Colors

Bengals come in a variety of colors.  Brown, Snow, Silver, Blue, and Charcoal are the most common.  Snows, the rarest have ivory backgrounds with contrasting spots.  

They are also known as Seal Lynx Point, Seal Mink and Seal Sepia.  The Seal Lynx Points, or Snow Bengals, have Siamese cats in their ancestry.  These Bengals will always have blue eyes.  

The Seal Sepia was bred with a Burmese and will never have blue eyes.  The Seal Mink has both Lynx Point and Sepia genes and can therefore have any eye color.  

The brown spotted tabby Bengal has dark leopard like spots on a lighter ground color.  The ground color can range from gray thru sorrel to golden.  The Asian Leopard Cat is considered a brown spotted tabby and ranges somewhat in color.

The silver tabby has a light silver ground color with back markings.  Their eyes will be green to gold, the same as the brown tabby.

The Charcoal Bengal will have a distinct black mask on their face and a black "cape" on their backs.  They will be black spotted and may occasionally have clouded rosettes. 

Personality

The Bengal Cat is highly intelligent and active. They need to be occupied with lots of interactive play toys and family.  This makes them a fun cat to live with, they are also very talkative at times. They have an amazing array of sounds from chirruping to chattering and they make a variety of sounds to let you know what they want, we always know when our boy Sterling is calling our girl Porsche, we have learned what all of his different voices mean.  Our girl Porsche squeaks when she wants something, this is just one of her many voices.  

 The Bengal Cat’s also likes to play games like “hide and seek”, fetch and they love to learn tricks.  Our boy can sit, give a paw, stay, come and “get it” on demand.  They are easily trained and react well to clicker training.   They also love to walk outside on a harness.    

Bengals are very fond of water and are not above jumping into the tub or strolling into the shower with you.  They also like to climb on the toilet with you and can be easily trained to use the toilet.  They will join you at the sink, while washing your hands or brushing your teeth, for a drink of water from the faucet.  They are more dog like then cat.  They love to follow you all over the house!  Our Bengals have been trained not to go on kitchen counters or tables.  They know their limits and keep to them.  Our kittens are trained not to scratch on your furniture prior to leaving our home.  

Physical Traits

Bengal Cats are hypoallergenic! They have a very soft and sleek coat that feels more like rabbit fur. They are very low shedding and need minimal grooming by their owners. Many Bengals shine in the light with a glitter that permeates through every hair shaft!

Bengal cats are quite large in size.  The average male is 10-15 pounds or better!  Females are generally smaller at 8-12 pounds.  Our cats are bread for size and are even larger!  They are strong and agile cats and should be slim and athletic.

Bengals have two basic patterns, spotted and marbled, both spotted and marbled are often tri-colored with various shades forming their unique markings.  It is the tri-coloring that gives the Bengal the highly sought after defined rosettes. 

The desired markings on a Bengal will include: The glitter throughout the pelt, the Mascara, Black Eyeliner, lighter colored hair around the eyes, light whisker pads and black lips, light belly with black spots, ringed tail with black tip, and striped and spotted legs. 

The Bengal is most noted for it luxurious short, soft coat which may appear in either the spotted or marble pattern.

Some Bengal's coats feature something called glitter which imparts an iridescent sheen to each hair.  The spotted pattern is most associated with the "leopard look" as the coat features clearly discernible spots and rosettes. The Bengal's spots can be large or small and often include rosettes, like the spots of Jaguars and Leopards, which are two- toned spots. Bengals may also be marbled, which is a derivative of the classic or "bull's eye" pattern found in many breeds of cats but with an especially dramatic appearance in Bengals. The marbled Bengal has a swirling pattern that appears as random swirls or thick diagonal and horizontal lines flowing across the coat of the cat. The most popular color of the Bengal is the brown/black tabby, a lackluster description for coats that can be anywhere from a cool gray to vibrant shades of golden, bronze, copper or mahogany with spots or marbling ranging from rich browns to intense black.

Bengals also come in a range of colors associated with a form of albinism, called "snow" by breeders, that indicates Siamese and Burmese ancestry. In these colors the coat appears ivory, cream or light tan with spots or marbling that may range from light brown to dark chocolate and the eye color is blue to aqua. Silver Bengals have gray to nearly white backgrounds with dark gray to black patterns. Also distinctive about the Bengal's coloring is that they may have nearly white undersides and facial markings that still show the tabby pattern are medium to large cats, from 6-15 pounds, with males generally being larger than females. A healthy Bengal is well muscled and has an appearance that depicts its athleticism. Bengals are balanced cats and none of its physical features should appear exaggerated or especially pronounced are generally confident, curious and devoted companions. They get along well with other pets when properly introduced and enjoy being part of a family.

Each Bengal is an individual and those interested should find out as much as they can about this wonderful breed before adding one to their family.