Standard

As to the relatively short time I have been dedicated to the breeding of the bengal cat, 
I have learned that health of the animal must be the first goal for a successful breeding program.
Without an excellent health asossiated to a legitime genetic pool it is completely impossible to reach
satisfactory breeding results. I do not only breed for exhibiting, but to obtain healthy, pretty and docile cats that can be included in my program. 
Encouraged by the results, my mayor wish is the instruction of other people about adequate breeding practices and the responsibilities attached to the onwership of one of these beautiful animals.
I think that the example backed up with good results is the best way to influence future breeders.

Having spend my time and effort to the breeding of Tica and Standard cats of the bengal breed, I 
believe that the main goals for any breeder must be: to achieve the most beautiful cats with great health and strong immune systems that will be directly associated to longevity, together with a sociable and amenable temperament.
My second responsibility is related to ethics and persues the search of constant wellbeing of
the cats I sell as breeder/show animals or just household pets. My quest is a moral compromise with the buyers of the cats, so that these will get all the care and kindness possible during their lifetime.
Protect and love my felines so it will show back the most clear manner in the future buyers.
The Bengal is a relatively new breed of cat which was first bred in the U.S.A and was originally created by crossing an Asian Leopard Cat with a domestic cat.
The domestic Bengal derives its name from the Latin name of its wild ancestor, Felis Bengalensis (Asian Leopard Cat). 
The goal in developing the domestic Bengal cat breed was to preserve a strong physical resemblance to its beautiful wild ancestor and at the same time the new domestic breed was designed to be a pleasant and trustworthy family companion.
Therefore, the conformation of the Bengal is definitely reminiscent of its ancestors.

Asian Leopard Cat

The domestic Bengal cat derived from crossing a Leopard Cat with a domestic cat. In the beginning breeders used Domestic Shorthair, Egyptian Mau, Abyssinian or Ocicat.
The first generation of a Leopard Cat crossed with a domestic is known as an F1 (Filial 1st generation) domestic Bengal and has a very wild and beautiful  appearance.  All F1 and almost all F2 Bengal males are infertile, making it much more difficult to preserve these characteristics in further generations.  Although the F2's and F3's  are also very beautiful, they tend to have a more domestic cat look.  Now with top quality Bengals available there is no need to bring in any other domestic breeds of cats.
It is unfortunate that many breeders with little or no practical early generation (Filial) experience offer inaccurate advice and opinions as to the breeding, temperament and care of these Bengals.  Some of the early generation domestic Bengals cats' misinformation was rooted from breeders in the past not understanding the importance of early socialization and the hand raising of early generation kittens.  

Many of the early generation kittens or cats were reclusive, distant, and did not display domestic personality traits or habits.  Just like with all cats, the importance of early socialization is now more widely understood and practiced. Though early socialization is important in all domestic cats, it is especially important in the earlier generation domestic Bengals. 
Well socialized domestic Bengals are very unique, beautiful cats that needs no special care or food.  They are very loving, devoted pets, many loving to play fetch or to take a bath with their owners.  They get a long well with other cats, pets and sensible children.  Most people feel they have a personality more like a dog than a cat because they are very people oriented. Please see the rest of this web site for more details on their appearance and behavior.  
The basic aim of the Bengal cat is to mimic the appearance of the Asian Leopard Cat. However, Bengals do come in a variety of colours and patterns. Henry Ritson investigates the different types of Bengal...

Types of patterning

Bengal spots come in a variety of shapes, sizes and patterns. Some have many small spots, whilst others have fewer large spots, which is considered quite desirable, 

[spots]

 Spots with a very slight arrowhead shape  
though there is nothing wrong with a Bengal with lots of spots! The 'basic' Bengal spot is solid colour and roughly circular. However, many breeders aim for producing more 'wild-looking' arrow-head
[arrows] Two-tone arrowhead rosettes  
shaped spots, or 'rosettes' which vary from simply two-tone spots to 'full' rosettes with a part circle of spots around a distinctly lighter centre..  
[rosettes] Full rosettes  

The spotting on a Bengal should be random or horizontal in alignment, avoiding lining up or joining up in obvious stripes. 'Rib stripes' in particular are considered undesirable. 
The spots should always be very clear and stand out distinctly from the background colour. It can be particularly hard to find snow Bengals where the markings are as clear as might be liked, and purchasing a snow is not helped by the fact that, as with Siamese, they are born white and only develop their markings over the first few months!  
Background colour and glitter  
Though most Bengals are simply classed as 'brown' there is actually a modest amount of colour variation between different cats, which reflects the variation found in the wild between different Asian Leopard Cats. 'Browns' can come in shades of brown which are sandy, grey, golden, deep red and so on, all of which are allowed, though highly rufous golden browns are often considered desirable. Some breeders have found that there can be a pay-off between either getting a good background colour or getting good clear markings, and therefore sometimes aim to produce the best cats by mating cats which carry good colour to those with good markings.  
An additional unique characteristic of the Bengal colour is that some cats have a distinct "glitter" effect over their fur, as if each hair were tipped with gold dust. This remarkable characteristic is considered highly desirable. It is also desirable that the underside of the cat should be lighter coloured, like the 'white tummies' of Asian Leopard Cats. A Bengal cat's 'whited tummy' should always be spotted, unlike the bright white paws and chest bib found in domestic tabby cats.  

Other unrecognised differences

With all the infinite variation of genetics, there are many other appearances which it is possible to create when breeding Bengals. They can produce kittens which are long-haired, blue, ticked, or crossed with other breeds for example. However with such a young breed as this, these variations are discouraged and not officially recognised as pedigree Bengals, since their presence in the gene pool makes it much more difficult to achieve the focal aim of reproducing the appearance of the Asian Leopard Cat. Bengal breeders aim to remove these characteristics from the gene pool by only breeding from cats which carry the characteristics which are accepted in the Standard.  

The main types of Bengal cat

At the very simplest level, Bengal cats come in two different patterns and two different background colours. The pattern is either spotted or marbled, and the background colour is either brown or white. White Bengals are referred to as 'snow's. Simply put there are therefore, four main types of Bengal:

Spotted, Marbled, Snow Spotted & Snow Marbled
In general, spotted Bengals are more common than marbled ones, and brown Bengals are more common than snows; so most Bengals are brown and spotty and good snow marbles are quite rare. Within these four main appearances there are various other possible other differences, one of which is formally written into the GCCF Bengal breed standard for the UK, that being the difference between snows with blue eyes and snows with any other coloured eyes. In the UK there are therefore officially 6 types of Bengal - The Brown (Black) Spotted , the Brown (Black) Marbled, the Blue-Eyed Snow Spotted, the Blue-Eyed Snow Marbled, the AOC-Eyed Snow Spotted and finally the AOC-Eyed Snow Marbled!  
As with most cat breeds, the classifications and names are slightly different in the USA, though overall the cats are not fundamentally different to those in the UK. This is why you will see reference to classifications such as 'mink' and 'sepia' on USA-based web sites.  
However, the breed standard allows for pleasant amount of variety between individual cats.  

 

  

 
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