Hello all!

I'm new here, hi, hello! I'm curious if it's possible my kitty is half bengal. We were told by the woman we rescued him from that he was part marble bengal...but honestly who knows? Is it likely or even possible that bengal blood is mixed with other standard domestic shorthair and in the general population?

He does seem to have the markings she mentioned, but aside from that, he exhibits A LOT of the personality traits that are typical of bengals, especially liking water, being super talkative, and extreme intelligence/doing tricks (plays fetch, gives high fives etc). We realized this after researching the breed.

Either way I don't care, we love him to pieces. But now we are strongly considering getting him a bengal playmate who can keep up with him.

Thanks for your input!

Holly :)

Hi Holly. Welcome to the forum. The pictures tell that your kitty is not a purebred bengal. There is truly no way to tell if he is even part bengal. The bengal breed came as a result of breeding an Asian Leopard Cat with a domestic tabby, so all bengals have tabby in them, but not all tabbies have bengal in them. There are marbled and spotted tabby cats as well. Your Apollo is super handsome!

It's impossible to say one way or the other with any certainty just from pictures, but I would say likely not. Bengals always have black paw leather and a spotted belly which means they are dominant traits. I dont know if it's possible that a cross could breed out these traits, but I think in all likelihood what you have there is a very beautiful marbled tabby. It's impossible to say for sure without a dna test, but why would you bother? You have a beautiful cat and that isn't going to change whether he's part bengal or not.

I'm no expert, but he looks part bengal to me. His marble coat and his face remind me of a bengal. The white bits are not bengal. Maybe he is a mixture, but you will never know for sure unless you know who his parents are. Enjoy him, he's really handsome.

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Aside from the white all over the place, your cat has a seriously nice, marbled, high contrast coat. Very bengal-like in appearance. The face and tail look very bengal-like also. I wouldn't have any problem believing that he was part bengal. And that is a seriously handsome cat to be sure.

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The little monsters 3

Thanks guys! We call him our tuxedo bengal haha. We love his tuxedo shirt and white paws, and we love that his white parts are SO white. :) It doesn't matter to us one way or the other whether he does or doesn't have bengal in him, but we like to say that he does, even if it's only in spirit! :-P

He's the most talkative cat I've ever owned. He will literally stand there and have a back and forth conversation with you for 15 minutes straight. I tested it once but got tired...

He also has an incredible amount of energy, loves his toys or anything new I give him, and LOVES going outside. He even chews things like a dog... shoes, and hard things like the corner of the coffee table, my phone, the laptop screen, the wall mirror. Weirdo...is that normal? He really enjoys drinking water from the sink too, although we don't like it because we want him drinking filtered water only, so we ended up getting him a water fountain that sits on the bathroom counter.

My fiance is NOT a cat person, he much prefers dogs and honestly before Apollo, had disdain for cats. But he inherited Apollo with me, and his dog-like intelligence, assertiveness, energy and playfulness, and his sweet sweet loving demeanor, completely won him over. He completely dotes on him now and even bought him a kitty condo for our livingroom, and I've never even owned one for my other cats! Like I said since researching the breed and realizing how active and dog-like they are, we have decided to get Apollo a little brother to keep him company since his older sister passed in January. We've observed that Apollo seems to get a little bored not having anyone to play with anymore, and we're hoping our 3 1/2 year old boy hasn't lost that kitten that has gone a little dormant the past few months being a solo cat. We are visiting the breeder this weekend, and hope to be bringing him home in mid-September. :D

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~*~Holly~*~

Orion ~ Light Gold Black Rosetted Bengal, born 5/19/15
Apollo ~ Tuxedo Marbled Tabby, born 1/7/12

One of my cats gnaws wood too. The corners of formerly nice night stands, and a teak planter next to her feeding spot. She stands there and gnaws the wood until I arrive with the food, lol.

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I dont think it's possible with pink paws. As far as I know, every bengal has black paws. This means that the alleles for the trait are both dominant. A dominant pair from dad cat and a dominant pair from mum cat results in dominant-dominant for the kitten - or black paws. If a bengal is crossed with something else which has pink paws, then the kitten gets one dominant allele from the bengal and one recessive allele from the moggy. The kitten is therefore dominant-recessive at the very least. As you only need one allele of the pair to be dominant for the trait to be expressed, then all the kittens of a bengal cross will have black paws, regardless of the other cat. The next generation would be different and could have pink paws. So if a cat is 50% bengal, it will have black paws, if it is 25% bengal, it could have either black or pink.

It's been some good few years since I did my genetics module at university, so I could easily be wrong.

Also, I dont think the marbleing on bengals ever forms a bullseye like it does on tabby's. Here's a side view of my marble (sadly no longer with us)...



I definitely could be wrong about this, but I'm sure I remember reading that the marbleing never forms a complete circle/bullseye on the side. I wouldn't take that as gospel though.

Hmm, so you're saying he's a little, slooow eh? Eats his own poo? Easily duped? Things of that nature?

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The little monsters 3

I know I've definitely seen bengals online that have the full bullseye marbling, but it's apparently "undesirable" for showing or breeding purposes...

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~*~Holly~*~

Orion ~ Light Gold Black Rosetted Bengal, born 5/19/15
Apollo ~ Tuxedo Marbled Tabby, born 1/7/12

A purebred Bengal does not have to have black paw pads. Snow or seal point Bengals can have pink pads. Black pads are most desirable for a BST Bengal but not always present. Quasar is a registered BST Bengal with pink paw pads. They were black until he hit about 10 months old then turned pink. He has seal points in his pedigree resulting in the pink pads.

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~ Kyenta

Hahaha...I intended "dog-like" to precede and apply to the whole sentence. Everything thru playfulness. ;)

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~*~Holly~*~

Orion ~ Light Gold Black Rosetted Bengal, born 5/19/15
Apollo ~ Tuxedo Marbled Tabby, born 1/7/12

I can see a bengal look in him too. He has a wide nose and prominent whisker pads which are very bengal like. With the wood chewing, get some hard baked cardboard scratch pads. Oscar loves chewing them and your kitty might too!

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Melissa

UK
Oscar - Rescue (Rascal!!!) Bengal

Then that's my theory blown. :D

My husband is not a animal lover, period! We've had cats and dogs our entire married life -- and i've been the one to give them the attention and care for them. It's different with Raiden. My husband loves Raiden and says "goodbye" to him in the mornings with some loving, and has to say, "What's up doc?" and give Raiden a belly rub when he gets home! Raiden loves getting massages from him. Hubby will even feed Raiden if I'm still in bed and Raiden is crying for food. The litter box ... he won't touch! It's Raiden's sweet disposition and the fact that he never gets angry and lashes out with scratches or bites.

Regardless of whether Apollo is part bengal, he's a beautiful kitty and will give you many years of love.