Marbled
- Brown (Black), Seal sepia/Seal mink, Snow
21 breeders are on record here.
Medium to large, muscular cat with a distinctive wild appearance featuring spotted or marbled coat patterns. Highly athletic and intelligent with an exotic look.
Developed by crossing domestic cats with the Asian leopard cat starting in the 1960s-70s by Jean Mill. Named after the leopard cat's scientific name (Prionailurus bengalensis). Recognized by TICA in 1983.
Generally described as alert, agile, energetic, demanding, intelligent, curious e playful.
That is the breed in general, not a promise about one animal. Ask the breeder what their own line is like, and meet the parents before you decide.
Breed reference from The Cat API.
Drawn from sources, not opinion: FIFe breed standard; The Cat API; UC Davis VGL — PRA-b (Bengal) test. An empty column means we hold nothing for that side, not that there is nothing to say.
The Bengal standard is published by the FIFe (Fédération Internationale Féline), the international federation of pedigree-cat clubs, and it is what show judges apply. This section sums up what it says about coat and colour. It does not assess any one animal: use it to know what to ask the breeder.
Short.
Allowance for slightly longer coat in kittens.
Texture is thick, luxurious, unusually soft to the touch and preferably showing glitter.
Shortened from FIFe standard BEN — each label is the standard’s own wording with the verdict lifted into the tag beside it. Read the full clause at source. FIFe lists this standard’s last modification as 2026. Text read on 31 ago 2026.
A tick means FIFe recognises that colour in at least one variety with that pattern. It does not mean every combination is recognised.
| Colour | Marbled | Spotted | Silver | Charcoal (provisional) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brown (Black) | Accepted | Accepted | Accepted | Accepted |
| Seal sepia/Seal mink | Accepted | Accepted | Accepted | Accepted |
| Snow | Accepted | Accepted | Accepted | Accepted |
Read from the table at the end of the FIFe standard. Smoke, silver, golden and corin are FIFe’s own names; the exact EMS codes and the eye colours are in the standard.
The colour varieties FIFe recognises for this breed are listed, with their EMS codes, in the table at the end of its standard. FIFe describes each colour group in the General Part of its standards.
The charcoal variety (EMS 14) has been provisionally recognised by FIFe since 01.06.2025. FIFe describes it in a separate document.
The colours and patterns the standard admits, and what it prefers, discourages or disqualifies in each. An accepted colour says nothing about health. Quotations from the FIFe are in English, as the standard publishes them; the headings are ours.
Known hereditary risks for the Bengal breed, and the specific documentation to request from any breeder before paying a deposit. A responsible breeder will have these readily available; deflection is a red flag.
4 conditions documentedThis is breed-level literature, not veterinary advice about an individual animal — your vet knows the animal.
Health checklist (PDF)Found in more than about one in twenty of the breed's dogs screened, or described as common in the sources.
Breed-level information from The Cat API. It describes the Bengal in general; any individual animal can differ.
A Bengal-specific, autosomal recessive form of inherited blindness caused by a mutation distinct from the Abyssinian's, destroying the light-sensing cells of the retina. UC Davis offers a dedicated DNA test for this Bengal-only mutation. It is common in the breed: a 2022 screen of over 11,000 cats found it in 232 of 1,703 Bengals, about one in seven (two of them with two copies).
What to ask for
UC Davis VGL Bengal-specific PRA (PRA-b) DNA test result, on both parents
The same inherited haemolytic anaemia documented in Abyssinians is also listed by UC Davis as appropriate for testing in Bengals, reflecting the breed's own foundation ancestry. A 2022 screen of over 11,000 cats found it in 190 of 1,692 Bengals, about one in nine (five with two copies).
What to ask for
UC Davis VGL PK deficiency DNA test result, on both parents
A Bengal-specific, autosomal recessive form of inherited blindness caused by a mutation distinct from the Abyssinian's, destroying the light-sensing cells of the retina. UC Davis offers a dedicated DNA test for this Bengal-only mutation. It is common in the breed: a 2022 screen of over 11,000 cats found it in 232 of 1,703 Bengals, about one in seven (two of them with two copies).
What to ask for
UC Davis VGL Bengal-specific PRA (PRA-b) DNA test result, on both parents
The same inherited haemolytic anaemia documented in Abyssinians is also listed by UC Davis as appropriate for testing in Bengals, reflecting the breed's own foundation ancestry. A 2022 screen of over 11,000 cats found it in 190 of 1,692 Bengals, about one in nine (five with two copies).
What to ask for
UC Davis VGL PK deficiency DNA test result, on both parents
Documented in this breed, but no source says how many of its dogs carry or have them. That is a gap in the evidence, not a sign they are rare.
A thickened heart muscle disease reported in Bengals in breed-specific echocardiography research; a US veterinary school has run a dedicated Bengal HCM study programme. No breed-validated DNA marker exists for Bengal, unlike Maine Coon or Ragdoll, so echocardiography is the only way to screen for it.
What to ask for
No breed-validated DNA test exists — ask for a recent echocardiogram, read by a cardiologist, on both parents
A thickened heart muscle disease reported in Bengals in breed-specific echocardiography research; a US veterinary school has run a dedicated Bengal HCM study programme. No breed-validated DNA marker exists for Bengal, unlike Maine Coon or Ragdoll, so echocardiography is the only way to screen for it.
What to ask for
No breed-validated DNA test exists — ask for a recent echocardiogram, read by a cardiologist, on both parents
Described in this breed, but found in few or no dogs in recent screening, or only ever in one dog or one family. They are here so a test result makes sense if a breeder mentions one.
An inherited, late-onset loss of the retina's light-sensing cells that leads to blindness. It was first found in Abyssinians and is common in Siamese-group breeds. It is recessive, so a kitten is affected only if it inherits a copy from each parent. In Bengals the evidence is thin and mostly reassuring: a 2010 survey found one copy in 2 of 18 North American Bengals (and in neither of two European ones), but none of 1,703 Bengals in a 2022 screen of over 11,000 cats carried it. This is a different disease from the Bengal's own early-onset PRA-b, which a 2015 study showed is not caused by this mutation, so a clear PRA-b result says nothing about this one.
What to ask for
UC Davis VGL PRA rdAc (CEP290) DNA test result, on both parents
An inherited, late-onset loss of the retina's light-sensing cells that leads to blindness. It was first found in Abyssinians and is common in Siamese-group breeds. It is recessive, so a kitten is affected only if it inherits a copy from each parent. In Bengals the evidence is thin and mostly reassuring: a 2010 survey found one copy in 2 of 18 North American Bengals (and in neither of two European ones), but none of 1,703 Bengals in a 2022 screen of over 11,000 cats carried it. This is a different disease from the Bengal's own early-onset PRA-b, which a 2015 study showed is not caused by this mutation, so a clear PRA-b result says nothing about this one.
What to ask for
UC Davis VGL PRA rdAc (CEP290) DNA test result, on both parents
Median age at death 8,4 years
Middle half of deaths between 2,1 and 14,1 years, from 73 recorded deaths. 23,3% of them were before age two.
Read this with care. Well above the 7,5% seen in non-pedigree cats, which pulls the median down. That can mean higher mortality in young cats, or simply that the breed has become popular recently so most of its cats are still young — these records cannot tell the two apart.
Computed from United Kingdom veterinary records covering 7936 deaths. This is an age at death, not a life expectancy: half the cats of this breed in the records died younger.
Dataset: O'Neill, D. & Teng, K.T. (2024), Figshare, doi:10.6084/m9.figshare.25006802, CC BY 4.0. Teng, K.T., Brodbelt, D.C., Church, D.B. & O'Neill, D.G. (2024) Life tables of annual life expectancy and risk factors for mortality in cats in the United Kingdom. Journal of Feline Medicine and Surgery 26(5).