How to pick a breeder?

When we finally decided to go for Bengal kittens the next thing was to find a breeder. I can not stress enough how important it is to find a good, knowledgeable and ethical breeder.

Also it is important to get along with the breeder since he or she have a good understanding about the breed and can answer questions that you might have. They should also have plenty of information about the kitten you are interested in. What it's are like, what it eat, what the parents are like, etc. Since Bengals are quite expensive and desirable it also means breeding these cats attracts some people that are just in it for quick profit and with little or no care for the cats.

I am by no means an expert in feline medicine or the diseases that can affect a cat. I have done some research about Bengals, their common diseases and what to ask for from the breeder before buying a kitten.

There are two conditions known to be an issue for Bengals, feline Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and Pyruvate Kinase Deficiency (PK Def). HCM is the most common heart disease in domestic cats and it is a dominant inherited trait. This means that if one of the cat parents have feline HCM the kittens will get the same disease. PK deficiency causes a decline of red blood cells. When it comes to PK deficiency it is a bit more complicated than for feline HCM, a cat can be either:

N/N - no PK deficiency this is the normal state

N/K - one copy of PK deficiency this means the cat is a carrier, but still not

K/K - two copies of PK deficiency means that the cat will develop symptoms and get affected

Getting a kitten with two N/N parents is perfect, you can also get a kitten with one parent in N/K status (we are doing this) but if so the other parent must be N/N to ensure the kittens do not risk ending up K/K and fall ill. A cat that is untested or K/K is not suitable for breeding. There exist quite a lot of information available on the internet about these conditions.

 A serious breeder should know and be able to show papers on HCM scans and PK tests (or possibly PK free by heritage) for the their queens and sires. Ask for it if the breeder does not show you, you do not want to encourage damaging breeding, nor to loose a friend later on and Bengal are also very expensive cats - so you should do your research! 

If possible make sure that the percentage of inbreeding is low in the parents and that the parents are not related. Whilst inbreeding exists in all pedigree cats it is not desirable for it to be too high percentage to avoid issues and complications. I have checked the percentage of inbreeding in the parents of our kittens, this information was available since my breeder is registered with the national Bengal association here in Sweden and so are their cats. The percentage is less than 2% for the parents.

You should make sure that the breeder intend to give the kittens the required shots and vaccines.

Also it was important for us to not decide on a breeder too far away, so it would be possible for us to visit the kittens several times before taking them home after 12 weeks.

We decided we did not want a Bengal from a "cat farm" cattery, where the cats are bred in a large scale but rather a family cattery with lots of social interaction.

Just by luck a small Bengal cattery actually exist in our small town. It is a family with kids that have fallen in love with the Bengal breed. It fits us perfectly because we want the cats to be used to a busy environment, interaction with different people and handling. I feel really blessed to have found this breeder, she is very open, tells us lots about the cats and do not mind us visiting (in fact she encourages it!). :)