A little clarity. A lot of love.
AI DiagAnimalsMADE FOR THE ONES YOU LOVE
English

Language and region

Understand their results
Menu
BREED · CATS

Bengal cat: health, diseases and blood work

The Bengal is a young breed developed from crosses with the Asian leopard cat. Its documented health issues include a red-cell enzyme deficiency that causes anemia, an early-onset retinal degeneration, heart muscle disease and a nerve disorder of young cats. Here is what the studies show and which tests your vet may discuss.

Brown spotted Bengal cat resting on top of a cat tree and looking at the camera
Photo: William Crochot · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Written by the AI DiagAnimals editorial teamReviewed by the AI DiagAnimals TeamUpdated Our editorial policy

The essentials

In a 2019 UK study, Bengals had a life expectancy at birth of 8.51 years, one of the shortest of the breeds analysed. About 13% of the copies of the PKLR gene tested in Bengals carried the variant of pyruvate kinase deficiency, an inherited cause of hemolytic anemia, and DNA testing is recommended for the breed. An early retinal degeneration that leads to blindness, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and a relapsing nerve disease of young cats are also described. Bengals had a higher risk of FIP in a US hospital study.

Have your Bengal’s results in front of you? Get every value explained in plain language. Upload the report

Bengal cat at a glance

TraitDetail
OriginDeveloped from crosses between domestic cats and the Asian leopard cat, starting in 1963; CFA requires five generations of domestic ancestry [1]
Breed groupFIFe Category 3 [2]
BuildMedium to large, long and substantial body with robust bone, very muscular [3]
Life expectancy8.51 years at birth in a 2019 UK study of 7,936 cat deaths, against 11.74 years for all cats [4]
CoatShort, thick and unusually soft, preferably with “glitter”; spotted, rosetted or marbled patterns [1, 3]

Origin

In 1963, the conservationist Jean Mill crossed a domestic tom with a female Asian leopard cat. At the same time, Dr Willard Centerwall was producing similar crosses for research. Mill later used cats from Centerwall, together with spotted domestic cats, to develop the breed [1].

FIFe recognized the Bengal in 1999 [3]. The Cat Fanciers’ Association accepted it for registration in 2016, requiring five generations of pure domestic ancestry, and granted championship status in 2018 [1].

Common health problems

  • Pyruvate kinase deficiency (PK deficiency): an inherited hemolytic anemia caused by a variant of the PKLR gene. Red cells live shorter lives, and signs can include severe lethargy, weakness, weight loss, jaundice and an enlarged abdomen, with very variable onset and severity. It is recessive. Among 320 Bengals sampled for unrelated tests, 73 carried one copy of the variant and 5 had two copies [5]. See anemia in cats.
  • Early retinal degeneration (PRA): a recessive retinal disease was described in a family of Bengals. Changes were visible from 9 weeks of age, vision loss was obvious by 1 year, and the disease progressed rapidly to blindness. It is not caused by the CEP290 or CRX variants found in Abyssinians and Siamese [6].
  • Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM): the Bengal is reported to develop HCM [7]. It needs a heart ultrasound to detect, and most breeders have breeding cats scanned by a cardiologist before the first litter and at regular intervals [1].
  • Polyneuropathy of young Bengals: a chronic, relapsing nerve disease with weakness was described in 37 young Bengals. Recovery was common, but relapses and residual weakness were possible [8].
  • Chest wall deformity in kittens: in Sweden, kittens with a flat chest or other rib cage changes were reported in 38 of 311 Bengal litters (12%), and stillbirths and deaths in the first day were more frequent in those litters [9].
  • FIP: at a US veterinary teaching hospital, Bengals were among the breeds with a significantly higher risk of feline infectious peritonitis [10]. See FIP in cats.

Tests and screening in Bengals

  • DNA test for PK deficiency: the authors of the variant study recommend PK testing for Bengals [5]. A cat with two copies can have anemia and jaundice, which appear on the blood count and the bilirubin result [5]. See anemia in cats and high liver enzymes in cats for bilirubin.
  • Heart ultrasound: reference intervals for heart measurements have been established specifically for Bengals, to help cardiologists who screen the breed tell normal from abnormal [7].
  • Eye examination: in the affected Bengal family, retinal changes could be seen on eye examination from 9 weeks, and the electroretinogram showed reduced rod and cone function from 7 to 9 weeks [6].
  • Other genetic tests: genetic testing lets Bengal breeders screen for several inherited diseases and remove carriers from breeding [1].
  • Routine blood work: for the full picture of a cat’s blood count and chemistry panel, see cat blood work explained.

Related articles

Anemia in cats

Reading the PCV or hematocrit and the reticulocytes.

Read the article

FIP in cats

Globulins, the A:G ratio, bilirubin and fluid analysis.

Read the article

Cat blood work explained

What the blood count and chemistry panel show in cats.

Read the article

En français : Bengal.

Questions to ask your veterinarian

  1. Has my cat, or its parents, been DNA tested for pyruvate kinase deficiency?
  2. Does my cat’s blood count show any sign of anemia, and should reticulocytes be checked?
  3. Should my Bengal have a heart ultrasound, and at what age?
  4. Are my cat’s eyes and vision normal for its age?
  5. Which signs of FIP or of weakness should make me call you?
YOUR PET’S FULL REPORT

Get your Bengal’s blood work explained.

AI DiagAnimals reads the blood count, the reticulocytes, the bilirubin, the globulins and the rest of the chemistry with your laboratory’s cat intervals, and prepares the questions for your vet. The service opens soon: leave your email to be told first.

Explain my cat’s reportSee a sample report

Frequently asked questions

How long do Bengal cats live?

In a UK study of cats that died in 2019, the life expectancy at birth of Bengals was 8.51 years, one of the shortest of the breeds analysed [4].

What health problems do Bengal cats have?

Documented problems include PK deficiency [5], early retinal degeneration [6], hypertrophic cardiomyopathy [1, 7], a relapsing polyneuropathy in young cats [8], chest wall deformities in kittens [9] and a higher risk of FIP [10].

What is PK deficiency in Bengal cats?

An inherited lack of the red-cell enzyme pyruvate kinase. Red cells are destroyed too early, which causes anemia; signs vary from none to severe lethargy, weight loss and jaundice [5].

Can Bengal cats go blind?

Yes. A recessive retinal degeneration described in Bengals starts in the first weeks of life and progresses rapidly to blindness [6].

What tests should a Bengal cat have?

A DNA test for PK deficiency is recommended [5], and heart ultrasound is used to screen breeding cats for HCM [1, 7].

Sources

  1. The Cat Fanciers’ Association. Bengal: breed profile. cfa.org/breed/bengal
  2. Fédération Internationale Féline. Breeds and standards. fifeweb.org/cats/breeds
  3. Fédération Internationale Féline. Breed standard: Bengal (BEN). fifeweb.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/BEN.pdf
  4. Teng KT et al. Life tables of annual life expectancy and risk factors for mortality in cats in the UK. J Feline Med Surg. 2024;26(5):1098612X241234556. doi.org/10.1177/1098612X241234556
  5. Grahn RA et al. Erythrocyte pyruvate kinase deficiency mutation identified in multiple breeds of domestic cats. BMC Vet Res. 2012;8:207. doi.org/10.1186/1746-6148-8-207
  6. Ofri R et al. Characterization of an early-onset, autosomal recessive, progressive retinal degeneration in Bengal cats. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2015;56(9):5299-5308. doi.org/10.1167/iovs.15-16585
  7. Scansen BA, Morgan KL. Reference intervals and allometric scaling of echocardiographic measurements in Bengal cats. J Vet Cardiol. 2015;17 Suppl 1:S282-S295. doi.org/10.1016/j.jvc.2015.02.001
  8. Bensfield AC et al. Recurrent demyelination and remyelination in 37 young Bengal cats with polyneuropathy. J Vet Intern Med. 2011;25(4):882-889. doi.org/10.1111/j.1939-1676.2011.0740.x
  9. Holst BS et al. Thoracic wall deformity in Bengal cats: morphological findings and results from a breeder questionnaire. Vet J. 2026;317:106669. doi.org/10.1016/j.tvjl.2026.106669
  10. Pesteanu-Somogyi LD et al. Prevalence of feline infectious peritonitis in specific cat breeds. J Feline Med Surg. 2006;8(1):1-5. doi.org/10.1016/j.jfms.2005.04.003

Laboratory methods and reference intervals vary. This article explains; it does not diagnose. For a decision about your pet, use the original report and talk to your veterinarian. Our editorial policy.

Cookie Policy