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 Do we need to go back to the roots? To use or not to use the Asian Leopard Cat in a breeding program
I do NOT use Asian Leopard Cats (ALC's) or early generation Bengals in my breeding program and I don’t know of any who do that I would recommend. Keep in mind that the ALC genes remain for each generation--The spots come from the ALC and the spots remain. After several years of breeding the spots have become rosettes, i.e. the ALC is getting better! A problem with early generation cats is that certain unwanted traits can manifest more frequently than in later generation cats, not because the later generation are less Bengal but because each generation is selected. Some unwanted traits are aggression, extreme shyness, ticking, spots without any rosettes, and too much vertical pattern. Also there is great variation in the ALC species so if you did want to go back to the ALC the question would be which ALC? Let me give you an example of breeding selection. An acquaintance of mine, Matt Kaskel, wanted daylilies that would bloom in "cold" winters (vs. summer) in Miami Florida. He would hybridize and select in March when the nights were cool and even some days were cold enough he wore gloves with the fingers cut out to hybridize. After 7 generations (it takes 1 year in Florida to hybridize, select, plant, and bloom the next generation.) Matt went from about 30% that would bloom in March, mostly opening poorly to about 90% that would bloom in march opening with mostly perfect form. He did this by throwing out every plant that was not in bloom in March. He became well known for his cool weather opening daylilies. The plants were still 100% daylilies with all the daylily traits-- he primarily selected for one trait, and his plants became too uniform with not enough variety in colors and patterns but his objective became very well established in his program. Because he was working with seeds he could plant 30,000 seeds a year for selection and after a selection process ultimately destroy 99.8% of the resulting plants. Imagine producing 30,000 kittens a year and keeping two out of a thousand. Also it takes two years from breeding to the next generation with Bengals. When rust became a problem with daylilies in the year 2000 Matt did the same thing producing rust resistant plants. A Bengal doesn’t become less Bengal just because it is a later generation. By going back to the early generation Bengals you lose the progress in personality, type, pattern, rosettes and so forth. If a trait were too diminished such as head shape one might want to go back to the ALC to reinforce that trait however I feel one would be better served to select later generation Bengals that have the head type wanted--It is a product of the vision of that particular breeder. Jean Millwood (the founder of the Bengal breed) said there was no reason to go back to ALC's anymore that all the genes we need are in the Bengal to accomplish our goals. I agree with her. I feel it is counterproductive to go back to early generation, we give up too much progress for little or no gain. Why give up 30 years of selection and essentially start over? The current standard has been revised to reflect the progress in the breed so going back would also make it harder to win at the show table. Serious breeders use the shows to measure the quality of their Bengals, I don’t know of anyone that has the time or money or motivation to start over. ====================================================================== Kittens and cats from previous litters
 
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