Bengal Cat Health Problems

All cats have health problems of some sort as do all humans. Purebred cats tend to have a propensity to certain genetically inherited illnesses to a lesser or greater degree. It depends mainly on the breeding of the cat breed and the number of foundation cats that were used to create the breed. It also depends on how closely selective breeding takes place.

As I remember it, the Bengal cat is founded on a small number of "foundation cats" (e.g. Millwood Tory of Delhi). Jean Mill the cat breeders who created this breed used certain individual cats that are the cornerstone of this breed. This was in the 1970s and 80s. Testing for genetic illnesses was probably in its infancy then. I don't know how carefully she focused on health issues. I do know that she seemed by my standards to treat her cats with less than the kind of care I would hope for.

Anyway, the Bengal cat does have some well-known genetically inherited diseases that need to be checked out before buying. Breeders should be asked questions about these diseases. Have any of their breeding cats ever suffered from them, for example?

The diseases are: HCM (Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy) and Progressive Retinal Atrophy. I discuss these on this page. There are links to more on the page.