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 is now retired and living as a pet.  She is 11-1/2 years old now and  still has her whited underbody.  Recent photos of French Lace (compliments of Kathy Ward) are show below.

Another cat who has produced consistently whited underbody kittens is Ben (pictured below).  He is also 11 years old.  He made whited kittens for 10 years before he retired last year.

We are working on 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.

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.