I didn't check if they were ALC's was just referring to the general association my mind makes when I hear 'jungle' as opposed to 'forest'.

This is the best pic I can find for the ALC look I like,

It is not so much about needing the money from kitten sales to continue to breed but more about not having adequate money and room to keep kittens which are not re-homed, even with only one queen there is the possibility of having up to 8 kittens at any time and no guarantee that homes will be available. Breeding and raising kittens cost a lot with vaccinations (£50 per kitten), neutering (£40-50 per kitten), food, food for the pregnant and then nursing queen, the initial health tests for the queen (£30 PK-Def test, £285 per year HCM screen for us per cat, £50 snap Felv/FIV test prior to every stud visit), the stud fee which is often upwards of £500. If every kitten you breed was not sold could you afford to either keep all of them with enough space for them to live happily in your home or take the loss and re-home them all for free?

We had to give kittens away for free because we wanted all of our cats to live in the home with us and not have to be housed outside and having entire cats, older kittens who had not sold and also younger kittens still with their mother was not viable. The younger kittens were born after the date the older kittens should have left for their new homes but unfortunately there was no interest until they were advertised as free If there is no market for kittens in the area you live then unless you can realistically keep every kitten you produce then continuing to breed is irresponsible, the options are moving to somewhere with more demand or not breeding at least until the market in your area improves which is the course we have taken in retiring our cats and no longer breeding. Honestly I feel that the market is saturated with Bengals and Bengal crosses these days and I would not recommend anyone beginning to breed at the moment. As you are still only learning about the breed my advice would be to continue learning and researching for a good few years and then re-assessing the market to see if the breed has recovered before committing to a breeding program.

Oh I have no plans to start right now. But yes, I could afford to give kittens for free if I needed to, I can also keep them as long as it takes for a home to be found. One of the reasons for waiting until now to even think about how I might start is to make sure I could absolutely afford it with no worries. I also intend to not have a next litter until one litter is homed, like I said, if it takes years and years to develop my lines from going so slowly then so be it, I'm in no rush.

The issue with taking years between litters while building lines is that you would not be able to let your queen call for long periods of time or she would loose condition and be at risk of contracting pyometra which can be fatal. You would have to either neuter her or use birth control which some breeders feel can cause fertility problems when used for long periods of time. One of my queens called every other week and hardly ate anything when calling which resulted in her loosing a lot of weight very quickly, she would not have been able to wait years between litters.

Well obviously I'm hoping not to wait years between litters. I have been reading about birth control, from what I've read the uk options (injection) are not great but in the us they can use a pill which many breeders find works well with no resulting fertility problems. There are some uk vets that will be supportive of using the us pill, and will agree to monitor a queen while using it. Even if I had a high demand for my kittens I'd still not let a queen have more than 1 litter a year, I really feel that taking that time between litters is beneficial for queens.

What is the US pill called?

There is ovaban which is a megestrol acetate or medroxyprogesterone acetate or proligestone. Also a testosterone type drug called Mibolerone. It is medtoxyprogesterone that I have seen recomended and has been bought by uk breeders and their cats are monitored by their vets despite the meds coming from the us. There is of course the fake mating method to bring on ovulation too.

fake mating and ovulation won't stop calling though and the risk of pyometra is still there. A queen will continue to call until she is pregnant or is given birth control.

I've also been reading about Suprelorin, it's licences for dogs in Australia but the manufacturer has been trailing it in cats with so far good results. It's a vaginal implant. There are also natural methods of decreasing the severity of the call, I'm looking into those right now, just researching all the options. I know tho that many breeders like to only let their queen have 1 litter per year so it must be possible to manage.
If I was having such a hard time homing kittens that it was taking more than a year I would just stop!

[/quote]Oh I love this too just stunning [/quote]

For me, when I think about what I want to achieve I see this image. It's the reason why I love bengals, it's why, although I am a cat lover, it's the Bengal breed I want to devote my time and resources to furthering. I know I'll never breed a cat that looks exactly like that, but it's my inspiration.