On the left, SGC Joykatz Ace Inda Hole. The rosettes are bicolour markings. According to the standard, rosettes are preferred to simple spots. Their shape can change, just like their size or colour (black or dark brown), but they must necessarily be clearly visible and in contrast with the background colour of the coat. The Bengal is the only cat breed with rosettes. That’s why it was long believed that these rosettes were reminiscences of the wild past of the Bengal. Nowadays, we know that tricoloured, marbled Bengals were very important in the evolution of the rosettes. Only 10 or 15 years ago, people were overwhelmed with joy when a cat displayed a couple of rosettes on each side of its body. Thanks to a careful and patient selection, we can now produce cats with rosettes from their shoulders to their hips. Males such as RW SGC Joykatz Ace Inda Hole and RW QGC Starbengal Di Caprio, pictured below, greatly contributed to spread rosettes, and their names appear in many pedigrees. Unlike what happened 5 or 6 years ago, it takes more to a cat to win a show than simply possess nice rosettes.
Rosettes can be “arrow headed” shaped, like on Ace Inda Hole’s body. When 3 or 4 large black markings surround a centre of lighter orange colour, one talks about “paw print rosettes”. These markings are very similar to those of the leopard’s. Other Bengals have rosettes in the shape of half or complete circles. Then one talks about “doughnuts rosettes”. One can find very often different shapes of rosettes on one cat. If you closely look at Di Caprio’s picture, you can see paw prints, doughnuts and half circle rosettes.
In the last few years, we also noticed that some marbled Bengals tended to develop little black spots inside their patterns. We wondered if we could one day possibly introduce these spots within the doughnuts rosettes, and re-create a pattern similar to that of the Amazonian Jaguar. Spice Cayenne is one of the first Bengals on which we could see the black spots. Maybe this cat represents a new step on the way towards a domestic cat displaying the coat similar to that of the Jaguar’s.
Many breeders prefer it when there is a lot of space between the rosettes. One talks about “good acreage”. While other breeders seek smaller rosettes, linked the ones to the others and forming almost horizontal lines on the whole body, like in the ocelot’s coat. One talks about “chaining” and some foreseers think that one day, we will no longer be able to make the difference between a marbled and a spotted Bengal.
Unfortunately, large rosettes are often “accompanied” by long vertical lines behind the shoulders (rip bares). It is most likely a remnant of the marbled design, which was used to create the rosettes. These lines are in total contradiction with the horizontal lining of the coat pattern written in the standard. Nevertheless, one tends to accept one vertical line on each side. If there’d be more, the animal should not be used in any breeding program.
Most of the time, the rosettes are not visible at the birth of the kittens. During the first 5/6 weeks, one can only see large, black spots. The centres later fall out, and then also change in colours. Its is therefore very difficult to predict precisely what will be the pattern of an adult cat, at the moment when you choose a kitten.
This is also true for the background colour, which also tends to change during more than one year. The standard favours a deep colour “a high degree of rufinism yielding a yellow, buff, tan golden or orange ground colour is preferred.” But an important contrast is still required. Ten years ago, the Bengals were more orange. Now, many catteries are working to obtain a background colour between gold and yellow. This colour can afford an important contrast, even if the spots lose a bit of their colours as time goes by. This is known as “fading”, and certain lines are more affected than others by this phenomenon. As the Bengal is a quickly evolving breed, we rarely work with animals over 3 years. It is therefore not always easy for a breeder to know if he’s working with a line, which tends to be affected by “fading”.
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