Bengal cats come in many colors. Bengal cats may be marked with rosettes, marble, spotted or a combination of spotted with marble. Those markings can be jet black to light gray. Colors of a Bengal cat is found on the “background” those colors are listed below:
The base background can vary from gold color to orange color. Bengal spots should be horizontal spotting with little to no vertical spotting. Bengal kittens go through the “fuzzies” at about 10-12 weeks. The ‘fuzzy stage’ occurs between 6-16 weeks although most likely 10-12 weeks. Kittens have a fuzzy stage because the Asian leopard cat’s kittens would use this stage as camouflage.
1. Nonstandard colors: Nonstandard colors are caused by recessive genes and occasionally you have a dominate color that is considered nonstandard for one reason or another. As breeders say recessive genes are forever. You will always have recessive genes in a bloodline. Common nonstandard colors are “Long hair Bengal cats” “Orange Bengal cats” “Bengal cats with mittens or white patches” “blue Bengal cats” “Black Bengal cats”. Bengal cat kittens that are nonstandard cannot or better said should not be bred or shown. Nonstandard colors are not recognized in the Bengal breed standard.
2. Brown Color Bengal Cats: Brown color in Bengal cats is the result of a dominant gene “C”. Brown color is the most common color of the Bengal cat because it is dominate. Only one of the Bengal parent has to be brown to produce kittens with a brown coat. Brown colors include: beige, gold, and reddish to orange, mahogany, and charcoal brown. Reddish to orange color in Bengal cats is called rufoused or rufous color. Rufoused is the degree of orange/yellow pigment in the background color in Bengals. The charcoal brown color is determined by a dominant gene. Some brown charcoal kittens look silver when they are born because of the black markings and lighter background. When they reach adulthood they will have jet black markings and a silver-gray ground color. Brown Spotted Tabby has a dominant gene (C)
3. Snow color bengal cats:There are three types of snow Bengals they are Seal Lynx Point, Seal Mink, and Seal Sepia. Snow Bengals are caused by the color point restriction gene. For more information on the color point restriction gene visit the color point restriction gene
4. Silver color bengal cats: Silver Bengals are caused by the inhibitor gene. For more information on the inhibitor gene visit the inhibitor gene article. They owe their shade to a dominant gene: one or both parents should carry the “I” Inhibitor gene of the background color which inhibits the production of pigment in the hair strand. Sometimes when the “I” gene does not work properly the inhibition is incomplete. This incomplete inhibition is called “tarnish.” When this occurs, the silver kitten may have just a brown strip or have brown spots. When breeding silver Bengal cats you should breed silver to silver, otherwise your resulting offspring will have too much tarnishing.