Imagyne I have a question. Is there a site I can learn more about the breed? See I bought a Bengal this weekend with breeding rights. She is registered with TICA. She is still to young to breed so I have time to learn more about breeding and about the breed. In breeding you can always learn something. Right!? See our kitten is only 6 weeks old. I just love the breed and want to be able to improve the breed. I am going to pay for stud service when the time comes until I can buy a male. Any info would be helpful. I know breeding is a lot of work. I want to do it right!
I would check into the background of your kitten. In my experience, anyone who would let a kitten go under 12 weeks is not a very good breeder. One of the very first rules of breeding is to do it for the love of the breed. The welfare of the mother and kittens are very important. Mom's need to be at a minimum of one year before she breeds and the kittens should stay with thier mother until 12 weeks.
I got her from someone that has been breeding Main Coon cats for 12 years. Her Main Coons are registered with CFA. She only has one breeding pair of Bengal's. She is not sure she wants to breed them any longer. The mother of the kitten is 5 years old. I thought the kitten was kind of young. Can you tell me how to check into the background of the kitten? I would need to do that in the papers. Right? Thank you so much Sandie.
As far as checking out the background, the breeder should have provided you with a pedigree if you were given breeding rights. If you weren't, I would contact TICA and get a certified pedigree.
The first thing I could suggest is that you visit here , this will give you a good idea about what you need to do for a cattery, there are ALOT more websites that deal with this, but this should start you off.
Next thing, you should put away enough money for emergency care of your babies, at the very least about 500.00 in an emergency fund, but 1000.00 would be better.
Learn the breed standard!!! You should know it backwards and forwards. Here is the TICA Bengal Standard use this to evaluate your own baby, but keep in mind that major changes are going to occur between now and the time it is full grown. If there is something you don't understand in a standard, just ask. Make sure you pay attention to the point system in the standard.
As for the general informationm on the breed, do a search using google, for bengal breeders.
You MUST become very knowledgable about the bengal in order to 1. find someone to mentor you and 2. find a stud for breeding.
I really really want you to understand how expensive it is to breed, your not going to make money at it when all is said and done.
Imagyne thank you so much for the info. I did not plan to make money. I would like to improve the breed. We have about $700.00 set a side right now and we are not even close to breeding her. Once again thank you and if I have questions I will ask. I talk to the breeder of the kitten still. She is so nice and is willing to help me in anyway.
Go to: http://www.bengalcat.com/ It's the official page of the internation bengal cat association. It has lots of info on the breed, including breeders.
We have 3 bengals:
Tigger -- 2 year old brown spotted female
Gizmo -- 1 year old snow spotted male
Scooter -- 1 year old snow marble male; Gizmo's full brother.
Tigger's registered. I have the papers for Gizmo and Scooter, but haven't sent the papers in yet