Bengal Cats are a relatively new “hybrid” of cat resulting in the crossing of a domestic cat and an Asian Leopard Cat to create a wild-looking cat with an immunity to Feline Leukaemia.

Bengal Cats are desired for a number of reasons; their temperaments, their personalities, and of course their appearance.

Temperaments
The temperament of a Bengal Cat is often very similar to that of a dog; they love to play and be played with. They enjoy human interaction, and are often very gentle playmates, making them perfect family pets. In fact, they are often seen following their owners around! Bengal Cats are also very sociable with other animals. It is also possible to train Bengal Cats to follow commands from a fairly young age.

Personalities
Obviously, personalities range from Bengal to Bengal depending on their parentage and how they are brought up. Our first Queen Ripley for example is the ruler of the roost; she lays the law and pity the fool who breaks it! She loves to play fetch, eat cheesecake and has great comedy timing! She’s the most talkative of all our cats here at Kalysto! Generally most are very energetic, inquisitive and intelligent.

Appearance
There is a very specific guideline to how Bengal Cats must look, regardless of colours or markings. All Bengal Cats must have puffed-out whisker pads, a white patterned underbelly, small rounded ears, a short tail and black paw pads.
There are many different variants of Bengal Cats with combinations of markings and colouring adding to the numbers; brown, silver and snow being the most common colours and rosetted, spotted and marbled describing the types of markings.

Colours
Colours are usually and indicator of which domestic cat that the Asian Leopard Cat has been bred with. A favourite domestic cat to cross with the Asian Leopard Cat is the Egyptian Mau which has created the more common brown Bengal Cats. Silver Bengals were created by crossing the Silver American Short Hair with the Asian Leopard Cat which produced a grey silver undercoat with dark to black markings. And finally, the Snow Bengals were created by breeding Siamese Cats with the Asian Leopard Cat to create a pale blonde undercoat with dark blonde markings.

Markings
Probably the most popular type of markings on a Bengal Cat are rosettes. Rosettes are markings similar to that of a leopard and comes in two tones; a darker outer and a lighter inner. These can come in varying shapes including the “doughnut”, “arrowhead” and “paw print”. Other markings include spots and marbling. The marble markings on a Bengal Cat should be a combination of horizontal swirls, “bulls-eye” shapes, and marbling, usually in three colours.