The Balinese, also called the purebred long-haired Siamese or Thai Siamese, is a Siamese cat with a silky, medium-long coat and fluffy tail.

Named after the mysterious eyes, regal, graceful movements, and flowing, lean lines of Balinese dancers, it is commonly believed its coat was simply a natural mutation of the Siamese, although some people believe the Siamese was outcrossed with the Angora. There are two body type standards of Balinese as with the Siamese, which are traditional (old style) or modern (American).

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Today, the Javanese, which was initially a Balinese crossed with a Colorpoint Shorthair to get other colorpoints, is considered a type of Balinese or a modern colorpoint Balinese. The loving, chatty, playful, high-energy, tolerant cat is also one of the most intelligent breeds around and makes an excellent family pet and companion animal.

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Balinese Traits: What to Know Before You Buy

The Balinese cat breed has unique traits:

• It is not hypoallergenic, but close enough. Although it’s not immune from causing reactions in cat allergy sufferers, its fur has far fewer allergens than most other breeds.
• The breed adapts well to indoor life but needs plenty of exercise to avoid becoming overweight with its athletic, muscular but fine-boned build.
• The silky coat is less prone to tangles and only needs grooming once or twice a week. It also sheds far less than you’d think due to there being only a single coat.
• Cat trees and high perches are a must for this breed, which enjoys jumping and being agile.

Balinese Personality

Its personality is chatty, playful, and intelligent, with a loving, high-energy, and tolerant temperament that gets along well with children, other pets, and other cats.

This highly active cat also has a social and attention-demanding personality. It meows like the Siamese but not as loudly. Often becoming attached to one person, it nonetheless enjoys high places, including people’s shoulders.

Balinese Size and Weight

The Balinese is a medium size, medium-long-haired domestic cat breed also known as the purebred longhaired Siamese, although slightly larger in size. Males weigh 8-15 pounds with an average of 12 pounds and females weigh 7-12 pounds with an average of 10 pounds. Both grow up to 1.5 feet in length, not including the tail, and measure 8 to 13 inches in height. Balinese kittens weigh 1.4 to 2.6 pounds at 8 weeks of age and reach maturity at 15 to 18 months.

Balinese Price

The price of a Balinese depends on several factors, such as where you’re buying it from. The cost of a Balinese in adoption from a shelter is $75 to 100. On the other hand, the price is considerably more expensive if you purchase a Balinese from a breeder, with the cost ranging from $1,000 to 1,500.

Balinese Kittens

Early on in life, Balinese kittens show their playfulness. It is necessary to have scratching posts, toys, high perches and games for their mental stimulation. While still a kitten, the coat tends to be cream or white before developing colorpoints later on. To identify the color point of your Balinese kitten, you can look at their paw pads. Lilac and chocolate points have pink pads, while the seal and blue points have dark pads.

Balinese Lifespan

These cats tends to have a very long lifespan. At the very minimum, its lifespan ranges from 12 to 15 on average but can even be 18 to 22 years. With cat fanciers tending to have very small breeding circles with the occasional outcrossing, various unknown and genetic health issues are a possibility. You can ensure greater health and a longer lifespan by purchasing from a reputable breeder who has done health screenings on the kitten’s parents.

Balinese Breed vs. Mixed

There are two body types of these purebred cats, the traditional or old-style and the modern or American. Both have sapphire blue eyes, long, graceful, slender, athletic, and fine-boned bodies, large ears, oval paws, long tails, and almond-shaped eyes. Males tend to be larger in weight and height than females. Due to the development of the longhaired Siamese as a distinct breed, the Balinese is slightly larger than its short-haired Siamese ancestor.

The Javanese is the result of crossing a Balinese with a Colorpoint Shorthair in order to obtain several other colorpoints, of which there are currently over 40. It is considered a separate breed in the American standard per the Cat Fanciers’ Association and a subtype of the Balinese per the Balinese Breed Council and Javanese Breed Council. It encompasses all other colorpoints besides the Balinese standard of blue, seal, lilac and chocolate points per the Cat Fanciers’ Association and the lilac, chocolate, red, cream, tortoiseshell, and lynx points per most other associations, including the Cat Fanciers’ Federation.

These cats can be outcrossed to other breeds such as Colorpoint Shorthairs, Oriental Longhairs, Siamese, and Javanese. A Balinese crossed with a Siamese will have a shorter coat than the Balinese.

Types of Balinese Cats and Colors

The traditional (old-style) Balinese build has a more robust body and wider head, whereas the modern (American) Balinese build has a more triangle-shaped head, wider, longer ears, and a longer and more slender body.

The description of the “point” in the Balinese, Siamese, and other cats with such coloring refers to having darker colors on the colder areas of their bodies, such as the ears, face, paws, and tail. The inclusion of the Javanese breed expanded the color palette of the Balinese to include over 40 different colors and patterns including the torbie (tortoiseshell tabby) with several color variations, and various colors of lynx and tortie points.

There are also other eye colors ranging from darker blue to violet. Although there are differences in what is considered standard colorpoints for the Balinese depending on the association, here is the list that was the most inclusive before the uniting of the Balinese and Javanese:

• Chocolate: Also called brown or cinnamon, it is a brown shade that is a mutation of black.
• Lilac: Also called lavender, lilac is diluted chocolate or chocolate with cream. Diluted colors are recessive traits, even in pure breeds.
• Seal: Dark brown point on a cream, beige or fawn-colored body.
• Blue: A diluted seal point.
• Red: A shade of light to dark red-orange.
• Cream: Light brown points on an off-white coat.
• Tortoiseshell: A point with random patches of red, black, and cream. It can also have variations such as seal tortie, which is predominated by dark brown and black patches
• Lynx: Also called Snow Tiger or Wildcat Points, this is either one of the four original points (lilac, chocolate, blue, or seal) with stripes.

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