Below are photos of some of a Silver I have worked with.

F1; A1T Spotlite Silver Sabbath

 

 

A bit about Color Genetics by Cathy Potter January 2011 When we DNA our cats UC Davis gives us a pair of letter on 4 different loci. You get a pair of A's, B's , C's, and D's A- is agouti it means you will have a pattern that you can see where "a" is non-agouti so the background is the same color as the markings making the cat appear solid. Cats are not really solid but a black cat with black spots or stripes looks that way. So if your DNA comes back AA your cat doesn't carry non-agouti (Melanistic) if it is Aa it carries and aa means it is a non-agouti/ melanistic. B- stands for black which is genetically what our bengal that are brown are. If you get a BB your cat is a black (this is why TICA papers say brown (black) when you register a brown. Bb means that they carry chocolate (b) and if they cat carries cinnamon it is written (b1) I have finally found a cat that is a true cinnamon. C- is the letter for a cat that doesn't carry snow. So a CC means your cat will not produce snow. Cc means it carries. Since there are two kinds of snow the lynx (from the Siamese) and the sepia (from the Burmese) they are separated this way. Lynx=cs and Sepia=cb so a cat DNA that comes back as Ccs is a lynx carrier and a Ccb is a sepia carrier. A cscs is a lynx and a cbcb is a sepia and the mink is a combination of the two so cscb. D-means full color so if your cat is DD it has full pigment. Dd means the cat carries dilute (or blue) and a dd means the cat is a blue. Words like melanistic and blue are not actually genetic terms, we should be saying non-agouti and dilute instead of melanistic and blue. This becomes more important in a situation like this. Let say you send in DNA on your cat that appears to be a snow with blue eyes. If the results are Aa BB cscs dd it is actually a lynx blue that carries for melanistic. Since the cat will not appear blue in color it is less confusing to call it a dilute lynx that carries non-agouti. The only time a cat actually appears blue when it carries the dd genes is when it is not a snow or a melanistic. I believe a blue melanistic looks like a solid colored blue/grey cat. When you have a cat that should have been born brown but carries the two dd genes the brown is diluted to blue. So, our blues are really just brown cats. If you ever see a really nice looking blue, always remember you can use it in any brown program and it will give you beautiful brown kittens if the mate doesn't carry for blue too. The best blues come from browns with dark markings. Sorrel colored cats that produce blues are usually blah since the contrast isn't there.

Lockets

A locket is a cosmetic fault that is still very misunderstood. *There are many CH and even SGCH cats with lockets, and other faults. *A locket does not hurt the health or function of a cat, it is just an     undesirable hair color. * It can appear anywhere on the body, but is most commonly found on the neck, therefore called a locket. * Lockets are also very common in the arm pits and groin area. * A locket can be 1 or 2 hairs or a Very large patch. It can be round or an irregular shape.  * A locket can be evident at birth or develop at ages up to 8 months old. In my quest to learn more I clipped with scissors then shaved a locket that appeared in a whited area of a neck. * Whited is the desirable color of the undersides, belly and inside of legs of wild cats and is being developed in some Bengals. * Whited and White are genetic terms for hair color. Whited is very light but not completely devoid of color. * I feel the Inhibitor gene may come into play here since the locket hair root is devoid of color, like on a silver Bengal. Below is what I learned when I  * clipped a locket that I found inside a whited area. * clipped and shaved a locket found on the colored area. *  clipped the lighter chin of a cat with no locket. the third cat has very light hair roots.  3 cats do not constitute a scientific finding. This showed me that a locket is devoid of color to the skin. When in doubt, clip the hair. If anyone else wants to try it, I would like to know your findings.... I selected this third cat for my breeding program because I thought she would produce kittens for me with whited undersides. Her Father is whited. Her hair has time to grow back before she is shown.

 

The dotted lines show Whited hair, Colored hair and White / Locket hair. The base of the hair, approximately 1/4 inch from the skin is where I saw the big difference! T he nearly unseen locket popped out like a flashing beacon when clipped! I wanted to see if the skin was a different color, so I shaved the hair. Disposable razor is not recommended for this job. Luckily my cats were cooperative. :-)

 the skin can be the same color under locket and colored hair.

 
This  locket area is clipped then the top part was shaved to show the skin better.
Again locket roots are white, colored roots are darker.

 Sample Cat #3, no locket

This kitten has no locket.  Her root hair is lighter in color than above cats, but still has color.  I clipped a large area to show the roots of whited area, background color and  pattern areas. The red is razor burn...ooops.

A locket is of absolutely no concern to a pet owner. The importance of  locket in a breeding cat should be taken into consideration After selecting for.... ** structure faults that cause problems such as loose knees, flat chest, unsound mouth  etc. ** genetic health problems such as Cataracts, heart , lung and immune problems.   Each person must decide where they draw the line on selecting a cat for breeding ?   There is no PERFECT BENGAL ..........Yet  :-)

Normally kittens are born with eyes sealed closed. At 7 to 10 days old the eyes start to open. At this time the eyes will be nearly black, gradually become a light blue. Around 8 to 10 weeks old you can see the adult color starting to develop. Young kittens can not judge distance. This makes them vulnerable to falling off things. Their play should be closely supervised to avoid accidents that could cause serious problems. for more on eye color see http://www.bengalspot.com/05evaluate.htm  If you have more questions about colors on Bengal Cats, Please feel free to contact me. Holly@BengalSpot.com

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