Hi
We would like to know please how the rosette spots are created i.e. what patterns of cats need to be mated to hopefully produce them??

Many Thanks,
heathergr

Hi, and welcome here,

Can I ask whether you are a new breeder, and have you bought Bengals on the active register from a registered breeder?

Here are some sites that will help you, and also a genetics thread on here:


http://www.kingsmarkfarms.com/bengals/kingpattern.htm


http://www.hdw-inc.com/genetics.htm


viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6101

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Best Wishes,
Maddy

Hi Maddy,

Thanks very much for the info and links.

Yes, we are new to breeding bengals and we have managed to acquire some Benlotte, Juenrow and a some from other registered breeders, we are interested in the whole breeding thing and are very interested in learning about how to improve on the cats we already have, I am sure that it takes a very long time to acheive some of the fantastic looking cats that some of you breeders have mangaged to produce, they are a credit to you all.

Many Thanks,
Heather

Keep in mind how expensive that breeding can be -- it's very expensive for an HCM scan, but this is essential at this point for ethical breeding. And it needs to be done annually.

Do you mean you have bought alot of breeding girls? Are they kittens or adults?
Did they not ask you about your breeding plans? Or say they can mentor you?
Breeding isnt just about pattern its also about type aswell, someone posted a great insight into the bengal here I cant find it maybe look through the posts, and the 'cost of breeding' thread

Are your cats Pkdefic tested first of all? http://bit.ly/zhsMMw very important to do if they aren't.
Mouth Swab test, easy done, cheap and will tell you whether it is safe to breed from the cats you have.

HCM testing, important too, HCM common in the breed. Pedigree is important, make sure you know the main HCM cats as each HCM cat has a 50% chance of producing HCM in their offspring, a pedigree full of HCM will mean a cat has a very high chance of having HCM too, no matter how many "negative" young cats there are.

Then you need to look at pattern re your first question.
Rosetting is basically a recessive, so can be visible (homozygous) or can be carried(heterozygous).
If you have cats that are out of non rosetted parents with ancestors that were also non rosetted you need to introduce rosetting into the line. Even if you do that, you may still get non rosetted cats but all kittens of that mating will be carriers.

Most Bengal cats have the classic tabby pattern, the spotted gene breaks that up to produce spots and the "rosetted" gene on top of that produces rosettes. On top of all that you get polygenes who finish the process, so you either get huge pancake rosettes, arrow heads, small rosettes, clarity, colour, etc etc. It is all about selecting what you want to achieve and discarding cats that do not make the grade.
In order to produce the best you have to have a strict cull policy, removing unhealthy cats and cats that do not "produce", ie infertile, endometriosis, poor mothering, no milk, difficult to get pregnant, poor quality kittens, sickly kittens, bad temperament either in themselves or in their offspring, poor conformation etc. etc. It is amazing how often these traits are passed on.
Although it can happen that you get a fantastic kitten from poor quality parents, the "depth of breeding" just isn't there, and often these freaks of nature do not pass on their stunning looks to their offspring.
If you want to be a good breeder, then sentiment just doesn't exist. There is no point in producing poor quality kittens to flood the market. So Bertha with her sickly kittens or her poor conformation or her dodgy temperament needs to be neutered, not given x number of chances which will all just pass on the same dodgy genes.
Breeding well is not for everyone, but unless you have realistic goals to produce really good healthy stunning cats then all you will be doing is adding to the cat and kitten crisis, in which perfectly healthy animals get put down every day.

Personally I wouldn't have started with a lot of cats, Bengals are not the easiest breed to breed, they have many problems. They are "fast" too, in that cats go out of date really quickly and what is good today may be old hat tomorrow.