SSilver Bengals are probably the hardest color to breed for. The science behind their color genetics is still developing to this day. In the past year they finally have a genetic test for silver. It's still very new and relatively basic, but it's the start of something great.
Silver Bengal Qualities:
Undercoat Color:
Light undercoat sometimes slightly blue-ish and other times completely white.
Markings:
Silver bengal markings are usually gray to black shades. Darker markings and a white tummy is usually preferred.
Eye Color:
Traditionally brown bengals have green or gold eyes.
Genetics:
(I'm going to try to explain genetics at a simplified level)
When a kitten gets it's DNA from the parents they get one chromosome from the father and one chromosome from the mother.
These chromosomes are made up of genes. Genes are essentially the traits that make us look the way we do.
Dominant vs Recessive traits:
A dominant trait will override a recessive trait.
For example: Brown Bengals vs Snow Bengals
Brown is dominant over Snow. If a kitten inherits a snow trait from one parent and brown from the other - brown will dominate over snow and the kitten will appear brown.
Another example: Brown Bengals vs Silver Bengals
Silver is dominant. If a kitten inherits a silver trait from one parent and a brown trait from the other - silver will dominate over brown and the kitten will appear silver.
If the kitten inherits brown genes from both parents the kitten will be brown.
To make things more complicated: Silver in Bengals is an inhibitor gene. The inhibitor gene essentially washes out the background color in the coat. For example a brown Bengal has the inhibitor gene it will remove the gold.
Silver Bengal Tarnish:
Any unwanted color in a silver is considered "Tarnish". Tarnish commonly presents itself as a brown hue that shines through on their snouts and paws (it "tarnishes" their silver silver color slightly). The impression breeders have is that the more pure the silver lineage is - the less tarnish. Currently there isn't a test to find out if your Bengal kitten will have tarnish. Higher quality silver kittens generally come from parents who are both silver, if one parent is brown there will be more tarnish. Tarnish extremely common and usually gets more pronounced with age.
This is Poppy, one of our previous Bengal kittens. She is a beautiful silver Bengal kitten who has really large clear rosettes and she has some slight tarnish on her face and paws. More about Poppy the silver bengal kitten from our cattery.
This is Lilly, another one of our previous Bengal kittens. She has a really nice light white undertone with almost no tarnish at all.
This unique little girl is Dallas, she has a dark silver tone. Her color looks almost blue. Dallas' mother is brown and father is silver. More about Dallas' unique silver bengal kitten we had for sale.
Marbled Bengals can be silver too, this is Houston - she is a silver sheeted marble kitten. More about Houston the Silver Marbled Bengal kitten.
Silver Bengal that carries brown, melanistic (black bengal), charcoal, and blue
Silver Bengal that carries snow, charcoal, and brown