Bengal Cat History

Bengal cat history is about the beginnings of this breed of cat and the development thereafter. The development of the breed will be more or less the same as any breed of cat: selective breeding to refine and create an appearance that appeals while trying to preserve good health.

The beginnings by Jean Mill are unique to the Bengal cat, of course. I discuss these topics on this page.

Or you can go direct to Bengal Cat Origins - I am critical! What else?

Bengal Cat Anesthesia and Bengal Cat and Ketamine

Well, it is hard to find specific information about the dangers of anesthetics to Bengal cats in particular. Anesthesia is dangerous to all animals including people. There is a chance that the cat will die during anesthesia. I heard while talking at a vets that 1% of cats die under general anesthetic.

Bengal cat photo by Helmi Flick with her permission

Please balance the pros and cons before agreeing to have your cat anesthetised for any operation. Dental cleaning comes to mind. The Cat Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook does not give a warning about Bengal cats under anesthetic. Neither does it mention Ketamine in relation to Bengal cats.

However this excellent book states that thin cats without extra weight or fat should be accomodated in terms of the amount of drug used because they have an increased sensitivity. Bengal cats are firm and fit without fat, usually. This might be a factor.

A visitor to my site says that Ketamine should not be administered to Bengal cats. Vets should use Isoflourane instead. She is a breeder I believe and she made a comment on the following page about Anesthesia and Cats, which provides more detail on this subject. Beware of anesthetics, please.

On a related subject tigers can be killed by a anesthetic. This happened accidentally can you believe it. Please read this story.

Bengal Cat Magazine

There is one Bengal cat magazine that is probably the best known. It might even be the only Bengal cat magazine. The publishers are USA located. It is called "Bengals Illustrated". It is published four times yearly (once every three months). It comes in paper version and digital version (CD rom). Prices are reasonable and the photos and articles are outstanding.

It is published by the International Bengal Cat Connection.

Visit their website if you wish. This is the link (shows back issues).

Genetically Engineered Bengal Cat

Some people think that the Bengal cat is "genetically engineered" because they search for information about this subject. This cat breed is not genetically engineered on the standard definition of that phrase. "Genetic engineering" could be defined as "the direct human manipulation of an organism's genome using modern DNA technology".

Photo: Helmi Flick.

The Bengal cat is a simple hybrid. There are many breeds of cat that are hybrids. Most are domestic cat to domestic cat matings such as the Burmilla. These are breeds created by mating a cat of one breed with a cat of another breed. Cat breeds though are all one species of cat (the domestic cat - felis catus).

There are some wild cat to domestic cat matings that occur naturally. The wildcat hybrids such as the Bengal and Savannah (and Safari) are deliberate matings of wildcat with domestic cat, however. This though is not genetic engineering.

Marble Bengal Cat

Window to my Desk, a photo by littleREDelf on Flickr.

Here is a nice photograph of a marbled (or marble) Bengal cat. Nice clean photo and a beautiful cat. The cat looks young in this photograph.