Bengal Cat Colourisations

We love a Brown Bengal and its where we first began. The Brown Bengal can be in varying shades and intensitys that can range from a cooler darker brown to a richer tone that's almost Rufous, The browns that have the most warmth to their coat and usaually with some degree of countershading/ whited underbellies are now termed as Corin. The colour of the coat can change over time causing tones to deepen and markings to stand out more over time. When thinking of brown it's best to imagine them on a colour spectrum with the cooler tones from a darker greyish right through to the hotter more "Orange" tones, providing they have a black tip to their tail they are considered to be brown.
Brown Bengals can be Spotted or marbled in pattern (rosetted is the term for more opened up spots) they can also be in Charcoal. Eye colour is typically green but can also be gold or copper.
The Brown Bengal is stunning and therfore a popular choice, resembling their tree dwelling Ancestors The Asian Leopard Cat the most.

The Silver Bengal is a striking cat that can range in varying shades and intensitys, generally speaking they range from a lighter softer grey to dark steel grey colour and can have more frosty tones amongst inky black contrasted markings. Silver in cats is technically a lack of colour also known as the inhibitor gene. The Inhibibitor gene is dominant therefore a cat having one copy will be silver.
Eye colour in Silver cats can be Green, Gold or blue-green but only if the cat is a Silver Snow.

The Silver Bengal Cat can come in different variations such as Silver Snow,Silver Solids (smoke), Silver charcoal and Silver Blue.

Pure Silvers are most common .
Patterns can be Spotted or Rosetted (larger opened up spotting) Marbled or charcoal in variation.

The Snow Bengal Cat comes in three main recognisable colours Seal Lynx,Seal Mink and Seal Sepia.
These variations range between creamy and ivory tone base colours with markings varying from a tan, grey or brown dependant on the genetics of the Snow bengal in question.
Every main Snow colour in addition can come in charcoal, blue or solid (melanistic).
The Snow Bengal often gets dubbed a miniature snow leopard and therefore can be highly desired. Seal Lynx is born the lightest of the three snow colours but darken over time, it is the hardest colour to achieve good contrast. Seal Lynx always have blue eyes. Seal Mink are born with visible pattern and must have a copy of both Seal Lynx (cs) and Seal Sepia (cb) to be a Seal Mink, eye colour is usually Aqua green but can also be gold. Seal Sepia are ususually the darkest in the series and often have better contast, The Seal Sepia comes from an outcross to Burmese and eyes can range from Green to Gold.

The Charcoal Bengal can come in Brown, Silver,Snow and Blue. In each colour the Charcoal which is actually more a pattern effect rather than a colour display in the pattern of The Bengal Cat.

The Charcoal Bengal Cat is often dubbed “Zorro” because of their dark face mask,white spectacles and dark caping on their backs, not every Charcoal bengal has the Cape though so the Cape cannot be used to determine if a bengal is Charcoal. The spots or rosetting is usually filled in, eye colour can be green, gold, copper, or Aqua/Blue if its a snow bengal.

The Charcoal Bengals genetics are made up from one copy of the Ancestors of the Bengal, The Asian Leopard Cat (Apb) and one copy from the non agouti gene (a) thus making a Charcoal Bengal (Apb/a)

The two colour Bengals that can be registered but cannot yet enter TICA shows are the Blue and the Melanistic bengal.

The Blue Bengal (d/d) also known as the dilute gene is very light and soft in contrast with a background colour of pale blue grey to dark slate grey with or without peach tones. Markings are medium to dark blue. Blue Bengals can have green, gold or Blue eyes if it’s a blue snow. Blue Bengals can be in snow or silver also.

The Melanistic bengal (a/a) is a solid version of either Brown, Silver (known as Silver Smoke) Snow or Blue. The solid black Bengal resembles a panther with its ghost markings, the markings can appear differently in different lights. The eye colour of a melanistic Bengal can be Green, Copper or Blue if it is a Snow Bengal. We personally love melanistic Bengals and hope that one day it will be a TICA show freindly colour.