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I've recently purchased 2 Blue Bengal kittens (brother & sister) and am
somewhat confused as to why this colour "is to be discouraged" to quote
from your website. My kittens (1 marbled, 1 spotted with glitter) are of
excellent type with wonderful pelts and true Bengal looks and
temperament. I understand that this is a new colour and therefore only on
the experimental register, but why the disapproval?
Some of these cats carried the 'dilute gene' (blue), and when breeding down
through the generations blue Bengals started to appear. Later on in the
breeding programme a Burmese called Little Boogar was used in the hope that
it would improve the snow Bengals and this also would have carried
blue.Therefore, the blue gene goes back to the foundation cats of the
Bengal breed and there is nothing particularly new about the blues. The
dilute gene is a recessive gene and has to be carried by both parents to
produce blue offspring.
It was decided that blue spotted cats do not really represent what Bengal
breeders are trying to achieve, that being, a recreation of the Asian Leopard Cat. Therefore it is considered an
undesirable gene for breeding purposes, and blue Bengals cannot be shown or
progress in a breeding programme. However, they are BENGALS and very
attractive cats, and I have no doubt will be introduced as either a new
colour or new breed in a few years time.
Blue Bengals
20/01/98. Nädine Hope-Daniel writes...
Anne Randall replies
Several different breeds of cat, including some of unknown origin are to be
found in background of all full pedigree Bengals. The known out-crosses were
Egyptian Mau, Ocicat and Abysinian. Two cats of unknown origin were used -
one called Finally Found and another called Millwood Tory (sometimes known
as Millwood Tory of Dheli). Tory came from India and Finally Found was a rescue cat.