other cats. I deleted some stuff that I thought was common to all cats. I could be wrong....Caroline1008 03:34, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

Re: 'source this somehow'. Googled for all I'm worth, but still couldn't find anything in the way of that's how Burmese cats are, We love 'em... or even Siameses are pretty cute, too... --Shirt58 10:27, 27 October 2006 (UTC)

in "Facts"

'They are very popular with pet owners world wide...' is verifiable.
But '...because of their exceptional personalities'? Well, anyone who owns a Burmese knows that that is an indisputable truth, but... mmm... citation? --Shirt58 10:09, 27 October 2006 (UTC) However they can be attention seeking pains in the arse and must be kept occupied.A bored burmese cat will make you pay for it.If you want a quiet,docile cat,the Burmese is not your breed. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.166.91.137 (talk) 07:18, 13 June 2011 (UTC)

Pictures

This article has a lot of pictures, but none of them are terribly clear. We could really do with one really good picture each of an American Burmese and of a British Burmese, at least. And ideally I personally think one should be brown, since that's the traditional colour; it would give a good idea of typical Burmese. I'd supply one of ours, but she's tortoiseshell, so probably wouldn't show the typical look as clearly. Skittle 22:38, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

• I think the last picture, of the cat in the kitchen, is of low-enough quality that it should be removed from the article. Joyous! | Talk 15:55, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

• While I agree several of the pictures are not museum-worthy, a picture is more useful to a Wikipedia user than no picture at all. If there are breeders out there with professional photography of their Burmese, it would be nice if they would contribute to this article and replace some of the images here. Until they do though, for the purpose of clearly illustrating the breed, a picture is worth a thousand words, and no picture in preference to a low quality picture seems a poor decision to make when the purpose is to educate people looking at this article. 172.10.238.180 (talk) 23:15, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

Just for the record (as the person most responsible for the current iteration of the article) I've gone through every single relevant picture available, and these in fact represent the best possible alternatives. Which I fully agree is not saying much, especially for such a popular breed. There are a couple of really good ones--the lilac British female in particular is a gorgeous shot, and I like the one of the chocolate kitten--but I could see the rest replaced without tears. :) Shoebox2 talk 02:09, 16 November 2014 (UTC)

I have posted ours at User:The_Fat_Man_Who_Never_Came_Back/Catbook. It's a gallery for Wikipedian's cats ..Feroshki (talk) 06:30, 12 May 2008 (UTC)

• I think the best use of the pictures would be to spread them through out the article rather then have them all in a clump at the end. It would definately improve the article's appearance and help break up word-intensive sections (like the history section). If anyone knows how to format the page to intersperse the photos, I'd like to learn how it is done.Kpstewart (talk) 04:47, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

References

Okay, I used to have access to some really good books on cats, special cat encyclopedias and such like, but unfortunately they didn't survive a move. I've done what I can using fairly substandard books and the websites we list, the only stuff I've added from books being things that sounded like what I remember from my more reliable books. I'll try to get some decent things from the library, but I can't be sure they'll have anything. Meanwhile, if anyone else has some good books, now would be an excellent time to use them to source and add to the article. We could particularly do with some more history from the American side. However, I have tried to avoid going into too much detail about who begat who etc, and the specific breeders. After all, if people need that they can follow the links at the bottom. Or do others disagree?

Anyway, I also think I've done the references a bit wrong. If someone wants to sort them out, I would be grateful. Also, I could probably do with some input from American Burmese owners. I'm going to look for more information from reliable sources about their temperament, but are American Burmese really as soft as the CFA makes them sound? British Burmese I've had have owned their surrounding territory, fighting off considerably larger cats and running at quite some pace from scary dogs. To say they have no fight-or-flight would be absurd. And, while playful and 'kitten-like' I suppose, they've been quite willing to get out there and kill things. Quite large things too.

I'm also thinking of adding more on the standards of points for Burmese, although that will presumably have to be split two ways.

Any feedback (apart from things along the lines of "Die evil cat-hater") welcome. 86.139.237.132 01:06, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Fruit-tasting cats

Re: Although all cats are obligate carnivores, some Burmese will sample fruit and vegetables. I was under the impression that most cats will take a little taste of things like fruits, veggies, or bread. Is this really limited to Burmese? The article certainly makes it sound as though it is. Joyous! | Talk 16:02, 12 May 2007 (UTC)

References again

On 27 October 2007 I changed some of the inline references into "short refs" which pointed to a new Footnotes section which itself referred to the References section with the full citations. I did this to avoid some duplications. However, I agree that this is an unusal style of referencing, only used in a minority of featured articles. Therefore I've brought the long "cite web" references back inline so that they all appear in one section.

While fixing those references I noticed some sourced material had been removed since October 27. This meant I had to move the referent Ultimate Cat Book cite to external links as it is no longer used. Here is the removed section in case it needs merging back.

The Burmese was first recognized as a distinct breed in America in 1936 by the Cat Fanciers' Association. Owing to the extensive breeding with Siamese cats that had been used to increase the population, the original type was overwhelmed and registration was temporarily dissolved during the 1940s. The breed was recognized by the UK Governing Council of the Cat Fancy in 1952. In 1953, after years of selective breeding, Burmese cats in America once again conformed to type and were recognized.

-Wikianon (talk) 16:41, 12 February 2008 (UTC)

Sable

Link to sable seems to be misleading. It looks like the word in the article would mean the color, not the animal. --Oop (talk) 09:45, 12 June 2012 (UTC)

Agreed. I have removed the square brackets for now. Psypherium (talk) 21:36, 10 April 2019 (UTC)

Citations

The paragraph

""Contemporary Burmese" Breeders have continued with their stock because defective kittens are stillborn or euthanized soon after birth, and because sterilization of all possible head fault carriers would greatly reduce the North American Burmese gene pool. While the average, non-breeding pet owner does not ever have to deal with the head fault, it is hoped that the "head fault" allele will eventually be eliminated by a genetic test, and then by a period of controlled breeding."

Along with the subsequent paragraph seems dubiously sourced. The only reference is to a non-linked "personal experience," which seems outside the scope of the style guidelines on original research. I suggest it should be removed.

RealityApologist (talk) 04:42, 1 April 2013 (UTC)

Current CFA status of classification of European Burmese as distinct from Burmese

The articles states that "British Burmese (also known as "traditional") were declassed as a breed by the CFA in the 1980s" with no references. Currently the CFA appear to make a distinction between "European Burmese" and "Burmese" as evidenced at these two links: http://cfa.org/Breeds/BreedsCJ/EuropeanBurmese.aspx http://cfa.org/Breeds/BreedsAB/Burmese.aspx should this section have more information added? Psypherium (talk) 22:29, 10 April 2019 (UTC)

Burma/Thailand editwar

It appears that the genetic stock for the Burmese breed comes Burma through Wong Mao, I think I would agree with the editors who are changing the originating country to Burma. I will research again in the morning and put a citation next to originating country to solidify it one way or the other. So far I am looking at this link http://www.burmese-cats-alliance.com/history.htm, specifically paragraph 1 and paragraph 3, when combined appear to suggest the breed originates in Burma.

Psypherium^{talk page} 11:33, 16 July 2020 (UTC)

Contradictory statements in lead

In the lead, it claims that Burmese cats were originally in Myanmar (Burma) yet the next sentence, it states that they were originally in the Thailand-Burma border. ''Flux55'' (talk) 06:12, 5 January 2024 (UTC)

It says near the border, on the Burmese side. Traumnovelle (talk) 02:58, 19 April 2024 (UTC)

That part was clearly made up by the editor who added it. --Paul_012 (talk) 07:26, 5 May 2024 (UTC)

What's wrong with this article?

I bred Burmese for years, and I investigated the breed, its history and its genetics in great detail, but that was in a different millennium. Coming here now, so much seems to be wrong in this article:

• Constant reference to "black" Burmese. In my book, they're brown, and I haven't seen any reference to black Burmese anywhere else.
• The claim that c^bc^s is a kind of Burmese. For me this is the hallmark of Tonkinese.
• The photo claiming to be an adult American chocolate Burmese looks more like a Tonkinese to me, in particular the eyes. Somebody should come up with a better photo.
• The claim that the Burmese came from Burma. It's without doubt that Wong Mau came from Burma, but that was a single cat (half a Burmese). As the introduction states, similar cats were known in the 19th century and called Chocolate Siamese. References would be not just good but essential.

We really need a table to show the differences in terminology between US and European breeds.

I haven't changed anything yet, because there's a possibility that some things have changed since I stopped being active, but discussion would be good. Groogle (talk) 02:08, 19 April 2024 (UTC)