The vast majority of breeding ALCs are male. There have been a handful of females, but most breeders prefer the male ALC gene over a female. In the beginning, the ALC was bred with a domestic cat. Jean Mill started her program with Rorschach Of Millwood, an F1 who came from a male ALC and female domestic cat. Almost all pedigrees to back to that paring. Rorschach fathered two females: Millwood Praline and Millwood Pennybank (F2's) with Finally Found Of Millwood -- a domestic cat. From there, Jean brought in an glittered Egyptian Mau, Millwood Toby / Tory of Delhi, which gave the Bengal the shimmering gold in its pelt. Unfortunately, Jean bred back the son of Praline back to Praline and thus, the inbreeding started, bringing in many of the congenital issues the bengal has today.
These days, many breeders have ALCs and are bred to later generation bengals. That starts the F1 generation all over again with that litter. The F generation always goes back to the shortest link to the ALC. My F9 has several different ALCs in his pedigree and the instances of the Centerwall ALCs back to Millwood is 1,917 for his mom and 1.965 for his father. However, for his F generation, his ALC is Kabuki Of Millwood on his mom's side which appears in his pedigree only twice. Raiden's father is an F9, his mom is an F8, making Raiden an F9.
In my research so far with about 47,000 bengals, the highest generation I have is an F13. Most all pedigrees have an "unknown" somewhere down the line, thus that generation could be incorrect. Most breeders one they hit an F12 will breed back to an F9 to get an F10.
Many bengal owners don't understand or don't care about an F generation. I find it fascinating. I work on my database every day, adding cats and finding out new information. The bengal is an amazing breed and I think we are all lucky to have one or more in our lives.
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