Nos Buts

Tout d’abord, si nous élevons et présentons des Bengals à Ashanti, c’est que nous sommes amoureux de la beauté et de la personnalité de cette somptueuse race. Nous avons des Bengals chez nous depuis 1997. C’est certain, notre vie n’est plus la même depuis que nous avons été « adoptés ».

  • POURQUOI ELEVER DES BENGALS ?

C’est avant tout une alchimie entre la passion pour les Bengals,un processus scientifique et génétique (Wendy a travaillé en tant que thérapeute respiratoire dans différents hôpitaux aux Etats-Unis pendant de nombreuses années avant de se marier et de venir vivre en France)

  • THE OPPORTUNITIES–

Tomorrow's What does a “perfect Bengal” look like? Ask that question to 10 breeders, and get 20 answers! The point is, the “perfect Bengal” hasn’t yet been born, except in our dreams! So, to date, a “perfect Bengal” is a vision which continues to evolve along with the Bengal standard itself. Today’s breeders are united in striving for a wild look — but how that wild look should express itself, is to some extent, a matter of personal preference.
A wild look is partially… the shape of the headm the set, shape and size of the ears and ears; a wild coat pattern with flowing horizontal or diagonal markings; a whited underbelly; hips and hindquarters higher than front legs; a big-boned, long, well-muscled body; a thick, plush tail of medium length… Breeders have different priorities and preferences in which of these qualities are most important to them in establishing the wild look. We, at Ashanti, are currently trying to focus on head and body type within mainly the brown spotted color group — while not sacrificing the clear, unticked, pelted coat with it’s horizontal or diagonal flow. However, any advancement we can make in other areas which add to the wild look will be more than welcome in our program!

  • THE CHALLENGES–

We believe that the greatest challenges to breeding are of two types. These are challenges which we personally feel passionate about:
Ethical:

  1. working WITH other breeders in a spirit of cooperation rather than one-upmanship; working as a confederation to help the breed as a whole, rather than to simply benefit one’s own cattery;
  2. working with a deep concern for the underlying health of breeding animals. A animal may be beautiful — but is it structurally sound? Does it have genetic flaws which would make it unsuitable as a breeding cat? Is it a cat which is tempermentally stable and affectionate?

Genetic:

  1. breeding tempermentally and structurally sound animals;
  2. breeding towards a wild cat pattern with good flow and contrast;
  3. breeding towards a wild body/head type without outcrossing unnecessarily to the Asian Leopard Cat;
  4. breeding towards a whited underbody.
  • THE RESPONSIBILITIES–

TICA Show RibbonsBreeding Bengals is exciting and intensely enjoyable, in our opinion. It can also be heartbreaking. It is certainly expensive and time-consuming. We feel strongly, that our responsibility to the Bengal breed and to those who adopt an Ashanti Bengal are profound: It is our responsibility to only use the best and soundest animals (tempermentally and structurally) available to us.

  1. It is our responsibility to “keep our noses in” the show ring, at least sufficiently to know that our cats are of competitive quality oth other Bengals “on the cutting edge”.
  2. It is our responsibility to see that all our cats are homd with well-informed, responsible owners. Companion cats homed with owners who agree to have them surgically altered and are prepared to provide them with a safe and happy home throughout the animal’s entire life. Likewise, it is our responsibility to see that all Breeding / Show Potential cats are homed with knowledgeable, responsible owners who to the best of our knowledge, are committed to the same body of ethics and goals as our own.
  3. It is our responsibility to provide any advice or information within our means — to anyone who has provided a home to one of our cats, throughout the entire life of the cat.
  4. It is our responsibility to accept or re-home Ashanti cats, whose owners for some reason, are unable to keep them.
  5. Last and certainly not least, it is our responsibility to keep abreast of new developements in the breed, maintain an honest and ongoing critique of ourselves, and be ready and willing to be continually educated by the experiences and knowledge of those around us, especially our more experienced peers.