Hi everyone,

I was just wondering if this guy looks Bengal to you. The snow bengals look a little like Lynx point Siamese to me so it's really tough to tell. I know he may not be pure but is there Bengal somewhere in there?

Thanks!

Most possibly having Bengal blood. Siamese cats don't have spots, let alone 'racoon' tail, lol. However, as the spots don't look like rosettes, it could still a cross between Siamese and other domestic spotted tabbies with totally non-wild genes, and yes they too have striped tails.

From what I understand, the Bengal breed is the only one having rosetted genes, hence only rosetted Snow-Bengal looking cats will 100% have Bengal blood in some form.

Nevertheless, with snow Bengals gaining popularity, this guy could easily pass off as one.

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https://www.instagram.com/xanderbengal/

There are no pure bengals. Every bengal has other cats mixed in with their pedigree. Ocicats, Egyptian Maus, Abyssinian, Burmese, Siamese. Bristol, American Shorthairs. I see bengal in your pictures! It used to be that people, including me, would be hesitant to even say "this cat is a bengal" because we all thought it had to be 100% bengal. After talking with several breeders (and remembering my bengal's pedigree of thousands of cats), there simply are no purebred bengals unless you have an early generation that was bred bengal to bengal. When you get into the F6s and higher, there are a lot of non-bengals in the mix.

I see rosettes, I see a ringed tail. If you don't know the parents of the cat, you don't know for sure, but I see bengal in there. Gorgeous kitty.

Sherry you have a more enlightened view than the vast majority of Bengal breeders and owners. It may have that they need to justify the prices charged for these cats and the push for TICA status. But there is a strong attitude about the 'purity' and 'integrity' of the breed. Any suggestion that Bengals aren't purebred would be met with great resistance.

Having said that, I agree that there may be Bengal in this cat, and it may get easier to see as the cat matures.

I am now going through a listing of 30,220 cats .. ALCs, bengals, and I am coming across a ton of non-bengals cats that are mixed in with the pedigrees. That being said, these other breeds are pedigreed cats! So, it's not like mating a neighbor's tom cat with a bengal. Not that it is any different. Most breeders try to keep the breed pure! However, the bengal is not a pure breed. The purer breeds do not come from the Millwood line of cats as there are a lot of other breeds mixed in. Most of the EG from ALC Taro Of Bundas line produced bengal to bengal matings. Leapole Of New Horizon is another ALC line that produced mainly bengal to bengal in the early generations. However, in most of the pedigrees, you will almost always go back to the Millwood line at some point. And if you have a glittered bengal, Millwood Toby/Tory Of Delhi is an Egyptian Mau that brought that to the breed. I've been reading and doing a lot of research in the four years I've had my bengal.

I've occasionally wondered why they didn't just classify Bengal as a hybrid.

to be more academic level, sherry is on point. but youre asking for general as if this is bengal, then yes, i would think hes a bengal. but really without a pedigree, there's no guarantee.

A bengal is indeed classified as a "hybrid" cat. If you look at the statutes on the books for each state, the bengal is called a "hybrid" and every state has their own rules about bengals being kept as domestic pets. In my state, they must be an F4 or higher. Iowa used to ban all bengals completely but changed their law a couple of years ago. I believe the city of Seattle still bans all bengals. US Fish and Wildlife classifies them as hybrids and is getting tougher at allowing them to enter the US regardless of their F generation.

Ah I see