All About Bengals

Brown Bengals are characterized by their warm, rich background color, ranging from golden tan to deep copper. Their stunning markings, including dark spots and rosettes, are accentuated by the warm tones of their coat.

Eye Color: Green or gold

Genetic Makeup: N/A

Silver Bengals have a lighter background color, ranging from pale silver to slate gray. This color is a result of the inhibitor gene, which suppresses warm tones and enhances the contrast of the markings. Silver is a dominant trait meaning if you were to breed a pure silver (I/I) with a brown, all the babies would be silver. Now if you were to breed a silver het for brown (I/i) with a brown 50% of the offspring will be brown, and the other 50% will be silver (I/i)

Eye Color: Green or gold

Genetic Makeup: I/I or I/i (Capital I stands for the inhibitor gene)

There are three different types of snow when it comes to Bengals. You have Lynx, Mink, and Sepia. Lynx bengals are the lightest of the three. When they are born they are mostly all white and as they mature their marking will come in more prominent. They feature a very light white cream background, complemented by darker markings on the ears, face, legs, and tail. This color variant comes from siamese cats and is a recessive trait, meaning both parents will have to give the siamese colorpoint gene (cs).

Eye Color: Blue

Genetic Makeup: cs/cs

Sepia bengals are the darkest of the snows (lynx, Sepia, Mink). Their background color features a cream to light tan color and they have the darkest markings out of the three snows. This color variant comes from burmese cats and is a recessive trait, meaning both parents will have to give the burmese colorpoint gene (cb).

Eye Color: Green or gold

Genetic Makeup: cb/cb

Mink bengals are a happy medium between Lynx and Sepia. They actually carry a copy of each gene, one copy of the siamese gene (cs) and one copy of the burmese gene (cb). Their background color features an Ivory, cream, light tan color similar to that of the sepias but their markings are a bit lighter. Breeding two minks together (cs/cb x cs/cb) will create all three snows! 25% will be lynx (cs/cs), 25% will be sepia (cb/cb) and 50% will be mink (cs/cb). As a cat breeder if you wanted to create mink babies 100% of the time you would have to breed a lynx and sepia together to insure that each offspring will get one copy of the siamese gene and one copy of the burmese gene.

Eye Color: Blue, green or aqua

Genetic Makeup: cs/cb

Charcoal Bengals are darker than the traditional recognized Bengal colors (Brown, Silver, Lynx, Sepia, Mink, and blue). They have a darker face often referred to as a "mask" along with a dark thick dorsal stripe referred to as a "cape" This is due to the agouti gene. The agouti gene is responsible for how the pigment (color) in the fur is distributed. It controls whether the fur is banded with different colors (resulting in a normal patterned bengal) or solid (resulting in a black bengal, AKA melanistic). There are three different genes that can affect this. "A" which represents the agouti gene from domestic non-Asian leopard cats (dominant). "a" which represents the non- agouti gene from domestic non-Asian leopard cats (recessive), and "Apb" which represents the agouti gene from Asian Leopard cats (incomplete dominant meaning the trait is not dominant or recessive. The dominant trait is diluted in relation to the recessive gene, producing a NEW phenotype). A charcoal can be produced by having one copy of the agouti gene from the asian leopard cat (Apb) and one copy of the non-agouti gene from the domestic non-Asian Leopard cat (a). Charcoal can also be produced by having two copies of the agouti gene found in Asian leopard cats (Apb/Apb). All though this will result in a much lighter charcoal. Charcoal can be added to any bengal color variant, meaning you can have a brown charcoal, silver charcoal, lynx charcoal, sepia charcoal, mink charcoal, and blue charcoal.

Eye Color: Dependent on base color (Brown, silver, lynx, etc).

Genetic Makeup: APb/a or Apb/Apb

Black bengals have a black background color with black spots. For the most part they look solid black but in the sunlight you can see their pattern. They look like mini black panthers. This is the result of two copies of the non-agouti gene from the domestic non-Asian Leopard cat (a/a). It is a recessive gene meaning it has to inherit it from both parents. This can be added to any bengal base color variant, meaning you can have a melanistic brown (AKA Black) , melanistic silver (AKA Smoke), melanistic lynx , melanistic sepia , melanistic mink , and melanistic blue.

Eye Color: Dependent on base color (Brown, silver, lynx, etc).

Genetic Makeup: a/a

Blue Bengals have a powder blue/gray coat with some cream tones. The spotted or marbled pattern is a dark blue or metal gray color. It is a recessive gene so both parents must carry for blue in order to produce a blue Bengal. Blue is a dilute from black. Meaning it is a black bengal that carries two copies of the dilute gene (d/d).

Eye Color: Gold green or hazel

Genetic Makeup: a/a AND d/d