The Silver Bengal Cat

The Silver Bengal Cat: Genetics, Breeding Practices, and Specialization

=========================================================

Silver Bengal Kitten

Silver Bengal Cat - Bengal Cat Outcross

Silver Bengal Cat Breeders

The Silver Bengal Cat is not only our favorite here at Moonshine Bengals; it is our primary focus. Our goal is to create and enhance the silver Bengal cat's appearance. We aim for a wild look with a very social personality and high-contrast black markings on a clear, white background. Imagine a beautiful, exotic snow leopard! We also prioritize health and diversity within the breed.

Breeding for this specific look is challenging. It all comes down to how certain genes come together to create this stunning cat. While achieving a certain appearance is one of our main goals, we must also maintain proper structure, health, genetic diversity, breed standards, and temperament. Putting all these elements together can be quite the challenge in breeding a high-quality silver Bengal. Today, we will answer some questions about what makes a Bengal cat silver and why producing a top-of-the-line silver Bengal cat line is so challenging.

Let’s Start with the Basics: What Makes a Bengal Cat Silver?

Technically speaking, a silver Bengal cat is actually a brown Bengal with at least one copy of a gene called the inhibitor gene (I). This gene inhibits the warm, brown tones in the coat, resulting in the silver Bengal look. The inhibitor gene is dominant, meaning only one copy from a silver parent is needed to produce a silver kitten. One parent must be silver to produce silver offspring. Simple, right? Unfortunately, producing a very high-quality silver Bengal cat is not that easy.

There are many hidden factors involved in creating that beautiful black-on-white silver coloring that people love and seek out when purchasing their silver Bengal kittens. Here are a couple of examples of different silver Bengal cats with varying looks and contrast.

These are just a few examples of silver Bengals here at Moonshine Bengals. I won’t list other silvers of lesser quality, as they aren’t my pictures to use. However, if you start looking at silvers, you will notice the differences. Look closely at the clear white background with defined black spots and rosettes in the cats above.

As you can see, there are varying levels of contrast in the silver Bengal cat and how the inhibitor gene presents itself. When a silver cat receives two copies of the inhibitor gene (I/I), it is considered homozygous for silver. This requires a silver-to-silver breeding, where the kitten gets one copy of silver from each parent. A silver cat with two copies of the silver inhibitor gene is considered pure or homozygous for silver. This means the silver coloring tends to look more pure, with no warm tones coming through the coat.

A pure silver cat can only produce silver offspring, as it will always pass the inhibitor gene to its kittens. Since the inhibitor is a dominant gene, all kittens will get at least one copy and be silver. This is the goal in most silver programs, but it’s not as easy as it sounds. Often, it can take several silver-to-silver breedings over a few generations to end up with a homozygous or pure silver Bengal cat.

The first cat pictured above comes from a 15-year-plus silver-only breeding program that also outcrossed with a pure silver American Shorthair to achieve that level of quality in coat contrast. Idunn is most likely pure for silver, but I will only know for sure if I breed her to a male that is not pure for silver and has produced non-silver offspring. Then I will know if she is pure for silver or not.

Odin, the second cat in the pictures, is not pure for silver. He is a third generation of silver-to-silver breeding, with a dad that was pure for silver and a mom that was not. He can still produce brown offspring if paired with a female that also has only one copy of the silver inhibitor gene or if paired with a non-silver cat. If you look closely at his pictures, you can see some minimal warm tones around his face, feet, and rosettes.

The last cat shown, Olla, is most likely pure for silver. You can see the pure white background with literally no brown or warm tones coming through on her coat. She just had her first litter of seven kittens, and all are beautiful silvers like her, with varying levels of contrast. Either she or my male Laz is most likely pure for silver, and more breedings and pairings over the next year will help determine if one or both are pure for silver.

What Makes a Silver Bengal Cat High Quality?

Many breeders want to produce a rainbow of colors in their program, such as different shades of browns, snow lynx, snow mink, snow sepia, silver, smokes, silver snows, charcoals, silver charcoals, blues, and more. They aim to have a little bit of everything in their program. There’s nothing wrong with this approach; it’s fun to produce a variety of colors in a litter or with different pairings. However, the quality in each color group can start to lack.

The issue with producing silvers in this way is that you are unlikely to achieve the quality and contrast seen in our silver Bengals without focusing on specialization. There are indeed some beautiful silvers that come from non-silver programs, but the results are much less consistent. Out of ten silver kittens, you will typically see a varying degree of quality and contrast.

You may have one or two beautiful silvers with excellent color and contrast and minimal tarnish. However, the other eight might develop varying degrees of tarnish and even fading contrast over time, leading to a soft silver appearance. Some tarnish can become more pronounced as they mature, and some silver kittens may eventually appear more brown than silver as adults.

When breeders pair very warm brown cats, especially those with more red tones in their coats, with silvers, this issue tends to arise. The inhibitor gene not only inhibits the warm tones but can also diminish the contrast, resulting in a grey-on-grey silver if you get the inhibitor gene without the contrast. Not all silver inhibitor genes are represented the same way in silver cats.

When breeding silvers, it’s crucial to get a stronger inhibitor gene in the coat to achieve a clear white background. However, this can wash out the contrast in the rosettes. Therefore, you must breed higher contrast cats to maintain that contrast while obtaining the clear-coated, white background from the stronger inhibitor gene (I). Ticking is another challenge in the silver Bengal cat, which can also wash out the contrast of the rosettes, but that’s a whole other topic for another day.

There are still ways for breeders to pair silvers with browns for better success in producing quality silver offspring. For instance, pairing cool brown Bengals with high contrast and a clear background coat can yield very nice silver offspring. However, pairing a standard warm brown Bengal with a silver is a bit hit or miss in terms of quality. You won’t necessarily know what you’re getting until the kitten has fully matured and has its adult coat.

Silvers can change significantly from kitten to adult. Silver-to-silver breedings tend to produce more consistently high-quality silver kittens than brown or snow-to-silver pairings. The charcoals and smokes, with their darker overlay, often hide a lot of the underlying tarnish in the silver offspring. Thus, the silver charcoals and smokes from non-silver-focused programs may look better than the traditional silver without the darker overlays.

Conclusion: The Importance of Specialization

In summary, you are much more likely to get a higher quality silver Bengal cat from a breeder who specializes in silvers and understands how genetics affect appearance. This is in contrast to breeders who produce silvers for fun. Next time, we will cover how to enhance genetic diversity and increase health in the small gene pool of the silver Bengal cat. Stay tuned!