Bengal Cat Genetics Part 2 - Marble Coat Pattern Article

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Bengal Cat Genetics Part 2 - Marble Coat Pattern

Explaination of the marble coat pattern in bengal cats.

Author: Pocket Leopards Bengals

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The marble pattern is the result of a recessive gene. Two marble bengals will always produce marble kittens. Two marbles bred together cannot produce spotted kittens. Spotted bengals can carry the marble gene recessively though. This means that two spotted cats can sometimes produce marble kittens. To do this though, both spotted parents must carry one marble gene.

You cannot usually tell if a spotted cat carries recessively for marble. One way to tell for sure is if the spotted cat has one marble parent. Because a marble can only pass the marble gene, you know for a certainty that it's spotted kitten has one copy of the marble gene and one copy of the spotted gene. Another way to tell is if you breed a spotted cat either to a marble or another spotted, if marble kittens result, you know that your spotted carries for marble.

Remember, if you want all marble kittens all of the time, breed two marbles together.

The marble pattern goes through an amazing transformation from birth through the first year. When a marble kitten is born, the pattern is very closed up. As the kitten matures, the pattern slowly opens to reveal the hidden beauty!

There are two types of marblebengal patterns. The is the regular two toned marble that has the background color and the pattern color. Then there is the tri-colored marble. Tri colored marbles have rosetting to their pattern. In the tri-color, the third color outlines the pattern.

Some marble bengals also display some rosetting like that of the spotted bengal. Usually the rosetted spots will be located near the cat's hindquarters, where the pattern has broken away from the marble pattern into large rosetted spots. Even though these cats have some rosetted spots, they are still genetically marbles.

Interestingly, there are bengals that are popping up that seem to fit neither the spotted category nor the marble category because they have such a funky pattern that contains blotches that are somewhat swirled. These cats are genetically either a marble or a spotted, but they are very hard to classify because they look like a combo of both.

Like the spotted, the pattern of a marble should be horizontally aligned. The pattern should stretch and swirl across the cat, making it look like an ocelot or a clouded leopard. To me it should look like lighting or a maze that starts from the front of the cat and moves to the back of the cat. This makes the marble pattern look truly wild.

The domestic cat carries the "classic" tabby pattern which looks like a bulls eye or a jelly roll. In a bengal, the bulls eye pattern is not desirable. A vertical pattern in a bengal is also not desirable. You can see a clear difference between a good marble pattern on a bengal and a non- bengal classic tabby pattern. Because some of the bengal pattern is influenced by the domestic cat, sometimes marble bengals will not have the best marble pattern, but when you get a marble with a lot of the wild horizontally flowing influence to the pattern, you will get a truly spectacular cat!

About Author

Terra Sinclair
Bengal cat breeder in Sacramento CA.
Pocket Leopards Bengals
http://www.littleleopardcats.com
for picture examples of the marble bengal pattern, please visit our website

at:http://www.littleleopardcats.com/bengalcolorspatterns/marble.html

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