Glitter: What is it?
Glitter is a quality of the hair shaft on some bengal cats, giving an especially reflective, metallic finish to the coat of some bengals. The mechanics of glitter are not perfectly understood. But, it seems that there are at least two types:
Mica glitter (recessive) affects the tips of hairs and results in reflective hair-tips with what appear to be small flecks of mica (a highly reflective silicate crystal) embedded in the tip and visible under a microscope. Unlike the satin mutation (which affects the length of the hair shaft), mica only affects the hair-tip. This type of glitter was present in a domestic cat used in Jean Mill’s original hybrids between Asian Leopard Cats and domestics.
Satin, or satin glitter, (recessive) affects the whole of the hair shaft. The hair shaft contains air pockets along its length. These refract light and give the coat a golden or silvered metallic shine. The hair is soft, smooth and silky as a result of the air pockets in the hair shaft. The longer the air pockets, the softer and silkier the fur.
Glitter, as noted above, is NOT a wild characteristic. Neither Asian Leopard Cats, Ocelots, Margays or any other wild feline posess glitter. In fact, glitter originated with the cat “Millwood Tory of Delhi”, an Egyptian Mau found in a zoo keeping company with a group of rhinos. Jean Mill took this cat home, and used it in her Bengal breeding program. Voila! Glitter was introduced!
Without a doubt, glitter has great beauty! But, must all bengals have glitter? No! A quick look at the Bengal Breed Standard in TICA, FIFe and LOOF will show you that glitter is not required to perfectly meet the breed standard. Do the BEST bengals have glitter? Not necessarily, although in FIFe and LOOF glitter is preferred. However, in the US (where there is the highest number of Bengals, and where many bengal breeders agree that many of the BEST bengals originate) the TICA standard says that there should be no preference given for a glittered bengal over a non-glittered bengal. There are many, many, many supreme grand champion Bengals WITHOUT glitter.
Should a person choose glittered, non-glittered, or be open to both? In our honest opinion, you would be wise to be open to both. Why? Because while glitter has great beauty, it also tends to bring certain disadvantages. In general (this is not always true, but it IS frequently true), glittered Bengals fade more than non-glittered bengals (see Bengal Rosettes: an Illustrated Tutorial). Also, glittered bengals seem to have more domestic type than non-glittered bengals. This means that the structure of the skull in particular, and sometimes the body are less like the Asian Leopard Cat that the bengal is meant to represent.
Our advice is, if you want the best OVERALL Bengal, to look at glittered and unglittered bengals — compare their pattern, contrast (see Bengal Rosettes: an Illustrated Tutorial) and most importantly TYPE! If you find all of those things in the quantity that you want on a cat, buy the cat! If it’s glittered, great! If it isn’t, no problem! The cat will STILL look like a wild animal, not like a alley cat with a Ferarri paint job!
