Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21079 in Books
• Published on: 2005-04-29
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 96 pages

Customer Reviews

ALL BENGAL OWNERS MUST HAVE! INFO BREEDER'S LEAVE OUT!
There are not many books out on the Bengal Breed, but this one is the best! It gave us much insight on the Bengal's nature. We have other domestic cats and the Bengal was just different, the book explained the why's and how's. Our Bengal had something wrong with her legs when she was about 7 months old. We went straight to the book and it even explained the disorder that could possibly affect a Bengal. We were lucky that information was there, our breeder said they had never heard of it. A vet surgeon performed an operation on both back legs and she is perfect now. Without the detail this book gives we never would have known. We value the information highly that is contained in this book. A lot of breeders leave the less desirable things out when you purchase a Bengal. This book gives you the full story.

A wasted opportunity.
I was very disappointed with this book for several reasons:
I could no more recommend this book as "A Complete Pet Owner's Manual" as the cover claims, than I could recommend a similar 96 page A5 book with the title "A Complete Guide to Your New Baby" as a manual for first time parents. The author has not only tried to cover in this small space all aspects of owning a cat, but has also taken up half the space with photographs, many of which have captions like "Atop a kitchen chair. Next stop, the tuna on the counter" or "Won't anyone help a lonesome little kitten?" These are charming, but not very useful.
I had hoped for a book that concentrated on the characteristics unique to Bengals, and that explained and illustrated the ideals for each of the colours and patterns. There are only 5 pages on the history of the breed, 3 on "understanding Bengal cats" and 2 for a truncated breed standard. Most of the space in this book is taken up either with information general to all cats or with photographs.
The pictures focus on brown spotted Bengals. I counted 55 photos of brown spotted, 4 of brown marbled and a total of 4 of all the other colours. I have recently been lucky enough to acquire a beautiful brown marbled Bengal (currently "helping" me by standing on the keyboard), and I found this aspect particularly frustrating.
So, if you want information on caring for cats then I would advise a much larger encyclopaedia. If you want information specific to Bengals, I turned up much more information with a thorough internet search. The only thing I can say in favour of this book is that it is good to hand to visitors who have never seen a Bengal before.

One to Own
If you own or are thinking of being owned by a Bengal then this book is definately the one for you. A very colourful book with plenty of information including the breed history, choosing your kitten, breed standards, showing, breeding as well as various health problems. This book is aimed at all aspects of the Bengal world whether you are a breeder or just in love with the breed