Burmese and Mandalay Coat Colour Genetics

Firstly some genetics. The main coat phenotype of a Burmese cat is coded by 5 alleles – Agouti, Burmese, Black, Dense and Silver and Length

aa is recessive for Agouti (Agouti means “Tabby”) – a Burmese is non-agouti

cbcb is the Burmese gene -autosomal recessive -the phenotype is the darkening tips and lighter shaded body.

BB – is autosomal dominant homozygous black or eumelanin.

DD -Dense allele for non-dilute – that is, full pigmentation.

ii is non-silver

LL – is length of hair, shorthair is LL or Ll,

So a short-hair homozygous Seal Burmese is coded as “aa cbcb BB DD ii LL”

The Burmese variants such as Mandalay, Burmilla, Russet and Tiffany are essentially variations of the above coat colours but have the same underlying type although the Burmilla type slightly veers from the main-stream – differences are outlined in the Burmilla section.

The main four coat colours of the Burmese are:

Colour	Description	Code
Seal	Also known as Sable (USA) brown (UK and Australia)	BB DD  or Bb Dd
Blue	A steel grey coloured coat, Burmese gene expression is subtle.	BB dd or Bb dd
Chocolate	Champagne	bb DD or bb Dd
Lilac	White/cream with grey tips	bb dd

And also occasionally seen:

Cinnamon	Champagne	bl bl  DD or bl bl  Dd
Fawn	Fawn	bl bl  dd

If the cat has CbCb or Cbcb instead of cbcb it’s then a solid-coloured cat (or “self”) – or a Mandalay (or Bombay in some registries). Bombays are also a “self” coloured cat but only come in black as they were never bred with any other colours in mind and because they were developed at a different time to the Mandalay they have a slightly different type. Mandalays come in all shades as above, but the sable or seal is ebony, blue becomes a darker steel blue/grey, chocolates are a deep rich solid chocolate (eg Glitterpaws Little Brown Dress) and lilacs become lavender. It’s possible to get a cinnamon and fawn Mandalay. Mandalays, like the Burmese, can come in the tortie colours as well as red and cream.

Below is a picture of 3 Mandalays (Ebony, Chocolate and Blue) and a lilac Burmese from left to right (photo from Vicki Paterson, Myasanda Burmese and Mandalays).

References

1.      http://www.burmese-cats-alliance.com/genetics.htm