This photo is a perfect example of the many colors as well as the two patterns bengals come in.  Many people assume that a bengal is a spotted cat.  That isn't totally true.  They come in lovely marble patterns as well.  No two are alike.  Marbles are either open or sheeted.  Sheeted marbles do not have much if any pattern.  If they are brown, they will look dominantly black.  Marbles happen to be my favorite.  When I describe them, I say they are each their own individual work of art.  You take the main colors of the cat, and swirl them together.  The pattern should have a horizontal flow to it and ideally no "bullseye".  The spotted bengals have different patterns as well.  They can be spotted, rosetted, or  have arrowheads.  

​

Bengals come in many colors.  It all depends on their genetics and what genes they carry for.  This is where genetic testing comes in.  Say I want snow lynx and only have brown parents.  One would think I could only get browns.  This is not the case.  If both parents carry the lynx point gene, they could have both browns and lynx points.  If one parent carries lynx point and the other carries Burmese, the kittens would be minks or browns.  In order for there to be a charcoal, the parents must pass on the Apb and a (solid) gene.  A charcoal cat is genetically Apb/a or Apb/Apb.  The presence of the cape and mask signifies the cat is a charcoal.  To fully understand bengals, you must understand their genetics and how they came to be.  Silvers can only come from a silver parent.  The gene that makes silvers is called the Inhibitor gene.  It inhibits the brown color from coming through thus making a silver cat.  You can have a silver lynx point, silver sepia, silver mink, silver charcoal and so on.  Any other color expect brown can also be a silver.  It's all so interesting to me and I can spend hours on this very topic.  

​

When we as breeders know what our breeding cats carry for, we know which cats we put together to potentially get a certain combination of genes in their offspring.  Also with the health genetic testing, we know which pairings will produce healthy offspring.