Mandalays in New Zealand
The Mandalay breed in New Zealand started originally from accidental outcross matings of domestic cats bred to burmese cats. These outcrosses happened independently in both the South Island and in the North Island in the 1980s with Dorothy Horton and Pat Hogan in the South Island, and Jan Parsons in the North Island.
Mandalays have had breed status with NZCF since 1990. From those 2 original breeders an increasing number of breeders added the wider range of colours to the traditional Burmese range. we now have 11 registered Mandalay breeders.
Essentially, a Mandalay is the same type and temperament as a Burmese cat and our registration systems allows for full intermatability between these breeds, in the same way that full intermatability exists between Siamese and Orientals. The relationship is the same genetically. The Mandalay breed standard is the same as the Burmese with the exception of the colours and eye colour – where a stronger yellow amber eye colour is required for the Mandalay.
A Mandalay cat possesses a minimum of one full colour – maximum pigmentation gene – (‘C”) whereas the Burmese cat possesses a minimum of two recessive mutant genes from the albino series (“the burmese gene”). This essentially turns the black Mandalay cat into a brown Burmese cat when two of these mutant genes are present. A Mandalay cat carrying one Burmese gene mated to a Burmese act will have a 50% probability of producing Burmese and Mandalays each.
In England, the Mandalay equivalent is a Bombay and in some programmes in New Zealand, an English Bombay import has been used to produce Mandalay cats. The US also have a Bombay equivalent although this is a different type to the English and New Zealand Bombay’s and Mandalays respectively, as are the Burmese in the US. The English Bombay is only recognised in black.
Mandalay cats are bred in NZ in a wide variety of colours and this is an essential difference between its Bombay counterparts in the UK. The colours are the same as for the Burmese breed, but are more intense and quite stunning. In England all other colours are called Asian. The first breeder in the USA has just started breeding the newer colours and is working towards getting Asians breed status. A sample of the colours bred include:
Ebony
Chocolate ( same colour as a Havana)
Lavender
Blue
Tabby and tortie variations to these base colours
The Mandalays have in recent years, been used extensively in the cinnamon programme as they were a natural by product of this programme during its progression through the eight generations bred to date. Consequently we are breeding some lovely cinnamon, fawn and caramel Mandalays as well .
Breeder History
The original South Island breeder was Dorothy Horton. The first generation Mandalay she kept was a red. Dorothy has successfully bred and shown full register chocolate, red, cream and torties Mandalays, as well as tradition Burmese. Last year she bought a Rafoej cinnamon girl and has been successful on the show bench this year with a cinnamon daughter of this girl. Dorothy is one of 4 NZCF judges who currently breed Mandalays.
Jan Parsons had a Burmese Ch Rafoej Xustous (‘Mishah”) who at the time, had 11 kittens when she slipped outside and befriended a black tom with golden eyes. She only carried one kitten and went through the entire pregnancy with Jan blissfully unaware of what was going on. Mishah usually had very large litters and it was very easy to miss – until Mishah climbed into Jan’s lap one evening and contractions started!!!
Jan registered the singeton kitten and kept her - Zanyminx Ebony (Gen 1) for future breeding. She was an attractive ebony Mandalay with deep golden eyes. She was bred to a Seal Burmese carrying blue and produced five healthy kittens. Zanyminx Black Pearl (Gen 2) was registered and shown as a 27z – competing successfully against seal Burmese gaining a 4th BIS at a Burmese show. Pearl was mated again to Burmese and produced Ch Zanyminx Midnight Special (“Midi”) , who has only just recently been neutered and is found in many of the Mandalay lines today. Midi had a successful show career, competing against Burmese and receiving good placings. He was made up to champion status.
Midi was used over Ch Rafoej Almira - producing 9 healthy kittens and the first chocolate Mandalay. Rod Hitchmough kept GR CH Rafoej Midnight Caller from this mating. Carol Gray also used Midi over Dbl Gr CH Rafoej Lysistrata and produced Ch Atacat Rasputin, who was used as a stud for a couple of years, siring some lovely kittens.
Eddie Henrard imported a UK Bombay - Trotkatz Black Magnaopus at the time pregnant to an English Lilac Burmese Kagura Xaracen. This mating produced Syladnam Black Tahlullah and Syladanam Black Impson on 30 November 1995. These cats have both been used for breeding and the progeny have done very well on the show bench. The cats photos you see below – Arsenios Opal Nero, Arsenios Tinkerbell, Arsenios Amber Annie are all from these lines.
The full range of Mandalay colours attract a lot of attention from the public. In their relatively short time on the show bench Mandalays have attained many success. We now have Grand Champions in several colours, numerous champions regularly appear in Top Tens in shows and annual awards and have enjoyed encouragement from many judges in the form of a very large number of Breeders' Awards of Merit. One ebony boy was Best Entire Kitten and then Best N/S Cat for 2 years - a sure sign that we are meeting the standard.

Written by Carol Gray, Jane van Dyk, Rod Hitchmough and Jan Parsons. May 2003