Origin of the New Zealand Mandalay

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It all began in the 1970’s when a cream-female Burmese cat from Dorothy Horton and Pat Hogan's cattery in the southern region mated with a red shorthair cat, resulting in kittens of a stunning deep red hue with lustrous fur. In 1988,  farther north in the country, a female Seal Burmese from breeder Jan Parson crossed paths with a black cat, leading to the birth of jet-black kittens with glossy coats.

The remarkable dark colors of these kittens caught the attention of the breeders involved, prompting them to collaborate on a specialized breeding program. As Jan Parson, Pat Hogan, and Dorothy Horton were joined by other passionate breeders, they collectively worked on refining the breed, with Dorothy Horton taking the lead in establishing the initial guidelines for the Mandalay breed. Through their dedication and hard work, they endeavoured to gain recognition for the Mandalay breed from the New Zealand Cat Fancy (NZCF), the country's official feline organization. After years of perseverance, their efforts bore fruit in June 1990 when the Mandalay was officially recognized by the NZCF, allowing kittens with rich, solid colors to be registered as Mandalays on the NZCF Pedigree Cat Register. For a significant period, up until 2013, New Zealand remained the exclusive home of Mandalay breeding efforts.

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Since that time, there has also been a Cinnamon Mandalay program developed with the introduction of the Cinnamon gene from Abyssinian and Siamese.

There was also a UK Bombay line imported into NZ. “Bombays” in the UK are actually a pattern of Asian cat.

These ”Bombay” are different again from the Bombays of the USA, where American Burmese were originally bred with American Shorthairs.

Because of the small number of breeders and even smaller genepool of Mandalays, in 2013 Christine and Mush Yeung of Cairistona Cattery applied to the NZCF BSAC to import a Mandalay from Australia, given foundation cross was British x Burmese (as opposed to in NZ where it is Domestic x Burmese). This application was unfortunately declined.

In 2015 an experimental program was approved through the NZCF BSAC to begin a Domestic x Burmese program. This progressed through to second generation when an issue of Congenital Hypothyroid was identified and so the cats involved in that program were all desexed.

In 2018  Christine Yeung again applied to the NZCF BSAC for approval to import a Mandalay from Australia and later that year received confirmation of that approval. In 2019 an Ebony Mandalay stud ‘Bahati Outrageous Fortune (Gen 3) was imported from Queensland, Australia.

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Mandalay in Australia

In 1996 the first black cats of Burmese type were produced in Australia by Heather and Gary Brown under the Blackatz prefix.  The intent of the program was to produce a cat of the same type as the American Bombay, with the copper penny eyes and sleek black patent leather coat, but without the exorbitant expense of importing  a number of cats from the USA or the congenital head defect that the American Bombay was known to have at the time. They were joined by Barry and Lorraine Hillier of Sharad Cattery in Adelaide. There were a small number of other  breeders who came and went during this period.

The foundation mating for the Blackatz program was Ptah Black Onyx (Black British Shorthair) and Teakle Chantilly Lace (Brown Burmese). Each subsequent generation was mated to Burmese or to another Australian Bombay. British was never re-introduced into the breeding program, so to all intents and purposes every generation since has had Burmese or Mandalay added to it, with the occasional insertion of another foundation line of British Shorthair mated to Burmese.

In 2007, the Browns decided to stop breeding Bombay and retire from breeding. At that point they had been breeding Bombay 11 years and had not produced any actual  specimens to the ACF for inspection and full recognition of the breed

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An  Australian Bombay female kitten Blackatz Velvet Vamp was sent to the Miamber and Blackglama cattery in 2007 and was subsequently registered by GCCFV. Her sister went to Carole Galli in Perth but was never bred from, her wry jaw, lumpy skull and very timid temperament was not inducive to the start of a breeding program. Carole subsequently purchased her father Allblackz Azakaban, a new Zealand bred cat from an imported Blackatz male from the same foundation lines as those that came before, and a Burmese. She also purchased Arzani Bennys Piper, a Brown Burmese female. The breeding program commenced without too many issues, the kittens were robust and litter sizes and viability were good, until Blood Type incompatibility hit. This was resolved by testing kittens and removing B blood type from the program. by desexing and petting out

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Due to the constant introduction of Burmese to the Black cats the litters featured a high percentage of Burmese coloured kittens, and not very many Blacks.

In 2011-2012 it was decided that new British lines were required. Carole leased a cat called Catbalou Cinnamon Cinders (Imp UK) owned by Pamela Lanigan and Michele and Peter leased Kalame Whoopi Goldberg.

Again, the offspring were mated to Burmese to direct the breed towards the Burmese type expected, and again, a high proportion of the kittens were Burmese coloured or colours other than Black. The only way to produce more Black kittens, as these were the only colour that could be registered and shown, was to inbreed, not a healthy option in an already small gene pool.

In 2013 a presentation was made to the Australian Cat Federation to recognise Mandalay, a breed of Burmese type bred in Full Expression colours in New Zealand for over 20 years. This was a much more viable option than continuing to breed a cat to a standard based on American shorthair and American Burmese, both breeds of cat unavailable in Australia at the time. Breeding a cat only able to be registered and shown in the one colour, Black, was proving to be hindering the breeds progress.   

The Mandalay was accepted for recognition and the standard approved. All ACF Australian Bombay breeders were given the option of converting to Mandalay.  The Blackglama, Miamber and Ravenclaw catteries opted for the change even though it was suspected that it would be harder to market and sell the kittens from an unknown breed. However the Sharad cattery did not opt for the change-over and soon after stopped breeding Australian Bombay.

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In 2014 this was followed by acceptance of Mandalay by CCCA.

Since 2013 the Mandalay has made its presence felt on the show bench, both at State and National level, starting with CCCA Gd Ch, ACF A0E, Diam GC, Nat Show Ch Blackglama Jewel, born in 2013 and re-registered as Mandalay . She was followed by Bahati  female (Layla) born in 2016.

In 2019 ACF AoE CCCA Gd Ch. GDGC Blackglama Miss Congeniality started her stellar show career with a substantial number of Best in Shows and Supremes under her belt, all while having a litter once a year.

In 2024, her son from her last litter in 2023, Blackglama Trick Or Treat, a Black male Mandalay was the Supreme Exhibit at the CCCA National show, a penultimate achievement for the Blackglama and Miamber breeding program.

Chocolate Mandalay have also been shown very successfully and are starting to make their presence felt.

As O Gene Mandalay are also accepted breeders are now venturing down the path of Tortoiseshell females in Black, Blue, Chocolate and Lilac and Red and Cream males. Although Cinnamon and Fawn is accepted its is unlikely that these colours will be produced anytime soon as DNA testing has shown that the cats in the current breeding pool do not carry these colours. Dilute Modifier colours have also not made an appearance yet.

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It is hoped that at some point in the future Australia will adopt the same registration rules as NZCF which registers the Burmese coloured kittens born in Mandalay litters as Burmese. Testing for all known diseases has been carried out in the Mandalay for years, and regular cardiac testing is carried out to ensure Tricuspid and Mitral Valve disease does not become a problem in the Mandalay breed as it has in other breeds. 

Under the New Zealand Cat  Fancy Inc rules, the Mandalay breed is fully intermateable with the Burmese breed, and you can get Burmese and Mandalay in the same litter. They are registered as Mandalay or Burmese depending on what their colour classifies them as (ie by phenotype). The difference between Mandalay and Burmese is basically in their coat and eye colour, they are the same in every other way. Burmese have a gene which changes their coat colour – this is known as the Burmese Gene (or “cbcb”), Mandalays do not have this gene (and are “C­_”). A Seal Burmese is genetically black, however because of the presence of cb/cb gene rather than the C_ gene, the colour is changed to the Seal (dark brown) colour. Mandalays have the exact same natures as Burmese – in fact some say that as well as having more intense coat and eye colour, they have more intense personalities – if that is possible!