Colours, patterns and genetics

The information below is quite complicated, but for everyone who wants to dig into the genetics of the bengals it is really nice to read! Do you have any questions about the colours, patterns and other genetics of bengal cats? Feel free to ask me!

 

• Patterns

 

• There are different patterns possible with bengals. These are the most important, but you have varieties in it.
  1. Spotted bengal

  

  2. Marbled bengal

  

  3. Rozetted bengal (the genetic code is the same as the spotted bengal)

   

  This can be small or big rozettes, or big clouded rozettes. Clouded rozettes resemble the coat of the clouded leopard a bit.

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  4. Combination of spotted/rozetted and marbled: the sparbled bengal

  

   

  Colours

   

  Bengals come in many colours, whether it is according the breeding standards of TICA or not. A snow bengal can even be silver at the same time (sometimes you can see it well, sometimes you can’t), but we will not talk about this combination here. These are the colours that are according the bengal breeding standards:

• a. The (normal) brown/black tabby bengal
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b. The silver bengal.

• To get silver kittens, you only need one parent who is silver. A silver-carrier does not exist, a cat is either silver or not. Breeders prefer to have silver bengals as beautiful as possible, without too much ‘tasnish’. That is a brown-like colour in the silver coat.

 

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• c. The snow bengal, that comes in the varieties seal lynx (the lightest colour of snow), mink (the mixed colour of seal lynx & sepia) and sepia (darkest colour of snow).

 

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• Genetics
• The genetics of bengals are quite complicated. First I name the genetical codes that a bengal can have. Examples of this can be in any colour, such as silver, brown or a variety of snow. A cat can have a certain colour from the outside, but can be a carrier of another genetic letter, what you cannot see from the outside.
  1. An A/A is a normal Agouti/tabby (striped or spotted) cat. This cat can also have a marbled pattern, or a pattern with rozettes.

  

• 2. An a/a is a solid coloured cat, like a black (melanistic) or completely mink cat. Sometimes you can see the spots through their colour. To get a solid kitten, both parents must carry the small a and pass it through.
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• 3. An A/a is a normal Agouti/tabby cat who carries the non-agouti (a) gene, but the cat itself is not a non-agouti/solid cat. The big A is dominant over the small a, so the non-solid colour wins.
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• 4. An Apb/a is a so-called charcoal cat. They need to recieve from their parents both the Apb (charcoal) gene, as the small a (the non-agouti gene). Charcoal bengals have got a characteristic dark mask over their pattern, and some kind of dark (zorro) cape.

 

• 5. An Apb/Apb is a so-called ‘double charcoal’ cat. it really isn’t a ‘real’ charcoal, because a real charcoal also needs the small a gene. But even not a real charcoal, the double charcoals also have a dark mask and a darker back, but less dark then the real charcoal bengal.

 

• 6. An Apb/A is a ‘normal’ spotted/striped/marbled et. Agouti cat, but is a carrier of the Apb gene.
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• Here below you can see a schedule of the different combinations.