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Some basic terms  from the cat fancy and some unique to the Bengal cat

 

Agouti banding: The background color of the Bengal cat is banded in colors… agouti banded. The degree of uniform coloring appearance comes from the least amount of color differentiation in the bands of colors.  Agouti banding can be seen when you rub the hair backward to the direction it is growing. While the background coloring is banded the darkest color usually appearing at the tips, the lighter color appearing at the base. This is often referred to as ticking on the Bengal cat, it is really agouti banding with wide variation.

Self colored spots: The spotting and patterning on the Bengal cat appears clearer when it lies on the hair from the tip to the skin. This coloration is known as self colored. It is not a requirement of the Bengal for it to be self colored in pattern but there is no doubt that the deeper the color lays on the hair shaft the more dense and clear the spot is.

It is interesting to note that the pattern hair color density appears deeper on the marble than on the spotted naturally. It is through selection that it is beginning to be seen on the spotted. Sometimes the effect of rosetting is due to the pattern color overlay on itself as it lies on the background. This type of rosetting is not true rosetting.

Marble or Marbled. While the marble gene does come from the classic tabby bull’s-eye it is influenced by the horizontal pull on the non-domestic genes. This give a very elongated look to the pattern and it has the swirls of other color inter-played within the pattern. Marbles should not appear to have a vertical or fixed look. The effect of three and more colors in the patterning heightens the effect toward something not seen before in the domestic.

Rosetting. Non-domestic spotting. Can be in a paw print shape, an arrowhead shape, a doughnut shape with a different color center… any type of pattern that is random or horizontal in alignment. There are important factors in distinguishing rosetting and spotting. Rosetting is thought to be influenced from the classic tabby gene, but it is my feeling that this is simply a pattern interruption of the classic tabby pattern and not a true rosette. True rosetting has a horizontal flow to the pattern as well as the different shape and/or color of spotting. See following page for further detail.

Whited tummy and whited spectacles.  The stomach, inside the legs, down the chest and neck are white, not just white but T-shirt white.  This is beginning to be seen more and more with our cats, it has taken us years of work to bring this trait from the non-domestic to the SBT level. 

Glitter. Glitter is traced back to an Indian Mau imported by Jean Mill to cross with the early Foundation cats. His name was Millwood Tory of Delhi. It behaves as a simple recessive and seems to refract light in such a way that the hair appears to be sprinkled with glitter… thus the term. On brown tabbies it is golden in appearance, on seals it is platinum. Below are electron microscope photos of a glitter hair on the left and a domestic hair on the right. The glitter hair is thinner (in these photos it is also not the same size as the domestic hair) and the edges are more protrusive. It almost appears like asparagus… and it could be hypothesized that the reason for the refraction is simply the light effect on all the facets of the hair presented to the light… like a diamond. Amore in depth study is currently underway to have a better understanding of this unique characteristic. It has been noticed that the glitter hair seems to be more hypoallergenic than other hair, many people do not have an allergic reaction to the Bengal cat as other breeds. But this is not 100% true. Glitter did not come from the Asian leopard cat though the Asian leopard cat and early generation cats have an extremely soft coat.

There seems to be some confusion between very soft and shiny coats and glitter. Once you have seen glitter it is hard to mistake it. When the Bengal cat was first being shown, it was not unusual for a judge to take a rag and try to wipe it off… thinking it was something the breeders had put on the coat.

 

These are two hairs seen under an electron microscope.  The hair to the right  is the hair from the domestic cat, non glitter.  The hair to the left is the glitter hair.    They are not shown at the same magnification, however, you can see several things from a quick observation.  One is that the glitter hair appears almost like asparagus... with triangular ridges in its shape... the hypothesis is that these ridges cause refraction of light.  It is not known at this time, what is true.  Only that there is a decided difference in the glitter coat and the non glitter. 

 

Pattern: Non-domestic and Domestic 

DOMESTIC

The mackerel tabby pattern seen on the far left here, is commonly found on the domestic cats of today.   The broken mackerel, or spotted pattern is produced when the straight lines of the mackerel pattern are interrupted and the background coloring comes through. This pattern is seen on the domestic cats of the Egyptian mau and Oriental Shorthairs.    The flow of the spotting remains extremely vertical and though the lines are not the stripes of mackerel they are aligned in the same manner.  

 

DOMESTIC

On the left is the pattern referred to in the cat fancy as the classic tabby pattern.  Notice the bull's-eye effect of the pattern in which the swirls create a circular motion.   The pattern to the right is called a spotted or broken classic.  Again, you see that the spotting is actually an interrupted classic pattern.  The effect, if the spots are connected is to create a bull's-eye pattern.   Though many of the cats with this pattern also have rosetting, it is from the domestic rather than the non-domestic genes.  The Ocicat is an example of this spotting.

  

Asian Leopard Cat Patterns

The drawing to the left shows the patterning on the Asian leopard cat.  Notice the strong movement to the horizontal and to the diagonal rather than to the vertical.  This movement is found in  the small  non-domestic cats: ocelot, margay, fishing cat, to name a few.     This is the pattern flow that the Bengal cat is working to duplicate.  Notice also the spotting found on the feet and tail, extremely hard to replicate. 

 

NON-DOMESTIC PREFERRED PATTERN ON THE BENGAL CAT 

The two pattern on the left show the difference in patterning from the domestic vertical movement to the horizontal patterning on the non-domestic.  Since the idea is to replicate the look of a non-domestic, selection should be based on those cats that take the breed closer to the ideal. There can be many variations of these patterns and there are! The  images show the pattern flow… the shape and type of pattern can vary a great deal within the pattern flow. I hypothesize that this is caused from a pattern interruption gene or polygenes. It will need further study to tell for sure what is happening. These genes are in the present gene pool and do not need to be brought in by further hybridization. Selection is the key… There are some Bengal cats that are 12 and 13 generations removed from the Asian leopard cat that suddenly have this horizontal pattern. As the saying goes: “Recessives are forever!” In the case of horizontal flow, that's a good thing!

 

What it the pattern of your cat?

                                                                                            

  

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