SSnow? Seal? Seal Point? Snow Lynx? Seal Mink? Sepia? Lynx Point?
Don't let all of these names confuse you, it's actually rather simple.
Snow and Seal are often used interchangably to describe this Bengal Color, for the sake of simplicity let's stick with "Seal".
There are three color vatiations: Seal Lynx Point(the lightest color), Seal Sepia (the darkest color), and Seal Mink (a happy medium).
Seal Lynx Point:
This type of Bengal cat has a gene derived from the Siamese cat. This gene is called "colorpoint". Seal Lynx bengal kittens are born either completely white or have a very light pattern. Their color pattern doesn't start showing until about 1-2 weeks old. Usually you'll start to see markings on the tail or lower legs first. These markings keep getting darker as they age.Undercoat Color:
A white/cream colored undertone.
Markings:
They have darker cream colored markings. Sometimes they also have darker feet, tail, and tips of ears.
Eye Color:
Seal Lynx bengals eye color is usually blue.
Seal Sepia:
This type of Bengal cat has a gene derived from the Burmese genepool (not Siamese). The Seal Sepia is darker than the Seal Lynx Bengal kitten at birth. Their pattern is already visible but will become more clear as they age.Undercoat Color:
A cream or beige undertone.
Markings:
They have light brown to chocolate patterns. Because they aren't related to the Siamese, the Seal Sepia wont have the Siamese style markings.
Eye Color:
Seal Sepia have gold, brown, green, or hazel eyes (not blue).
Seal Mink:
I consider the Seal Mink a happy medium. The Seal Mink bengal has a copy of Lynx and Sepia making the Seal Mink a mix of both colors. The Seal Mink is usually lighter than the Sepia but not as light as the Lynx. It can be hard at times to tell what color they are by sight alone. Genetic testing is the only sure way when you have a litter of possible Seal Mink bengals. Seal Mink kittens usually have a slight pattern when they're born but like the other colors it will get darker with time.Undercoat Color:
A white or cream colored coat.
Markings:
They have a light brown to milk chocolate colored pattern. Some Seal Mink bengals can also have a hint of the Siamese pattern around the nose, tail, ears, and legs.
Eye Color:
Seal Mink can have Aqua blue, Green, or gold eyes.
Basic 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:
We can really nerd out on all of the genetics that go into snow bengal traits, but I worry I'm going to bore you. I'm going to keep this as simple as I can.
A dominent trait will override a recessive trait.
For example: Brown Bengals vs Snow Bengals.
Brown is dominent 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.
This means for a Bengal kitten to be snow they would need to inherit a snow trait from each parent. With Snow Bengal kittens the two alleles (parts of a gene) we're looking at are "Cs" and "Cb".
FOR EXAMPLE:
(To make the explination simple we will say brown is "B")
If a kitten is: B/B, B/Cs, or B/Cb they will be brown. If a kitten is: Cb/Cb, Cs/Cs, Cb/Cs the kitten will be Seal/Snow.
Snow Lynx Point: Cs/Cs
Snow Sepia: Cb/Cb
Snow Mink: Cs/Cb
Snow Lynx Point Bengal:
This picture is credited to the bengal cats find the link here.
Snow Lynx Bengal as a kitten
This is one of our past Snow Lynx Point Bengals for sale.
Snow Sepia Bengal:
This picture is credited to lapleopard bengals find the link here.
Snow Mink Bengal:
This is one of our past Classic Brown Charcoal Bengals for sale.
Fun Fact:
The snow bengal gene is actually derived from the same albino gene found in nature.
Breeding for Snows:
As we've covered above, you don't actually have to have a "Snow" parent to have snow kittens. As long as both parent carry snow in his/her genetics.
There are a lot of different combinations you can pair to create a snow kitten... I started to type them out and decided it would make this blog post too complicated.
I will save that extended version for a future blog post.
Our Snow Bengals:
Queen Juno, Queen Kahlua, King Louie, and King Arctic are all snow carriers.
With their genetics we are able to breed Snow Lynx and Snow Mink. We are unable to breed Snow Sepia at this time.
Brown but carries Snow Lynx(B/Cs)
Brown but carries Snow Lynx(B/Cs)
Brown but carries Snow Sepia(B/Cb)
Silver Bengal that carries snow Lynx(B/Cs)