About Our Cattery

Sakura Bengals is an in-home cattery located in the beautiful Appalachian Mountains of Western North Carolina.  Our Bengal kittens are raised underfoot as a part of our family where they have lots of playtime with my husband and I, plus our two children.  Our breeding males each have their own outdoor "catios" where they can enjoy the fresh mountain air, view of the mountains, and wild animals passing by - including deer, pheasants, and wild turkeys!  A "catio" is basically a screened porch/patio designed with our cats' needs in mind.  The catios have natural branches for climbing, shelter from rain/sun/wind, and heated houses for the winter.  I do wish our boys could live in our home with us, but intact male cats spray urine to make their territory.  So unfortunately, it just isn't possible to keep them in the house.  We provide them with lots of room and attention! 

Our breeding females spend their time rotating between our home, our climate-controlled cattery building, and the outdoor catios depending on their individual schedule.  We love taking our breeding cats to shows when we can!  It's a great way to ensure that we are working towards the standard of perfection for our breed as well as getting to show off our cats and meet other Bengal breeders and enthusiasts.  In the past few years I have had some of the top-winning Bengals in the Region!  We only keep our adults as breeders for a few years to ensure that they will be able to spend the majority of their lives as spoiled house pets after being spayed/neutered.

My husband and I both work both at home on our farm and part time outside the home so one of us is usually home and are able to spend a lot of time interacting with our Bengals throughout the day.  I am a veterinary assistant and local animal shelter volunteer.  Our kids spend a lot of time with the cats when they are not in school.  Usually one or both of them are with me at the cat shows and both of them are award-winning Junior Exhibitors!

I am very active in The International Cat Association (TICA) - in addition to being a frequent exhibitor, I am also a licensed head ring clerk, show manager, master clerk trainee, and active member of both Cattyshack Cat Club and Southern SophisTICAts Cat Club.  I am about to start my entry clerk training and I am looking forward to eventually entering the TICA judging program.

I am extremely honored to have recently been voted the
BEST CLERK for TICA's Southeast Region 2023-2024 season!

Kittens Raised In-Home
 
Kittens are born in a cozy spot in one of our bedrooms or in their own nursery room and stay there for the first few weeks.  This ensures that they can get used to the sights/sounds/smells of people while remaining in a safe space with their mother.  We are usually present during birth but remain hands-off unless absolutely necessary.  We do check kittens frequently and handle them from day one, but in the first few weeks the kitten-mother relationship is most important!  Once the kittens are climbing out of the nest box, they are ready for lots more handling and attention!  They leave the nest box and start exploring at around 3-4 weeks old and are introduced to the litter box at that time.  They stay with their mother in one room until they are using the litter box reliably.  Within the next few weeks they are ready to join the "general population" and are given full access to the main living areas of our home where they can play and run amok!  Unlike mass-producing catteries where kittens are raised in cages, our kittens enjoy climbing all over our furniture, snuggling with people, running from the vacuum, and getting used to all the sights and sounds and handling that prepares them to be well-adjusted pets.  If you visit our home/cattery, you'll see that the house belongs to the cats!  Kittens stay here with us for around 14 weeks.  This ensures that they have had the time to learn through play with their siblings.  This sibling play is essential for helping the kittens learn to play without excessive roughness and hard biting!  Additionally, this allows them time to meet the weight requirement for their spay/neuter surgeries and recover fully before going to their new homes.

Health and Diet

The best diet and health testing are top priorities for us! We feed all our Bengals a high-quality raw meat only diet that we prepare ourselves from human grade meat including pasture-raised chickens from our own family farm.  We love for our kittens to eat a raw diet in their new homes, but also support them transitioning to canned/pouch wet food.  Our adult Bengals are tested for PKDef and PRAb and a plethora of other genetic disorders using Optimal Selection DNA testing and are also screened for HCM via ultrasound by a feline cardiologist every 12-18 months.  We are an FIV/FeLV negative tested cattery. For more information on our health and genetics testing, see our Policies page. We are happy to show potential kitten-adopters photos and video of our in-home cattery as well as schedule live video chats.  Cattery visits are by appointment only.

We use and recommend Catalyst Cat Litter!  It is all natural, scoopable, biodegradable, and controls odor well.  All our kittens come with a 10 lb bag of Catalyst!

Purchase Catalyst here: www.catalystpet.com

 
Kitten Transportation
 
Kittens can be picked up at our home which is about 35 minutes north of Asheville, North Carolina or we can meet you within a few hours' drive if arranged ahead of time. *We do not ship kittens via cargo* You are welcome to fly into the Asheville, NC airport and take your kitten back with you as a carry-on. Asheville is a great place to visit!  We also work with Haulin Paws and Furbabies Express pet transport teams that will pick up your kitten from us and deliver him/her right to your home!  Price for transport varies based on distance.

A Brief History of Sakura Bengals

Sakura Bengals began in 2008 with the purchase of our first Bengal "Ming Yao" who was to become our first Bengal stud.  At the time my husband Travis and I were living in Alabama and had only been married a few years.  We added our first female "Pixie" and their daughter from our first litter "Gia" before we imported our show star "Eclipse" from Canada.  I spent several months showing Eclipse and our new snow girl "Luna" throughout in the Southeast before becoming pregnant myself.  Eclipse became a Triple Grand Champion and at that point I retired from showing (temporarily).  After our son was born in 2010, we continued breeding Bengals while a very good friend showed our homegrown Sakura Midnight Sun aka "Max" to Quadruple Grand Champion status!  
 
While our Bengals were doing extremely well the next year and a half, we had to reevaluate our cattery due to our life changes.  I became pregnant again in 2012 with our daughter and at that same time my husband accepted a promotion at work.  We made the tough decision to retire from breeding - not knowing if we'd ever have the time or resources to give it another go.  All of our beautiful breeding cats were spayed/neutered and went to their forever homes.  I thought that was the end of Bengals for us. 

However, a few years later we made the big decision to change everything by moving to North Carolina to start a farm!  A few years after that, the stars aligned and we made the decision to jump back in, even though that meant starting from scratch.  So we started our Bengal adventure all over again in 2017 - older and wiser and with a couple of kitten-crazy kids to help out!  Now several years into "Phase two" of our cattery we have found that our past experiences have helped guide us while we continue to learn and improve our program.

Show News 2023:

In 2023 we received our first Allbreed Championship Regional Wins when our homegrown SGC Sakura Starlord "Quill" finished the season as the 11th Best Cat in the Southeast as well as the BEST Bengal in the Southeast!  That same year our new boy MirandasRanch Blackjack of Sakura "Jack" became Best Bengal Kitten in the Southeast! 

Show News 2024:

This season our RW SGC Sakura Starlord "Quill" received his second Southeast Regional Award as the 10th Best Cat!  Quill is now retired from showing so that he can spend all his time at home with us and his ladies.

We added our first purebred cat of another breed when we added a British Longhair female to our cattery!  QGC Dinkidi Enchantress of Sakura "Tris" was the best British Longhair female in the Southeast region for 2024!  We are breeding her to an amazing British Shorthair boy for a litter in late Summer/Fall 2024.  More info on our British program can be found here: www.sakurabritish.com

In addition to showing purebreds, we enjoy showing in TICA's household pet category.  Our rescued torbie and white girl SGC Mittenz Eleanor Tofu "Muppet" was the 6th Best Household Pet Kitten Internationally and the 3rd Best Household Pet Kitten in the Southeast!  When she moved to the adult Household Pet class halfway through the 2023-2024 season she became the 13th Best Household Pet Internationally and 4th Best Household Pet in the Southeast!  Even rescued cats can become show stars!