Admirers of the silver Bengal cat love their cool, frosty tones and their black, contrasted markings against such a light base coat. Interestingly, the silver colour does not naturally occur in any wild species of cat.

Silvers were introduced into the breed by outcrossing with the American Shorthair. Technically, silver is not a colour, but rather a lack of colour, caused by the inhibitor gene (I). The easiest way to imagine this is the cat is actually brown, but with it’s colour hidden. The silver colour was added by TICA in 2004 and can come in a variety of shades, from extremely light to a dark steel.

The silver Bengals can have eyes that are gold, green or blue. The last one only if it is a silver snow.

Tarnish (rusty, yellow or biscuit colour) is undesirable in the silver Bengal and skill is involved in breeding clear coated silvers well.

As well as pure silvers, silvers can be silver snows, silver smokes and silver blues. Patterns can be spotted (rosettes are larger spots) or marbled, and can also come in a charcoal variation.