Ethical breeders are passionate about improving the quality of the breed. If you are such a person, then you would have to prepare yourself for quite a few challenges.
Before deciding on becoming a Bengal breeder, you should do thorough research about the breed and its genetics, also pay a visit to the breeders in your area and attend a few live shows. Join TICA or CFA, get the cattery name registered, adopt your Bengals, and start breeding.
How to Become a Bengal Cat Breeder?
- Join CFA or TICA and get your cattery name registered. Pay attention to the Code of Ethics and memorize the breed’s standard.
- Do thorough research on breeding pedigreed cats, feline husbandry, and feline genetics.
- Visit a few breeders in your area to find out what your potential lifestyle might look like.
- Go to CFA and TICA live shows to learn more about how a breed is evaluated. Talk to some breeders while you’re there.
Remember that breeding requires a lot of time, money, and paperwork.
Some aspiring breeders have spent $20,000 before they were able to have their first kitten. Moreover, you won’t be able to have a rest from your cattery duties – it’s a 24/7 job that involves feeding, cleaning, grooming, playing, training, keeping healthy, and so on.
Finally, not a lot of people realize how much paperwork reputable breeders have to take care of. Health records, registrations, breeding records, contracts, receipts, taxes – this is just to name a few.
Read: Is a Bengal Cat Good for First-Time Cat Owners?
What Do You Breed to Get a Bengal Cat?
An F1 Bengal is a hybrid of an Asian Leopard cat and a domestic cat breed (usually, the spotted Egyptian Mau).
When Can You Breed a Bengal Cat?
A lot of breeders prefer to start breeding when the female is around 12 months old and she has already gone through at least a few heat cycles. At this point, the female is already mature enough to be able to take proper care of the litter.
What Is the Best Age to Breed a Cat?
Even though cats reach sexual maturity at the age of 4 months, that does not mean that they should be bred straight away.
It is not advised for kitties to be mated until they turn at least 1 year old and, ideally, breeding should be delayed until the cat reaches 18 months of age.
The females over the age of 7 should not be bred if it’s not stated otherwise by your vet.
Read: Can Bengal Cats Live Without Going Outside?
How Much Is a Bengal Cat Breed?
The average price of a Bengal kitten from a reputable breeder is $1,500-$3,000. However, you should be prepared to pay up to $8,000 for a show-quality Bengal.
Even though these kitties do cost a lot that does not mean that you’ll be able to make a fortune if you decide to become a Bengal breeder. Before starting to breed, you would have to invest in:
- The actual breeding cat
- Making the rooms Bengal-proof and creating a nursery for the future kittens
- Healthy food
- Cat litter
- Health screening and veterinary care
- Various supplies
- A website for your cattery
- Membership and registration fees
- Shows where you can win a title
Read: How to Start to Train a Bengal Cat to Walk on a Leash?
How Many Kittens Do Bengal Cats Have in a Litter?
Bengals will typically have 2-6 kittens in their litter. On average, you can expect the queen to give birth to 4-5 kittens.
How Many Times Can You Breed a Bengal Cat?
You can breed a female Bengal twice a year. This means that during the kitty’s lifespan, it can be bred around 12-16 times.
How Many Litters a Year Can a Bengal Cat Have?
The gestation period of a Bengal is roughly 2 months, so some people might think that the female would be able to deliver 5-6 litter a year. While the queen might be physically capable of giving birth to that many kittens, you should never do that.
Two litters per year is a good frequency, as the female will have enough time to recover after pregnancy and she would be better at taking care of her kittens.
Read: 3 Ways How to Calm a Bengal Cat?
How Long Is a Bengal Cat Lifespan?
Bengals usually live for 12-20 years.
However, these felines are generally stopped being bred between 4-6 years of age. That is a bit earlier than for the majority of other breeds (their queens retire at around 8).
What Is an F1 Bengal Cat?
A Bengal who has an Asian Leopard cat mom or dad is an F1 (which means ‘first filial’).
This animal is 50% wild. It eats raw meat, might stop using the litter box once it reaches maturity, and is prohibited in a lot of states.
F1 females are expensive and extremely difficult to obtain.
What Is an F5 Bengal Cat?
An F5 is a Bengal that has been bred from an F4 Bengal and a domestic cat. At this point, the kitty is very similar to a regular house cat in a lot of aspects, but it still has the ‘wild’ looks.
Read: What Are the Difficulties of Raising a Bengal Cat?
Are F2 Bengal Males Sterile?
F1-F3 male Bengals are sterile, which means that they can’t have kittens. Only the females of these filial generations are capable of reproducing.
Are Bengal Cats Easy to Breed?
Breeding Bengals is extremely challenging. You’ll be able to succeed in breeding, only if you are planning on trying to improve the breed; all other reasons might simply not be good enough.
If you want to become a breeder, you should be ready to invest thousands of dollars and every hour of your day in making sure that the cats are healthy and happy.
What Diseases Are Bengal Cats Prone to?
Bengals have hereditary health issues that every breeder should know about. These include progressive retinal atrophy, cataracts, and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.
Can You Breed Sibling Bengal Cats?
Breeding siblings or other close relatives is referred to as ‘inbreeding’. It is a practice that is quite widely used among breeders.
Inbreeding can help fix certain traits in the cats and make the line identifiable and prized. The desirable traits become uniform and can, later on, be passed further.
Will a Father Cat Mate with His Daughter?
A father and a daughter cat can easily mate if they are sexually mature and unneutered.
What Happens If a Mother and Son Cat Mate?
Even though there are a few important benefits of inbreeding, such as predictability and elimination of undesired traits, there are still some risks that a lot of breeders wouldn’t want to deal with.
- Inbreeding increases the chances of the development of a genetic defect
- The recessive genes can get doubled (those include both strengths and weaknesses)
- Signs of excessive inbreeding might appear (crooked noses, small litters, asymmetry, misaligned jaws, cancer in younger cats, and so on)
How Can You Tell If a Bengal Cat Is Purebred?
It might be practically impossible to determine whether a Bengal is purebred or not simply by the kitty’s looks. You’ll either need the appropriate paperwork from a reputable breeder or you would have to sign up for a genetic test.
How Do I Register My Bengal Cat?
The breeder should fill out the Litter Registration Application from TICA with the information on the mother and father. If the stud belongs to someone else, then the owner of the male would have to complete the other portion of the form.
What Is the Rarest Type of Bengal Cat?
Snow and Silver Bengals are extremely rare.