Lots of information about Bengals

Holly's online book..... Read about Bengal Cats as I share my 20 plus years of knowledge and  experience Raising, Breeding, Showing and Selling Bengal Kittens.

Breeding for Better Bengals since 1987 
Producing Top Quality Kittens for sale
for Pets ... Breeding...and Show

Holly Showing a Bengal in the 80's.  Back then who knew this cat with intense color, black pattern and Whited Undersides would have been the most desirable  Bengal around... if he were around in the 2000's Today in 2005 Bengal Breeders are working to bring out the whited undersides.  Most Bengals today that have this dark rich rusty color don't have this intense Black pattern.  Show Cat  backgrounds are getting lighter gold so the pattern is more intense in contrast. My goal, and that of other conscientious Bengal Breeders is Combining the old genetics and the new information in a continuing effort to achieve purrr-fection.

Examples of BENGAL CAT
COLORS and PATTERNS
Trendar's Eureka


They should keep getting better over the years :-)
Trendar High Interest fall 2006, doing GREAT  in the show ring

Links to most of the pages on this website

Colors and Patterns
Commonly Found on Bengal Cats

Gold Copper

Bengal kittens go through a lot of changes in their coloration and pattern during the first 5 months of their life. The pattern change is most evident on the Marbled Bengals. The same principals apply to spotted patterns. The dark pattern gets further apart as the kitten grows. It takes an experienced eye to guess how a pattern will develop. Often some of the dark hair will shed, showing a lighter background shade and warmer shade inside the rosettes.

    
This is one of my kittens at 5 days old, 2 weeks old and 7 weeks old
Want to see more evidence of how the pattern well develop?

I was so surprised to see all this horizontal flowing pattern and spots 
beneath the baby fuzz when this kitten was shaved for spay.

Most Bengals go through a fuzzy camouflage stage. This is likened to their wild ancestors.  This happens when Bengals are starting to explore their surroundings. The Muted color and pattern on the fuzzy coat acts to hide the kitten from potential predators. This is most evident on tail and body, where the hair is a bit longer. To the dismay of breeders, this occurs at the time we want to show and sell the kittens :-)  The kittens look their worst between 7 and 12 weeks old.  Looking at a new baby, there may be very little rich coloration. The first place you will see a hint of future background color is between the eyes and ears, on the forehead. As the kitten ages this warm color shows on the short hair of the legs and down the spinal area. Eventually this warm background tone will spread to the rest of the body.

 

On TICA Registration Papers you will see few color descriptions This is because TICA is a genetic registry and the color name used is genetic or Genotype, not the shading you are seeing or Phenotype. These are Most of the TICA color names used for Bengals; Brown Spotted Tabby Brown Marble Tabby Seal Lynx Point Spotted Tabby Seal Mink Spotted Tabby Seal Sepia Spotted Tabby Silver Spotted Tabby Blue Spotted Tabby

Brown spotted and marbles colors
include many warm tones

notice the white tummy, inside of  her legs and underside of her tail

Gold Brown Spotted Tabby Trendar F2 Starla, born 2001  Brown to Black pattern on warm light gold tones.   Starla has a perfect Bengal head with wide puffy whisker pads, Large round eyes and Smaller rounded ears. Head is small in proportion to her body, with nearly straight profile and large rounded back-skull. Starla has lots of white accents on her face and chin, and the undersides of her legs and tummy.  She also has a wonderfully short plump tail, that is usually carried low.

Light Gold  Medium shade  Copper/sorrel

Camera settings and lighting make a BIG difference in the way a cat looks in photos,
especially when using a digital camera.

Bright Copper Brown Marble Tabby Trendar Male Kitten, 3-2001 Marbled Bengals should have horizontal flowing pattern in irregular shapes. They should not have a Bulls Eye pattern. Notice the outlining around different shades of background color. The pattern continues to change for several months as the black hair sheds out into more intricate designs. He has the desired long lean body type with back legs slightly longer than front legs.

Charcoal; Trendar's F2 Cinderella This is a very cool colored Bengal, Genetically it is a Brown Spotted, this look is often referred to as Charcoal. If you push the hair back and look at the roots they will be more Rufus (red) than the outside coat, or they will be gray. If hair roots are 'white' it is not brown, it is a "genetically Silver" color. People often mistake Charcoal color for Silver.

 

gray/brown hair roots means Genetic Brown    white hair roots means Genetic Silver

TICA and ACFA Registered Genetic Colors
for Lighter Shades of Bengals

3 week old Mink / Sepia spotted and marble kittens. Trendar kitten born 1998 Many breeders think Mink and Sepia are so similar, they should be lumped together as one color.

The Lighter Warm Shades of Bengal.  often referred to by the.... slang term .... 'Snow Leopard' Seal Lynx Point: Spotted or Marble Bengal born pure white, spots come later often get darker Points with age blue eyes, only on Lynx Point Seal Mink and Seal  Sepia: Spotted or Marble Bengal born off white with brown markings Spots get darker with age Mink, med brown pattern with adult eye color aqua or green. Sepia, darker brown pattern with adult eye color yellow to gold. Eye color on Mink and Sepia can be reversed. Snow gene is recessive to Brown; Marble genes is recessive to spotted. Both parents must be, or must carry Snow and / or Marble to produce them.

Bengals in the above brown and snow colors can be crossed
producing nicely colored kittens in both colors.

Rosettes
make the Bengals Pattern different
from all other spotted domestic cat patterns

This is a Rosetted Asian Leopard Cat

Rosettes are not round spots Rosettes have many shapes and sizes Rosettes must have more than one color or shade of color different from the background color and the spot color Often different types of rosettes are found on the same cat.

Paw Print Rosettes, more than one dark spot with brighter richer color in between

rosettes on Trendar 2006 cats      Arrowhead or Shaded rosettes, a single spot with different color shade Most rosetted cats have more than one type and size of rosette

Above patterns are cut from
cats produced or owned by Holly Borchard
 Look for more exciting patterns to come!

Development of Rosettes

Other Colors

found on Bengals

Black; Melanistic Black spots on a black background like on the full size wild leopard, Black Panther.  This Black coloring is called Melanistic, and is found in all species of cat, wild and domestic.  Pattern is evident only in bright, direct sunlight. The different texture of pattern and background hair is what makes pattern visible, the textures reflect light differently, producing More or Less shine. Locket  These are examples of lockets, or a white spot. A locket is an undesirable color gene. It can be found anywhere on the body, most often on Throat, Groin or Arm pits.     The lower photo shows a locket on the back of a kitten, this is not a bald patch and kitten was never injured. More n Lockets Below....

Silver Smoke, This is the Melanistic form of Silver, called Silver Smoke. This Bengal has a white undercoat with black spots, and black Smoke Screen covering the body. The cat's pattern is more evident on Smoke than on Melanistic. To many, it is difficult to tell a cool charcoal brown spotted from Silver Smoke. The truth lies in the genetics, and in the color of the undercoat.

Blue no matter how dark, this pattern will not look black, they are Blue. Usually Blue has a peachy color on background or face. This peachy is the brown gene showing through. Blue is a dilute color caused by the melanistic or black gene. It is a recessive color. both Parents must carry or be blue to produce blue kittens.

SILVER BENGALS
Bred and / or owned by Holly Borchard
"SPOTLITE Bengal Cattery"

Silver Bengals are becoming more widely accepted in 2000 and 2001. Many are being shown. They have not yet achieved Championship status. This is "Spotlite" the First Silver that I produced. Spotlite is a cross between Euptilura ALC and Silver Egyptian Mau. She is an F1, but has the purr-sonality of an SBT.  Spotlite never made kittens but she is my lifelong friend. She gave me the Cattery name for my Silver Bengals.

Some breeders are slow to accept Silver because it may be difficult to identify. As the above examples of charcoal, smoke and melanistic show. Below are photos of Spotlite's Izzy Silver. Until he was about 4 months old we kept asking... Is He Silver or Is He brown? what IZZY ?? It was well worth the wait to see! Usually they do not change this drastically, but still can create confusion.