Bengal Color Change

I figured it'd be rather fun for everyone to see how drastically a bengal's colour can change. I take a lot of photos so it's easy for me to gather up the comparison pictures. Of course I have only the one bengal as a sample but her colour has really changed a lot.

I was told when I got her that her colour would fill in as she grew older but it has happened much more than I expected really. My hunch is that she's actually probably too dark now for what's wanted in the breed standard because it reduces her contrast some. You can still see her spots clearly because they're inky black but with a paler undercoat they'd stand out more. I'm not an expert though and might be wrong.

Here's the first picture I have of her, taken by her breeder at 7 weeks


..and here she is a few days ago now 1.5 years old.


Her face as a kitten:


Now:


Here she is as a slightly older kitten, starting to darken


She's pretty much tiger orange or mango coloured on her chest and belly now


In this last picture the light is fairly yellow so she's looking a bit more yellowy orange than she is normally but it's not a huge difference.

You can see her in daylight here being very much not happy about going back inside after a stroll outside.


One question, is this much of a colour change common in other breeds? Is it always just more red coming in or can other colours change too?

Well in the Oci's you would have more ticking showing up as they age. In some of the lighter colors this could affect the spotting too where its not as noticable.

I do notice on Charlie that a lot of heavy ticking has come in along the spine and in the tail - more then he had at 3 months old when we got him

wow, she is soooo beautiful!!!

My Simba darkened up about as much as your Nakita has, if not a bit more. He too has very black spots. His background too, was a much lighter tan when I got him as a kitten.

I don't think Bengals are the only cats that darken as they age, though. I know for a fact that Siamese cats do. I have a Seal Point Siamese who was almost white with brown tips, and now he's almost all a dark brown. I have a Chocolate point who hasn't darkened up at all. But I think on the whole, most Siamese cats get darker as they age.

Not a Siamese but here is a good comparison of the darkening in a pointed cat.

This is what Cassi looked like when we got her at 10.5 months old.


And this is what she looks like now at just barely 3 years old.