The long haired Bengal just like the blue, silver, black and torbie is not accepted for Championship status with TICA, The International Cat Association. The Bengal standard does not allow for any of these variables. The Long haired Bengal still has that wonderful curious, playful and friendly personality of it's short haired counterparts and thus makes an excellent pet.

Long haired Bengals do not have a problem with their hair matting but will require a good brushing from time to time to insure a good , clean, kempt appearance.

Just like the blue coloring, longhairedness is a recessive gene that both parents must carry in order for it to surface in a litter. A litter can consist of standard kittens with the required short coat, and a long haired sibling. Long haired kittens and blue kittens both do not occur frequently as many breeders have selected against the trait, but recessives take a long time to completely eradicate them from a breed. If the kittens are healthy and the parent is a great asset to the breed as a whole, most breeders will choose to breed a known "carrier" of the "blue or long haired" gene that the breed type can continue forward, at the same time, most breeders will choose against using an actual unrecognized colored, hair lengthed cat as one of their breeders.

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