Breed · Cat
Bombay
Bred in the United States from Burmese and black American Shorthairs to look like a small black panther.
Bombays are Burmese underneath — sociable to the point of insistence, heat-seeking, and unhappy in an empty house. The black coat with copper eyes is the whole point of the breed and it is genuinely striking. Because of the Burmese in the background, one specific test question applies here that does not apply to most black cats.
At a glance
- Lifespan
- 13–17 years
- Adult weight
- 3.5–5.5 kg
- Daily attention
- 90+ min
- Alone time tolerated
- Poorly
- Grooming
- Minimal
- Noise level
- Talkative
- With children
- Excellent
- With other pets
- Prefers company
- Indoor only
- Recommended
Colours · 1 listed
One colour, by definition. Black to the roots, with copper eyes.
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Black
Right for you if
- Somebody is home most of the day, or you can keep two.
- You want a genuinely affectionate, lap-seeking cat.
- You want minimal grooming.
- You will ask about the Burmese head defect test.
Wrong for you if
- The house is empty ten hours a day and one cat is the plan.
- You want an independent cat.
- You need quiet.
- You are buying purely for the look of it.
The Burmese question applies here
- Because of the Burmese in this breed’s background, the Burmese head defect test is offered for Bombays. It detects a variant that shapes the head in cats with one copy and causes a craniofacial defect incompatible with life in cats with two.1
- That variant was traced to the lineage bred for the extreme head, and about 6% of Burmese and related cats carry it.2 Ask whether the parents were tested and what the results were.
- They seek warmth constantly and will find the one hot spot in the house. Worth knowing before you wonder where the cat has gone.
Sources
- Burmese Head Defect — DNA test description. Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, University of California, Davis 2026. Accessed 2026-08-31. International Veterinary Genetics Laboratory, University of California, Davis A commercial DNA test for the ALX1 variant. About 5.9% of Burmese and related cats carry it. A separate midline defect, more common in European lines, has no test — so a clear result does not exclude everything.
- Lyons LA, Erdman CA, Grahn RA, et al. Aristaless-Like Homeobox protein 1 (ALX1) variant associated with craniofacial structure and frontonasal dysplasia in Burmese cats. Developmental Biology 2016; 409(2):451-8. International doi:10.1016/j.ydbio.2015.11.015 PMID 26610632 The lineage bred for the extreme head is named here as the Contemporary Burmese. One copy of the ALX1 variant shapes the head; two copies cause a craniofacial defect incompatible with life. The variant is absent from cats unrelated to that line.
Every source here was checked, not recalled. Where this page makes a health statement and no source appears against it, that is not an oversight we have hidden — it means the claim is not yet sourced, and the build reports how many are in that state.
Availability, registration and keeping requirements differ from place to place. Check the rules where you live before you commit to any animal — we describe animals, not law.