Abyssinian vs Birman — Side by Side

	Abyssinian	Birman
Lifespan	9-13 years	12-16 years
Size	Medium	Medium
Weight	8-12 lb	6-14 lb
Energy	Very high	Moderate
Grooming	Low	Moderate
Shedding	Low	Moderate
With kids	With supervision	Good with kids

What actually separates them

Less hair on the sofa with the Abyssinian. More with the Birman.
Less brushing with the Abyssinian. More with the Birman.
Calmer of the two is the Birman. The one that needs more exercise is the Abyssinian.
Birman tends to live longer — 12-16 years against 9-13 years.
With young children, Birman is the safer default — Abyssinian is listed as "With supervision".

The honest downside of each

Abyssinian

Abyssinians are one of the most perpetually active cat breeds that exists and generally dislike being held or restrained, which is the opposite of what most people picture when a breeder describes a 'friendly, people-oriented' cat.

Birman

Birmans are marketed as a calm, especially healthy longhaired breed, but they carry a distinctly higher-than-average rate of blood type B (and the rare AB type) than most cats — which matters enormously in an emergency transfusion (there is no universal donor blood type in cats) and can cause fatal newborn kitten losses if a type-B queen is bred to a type-A tom without testing first.

Read the full pages

Abyssinian · Birman
Health problems, origin and what living with each is actually like.