a dumb question

sorry, i'm sure this is a really silly question, but what exactly is the origin of the Bengal breed? were they bred with an exotic cat to get those markings, or is it just a normal domestic cat?

thanks

The bengal came about by breeding a domestic cat with the asian leopard cat. Several different breeds of cats were used to create the bengal cat we know today.
They are completely domesticated, but still considered hybrids, as they have a very diluted amount of wild blood in them, from the asian leopard cat.

interesting, thanks for that. i'm assuming theyre pretty expensive? do you know when the breed originated-how long ago people started breeding them? and what is the standard for calling a cat "domesticated" (if there is one). just curious... and to people who own these cats-do they act completely like a domestic cat, or are there any subtle differences because of the bit of "wild" blood in them?

thanks a lot for answering

F4 is when a bengal is considered domesticated (that is the Asian Leopard Cat is the Great-great-grandfather). Anything after that F5, F6, etc is further removed. People often stop refering to their foundation line at F4 and just call them SBT. You won't really see any difference in tempermant (other than what is considered classic bengal) unless you have an early generation cat (F1-F3) which can have a wide variety of characteristics. These cats MIGHT show signs of being shy and heavily bonding with their owners, these are not characteristics that the breed strives for. Bengals are very outgoing friendly cats that like to get in everything and have a high amount of energy.

Different states might define what generetion the bengal is no longer considered a hybrid. I believe New York is something like F6 but I haven't researched all the states laws. Most states its F4 while a few deviate from this.

thank you for the info i'm really fascinated by these cats, they're so beautiful.