Whited Underbodies

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Pleasant Pond Whited Underbodies

As Bengals evolve many breeders are striving to lock-in certain desirable traits that appeared in the Asian Leopard Cat. One of those traits is the whited underbody. It is thought that Millwood French Lace may have been the first SBT to display this wonderful characteristic and also to pass it on consistently to her progeny. Thanks to Jean Mill's generosity, we are the proud stewards of one of French Lace�s sons, Millwood Bronte` of Pleasant Pond. Like his mother, Bronte` consistently throws kittens with beautiful whited underbodies. French Lace retained her whited underbody throughout her life. Recent photos of French Lace (compliments of Kathy Ward) are shown below.

At Pleasant Pond we were fortunate to have Bountiful Ben (see pedigree), a whited stud cat who consistently produced whited underbody kittens. Ben, now 12 years old, (pictured below) has also retained his whited underbody. He made whited kittens for 10 years before his recent retirement. So after several years of whited kittens from Ben, once we were able to have Bronte` join us, our whited program began consistently producing more whited kittens. We are still working with the evaluation process to be able to better predict which kittens will retain their fully whited tummies, which ones may develop an hourglass whited pattern, a T-shirt pattern or just cream over before a year or age.

We are working with this trait at Pleasant Pond, but not to the exclusion of other qualities in our wonderful breed. In an effort to help familiarize the public with this beautiful trait, we have posted the following gallery of whited Bengals that we are using in our program. We are also in the process of expanding the gallery to include pictures from cats produced in previous years who are now adults and still whited. This will be our "whited alumni" gallery and will appear soon.

A group of breeders are working cooperatively to enhance this trait. The genetics for this trait remain rather elusive, but research is underway to hopefully solve the whited underbody genetic mystery. The current categories of whited underbody that the group has proposed are: fully whited, T-shirt whited, hourglass whited and whited expression. As you review pictures of whited Bengals, you will see that the categories are self-descriptive.

In addition to the various patterns of whited underbody, there are also various shades of whited which appear in different blood lines. At Pleasant Pond we are working on the very bright whited underbody with black spots. (Pictured below, Ellen, Sally and Mariah are examples of this.) However, we have a line of what some call "blue whited" cats. (Fancy, below, is a good example of blue whited underbody.) Mischief (below) was fully whited as a kitten, but creamed over by about 10 months old. Her first littler of kittens were all whited. We are monitoring their whited evolution as they grow.

Fancy and Khashi had 7 kittens, all of whom are whited at birth. See brown spotted, whited kitten photos here! See snow, whited kittens here!

Cinnebar/Elijah Litter were born on March 1, 2009, with whited* underbodies. Their litter consisted of one female and two males, all brown leopard. Cinnebar is also fostering an orphan kitten who is a female. See kittens here!

LITTER ANNOUNCEMENT: REPEAT WHITED BREEDING
The Shaded Spot Kimi (Shadow)
Aluren Elijah of Pleasant Pond
Shadow and Elijah had 3 beautiful whited kittens on May 1. This is a repeat of the breeding that produced Sally (now owned by Keith and Gloria Richards) and Ellen who is here at Pleasant Pond.
Last year this breeding produced 4 kittens 3 of whom have retained a stark white tummy at one year of age. These kittens will be held for whited evaluation and possibly be available as whited breeders. Contact us if you have an interest in reserving one as a breeder or very beautiful pet.

	Below is Ellen DOB May 11, 2007. She is out of Elijah and Shadow (a Bronte` daughter). She is whited from chin to the end of her tail on the underside. These pictures were taken at 7 months old, and she is holding her whited features. For now we will classify her as fully whited.

This is Mariah. She is out of Cinnebar and Bronte`, date of birth: April 7, 2007. She was brilliant white as a kitten, and at 6 months appeared to be changing to hourglasses, then gradually creaming over her middle tummy with the bright white still from chin to waist and on low, back tummy and underside of tail.