​The standards of the breed​

​Bengal, an athletic cat, a mixture of strength, agility, balance and grace, has the characteristic traits of the Asian leopard cat. His dress and his little wild cat's head are his main attractions. Here is a description of the standards of the breed according to LOOF and TICA.

Head: The head with rounded contours forms a triangle longer than wide. It is quite small compared to the body, but without exaggeration. The expression of the Bengal's head must be as far away as possible from that of the domestic cat. The curve of the forehead, slightly rounded, gently joins the bridge of the nose. The cheekbones are tall and pronounced. The nose is broad with a characteristic puffed leather. Jowls are allowed in males. The most popular form is straight and the least is concave.

Patern: Two types of pattern are accepted in Bengal. In both cases extreme contrast is sought between the spots and the bottom of the dress. The first pattern is called spotted tabby. Bengal is the only breed of cats to have rosettes. The spots are either points (spots) or rosettes (light spot inside a darker circle) arranged randomly on the body like the leopard. There are different types of rosettes: the two-tone (paw print), arrowhead, open and close. The shoulders are covered with mottles. The belly although lighter is spotted or all white (white tummy). The tail is ringed and ends with a black tip. The second pattern is called marble. The rosettes are elongated (butterfly wings) to reproduce mottled patterns similar to those of the long-legged panther. The basic color bands should be as wide as the mottles, themselves closer to the center. Preference should be given to dresses with at least three tones. The lighter belly must present drawings. The gene for the marbled motif is a recessive gene. The cat must receive a copy of this gene from each of its parents to be marbled.​

  Rosettes​                   Spots                    Marble

Ears: Medium to small, the ears are relatively short, with a broad base and rounded tip. They are spaced from the width of an ear. Viewed in profile, they are pointed forward. The ''lynx tips'' (plumets) are unwanted.​


Neckline: The neckline is long, muscular and well attached.


Body: The body, of long format, has a musculature powerful, very apparent and a robust frame. This gives Bengal a cat-like appearance that is both powerful and graceful.


​Legs: Of medium length and well muscled, the legs, very straight, have a robust frame.


​Feet: Large and round, the feet of Bengals have prominent fingers. The pads must be black.


​Tail: Medium to short in length, the tail is thick at the base, barely sharpening to finish on a rounded end.


Dress and texture: The fur is short, thick, well laid on the body and exceptionally soft and silky to the touch. Most Bengals have the glitter gene A gene unique to the bengals that gives a metallic effect to its coat, when exposed in the sun or in the light, as if his hair had been sprinkled with a golden powder in the bengal brown or diamond in the snow bengal (snow bengal). To add to its other wonderful qualities, Bengal does not lose much of its hair.

copyright © Lucie Albert Michaud. All rights reserved.

Color: There are three main categories of colors in Bengal. The most common is the brown (black brown tabby). The hue of brown can vary from a pale beige to an orange, and the color of the eyes is green or gold. the second color is called snow leopard (snow). It is subdivided into three groups. They are point lynx seal, sepia seal and seal mink. These bengal are distinguished by the color of the eyes and the intensity of the color of their pattern. the ground color is a creamy white and the pattern is a shade of brown that is the lightest in the lynx and the darkest in the sepia, while the mink is between the first two hues. The lynx has blue eyes, mink turquoise and green or orange sepia. The last color is silver. His motifs are jet black on a background of immaculate white dress. The eyes are yellow or green. We can confuse a brown with cold tones and a silver. To recognize them you have to look at the undercoat. It will be yellow in a bengal with cold and white tones in a silver.​


​In each of the previous colors we can get a good genetic marriage of bengal charcoal versions. Charcoal is not considered a full-fledged color, but rather a variety, as a bengal can be brown charcoal, silver charcoal or snow charcoal. They have a dress look very wild, darker but well contrasted thanks to the pattern jetblack. Their backs are often covered with a beautiful cape that masks the pattern and they have a very contrasted tabby mask. These features are called ''Zorro markings''


​In addition to the first three colors, since the beginning of the breed black kittens appear from time to time in litters. They are very much like the panther. We call these bengal melanistics. Even fewer are blue bengals and smokes

Muzzle: The muzzle is formed by highly developed whiskers pad that generates a slight pinch. In profile, the strong chin is aligned on the tip of the nose.​


Eyes: Large, well spaced, the eyes are oval, almost round, but never globular. The eye color is green, gold, blue or aquamarine, depending on the color of the dress. The deepest and brightest tone is the most appreciated.​​

Khaleesys  Bengal & Singapura

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