Hi people

I've never owned a cat before. My 3 year old daughter loves them, and after being an effectively half owner to my neighbours bengal for the last 5 years I decided to get a Bengal kitten. He's 3 months old and I've had him 2 weeks. Ive bought him a giant 6.5ft scratch pole hidey hole cat house thing which he likes and lots of toys. Im playing with him for a couple of hours a day at the moment, he's pretty demanding. He was sleeping with us but he bites my daughter to wake her up to play in the middle of the night, so the bedroom door stays shut now. He complained at first but seems to be ok with it, goes straight to sleep on the sofa when the door closes now.

I've been reading up a bit but I am a novice, so I have questions I'd like answered from cat people, rather than Wikihow.

The breeder advised me to feed wet food, but the vet advised dry food to keep his teeth and jaws healthy. Whats your advice?

He's a bit bitey and scratchy when playing - he has only bitten me once that hurt, he seems to know how to bite gently, but my 3 year old is not as good at reading the signals and her arms are covered in scratches. She's learning I think and hasn't been scratched properly today. I can dive in to save her when I'm there but the big ones happen when Im not in the room. She's very gentle but is over zealous and hugs him when he wants to walk away etc.

How do you react to bites or scratches? We don't allow any play with hands or feet, I dont tempt him over with drumming fingers etc, I call his name. I usually redirect to a bendy pole toy and keep hands away from him but a few times a day he can't contain himself. The advice I'm reading ranges quite dramatically. Im not comfortable with hissing or clapping loudly, so I'm walking away and not playing for a few minutes, but sometimes he gets in frenzy and follows me and jumps on my leg, so I pick him up (which has been safe to do so so far) and put him in another room with the door closed for 30 mins until he calms down (15 mins isn't enough, he's still all worked up). Are all kittens bitey?

Do you let your cats outside? I intend to, but the vet was more in favour of keeping him in. He wants to go out and we have a big garden, but there are lots of other cats in it. I have a feeling he will be a scrapper. He's already scaring off the cats who look through the window at him

He's walking on the kitchen surfaces. I have a feeling when he's allowed outside he might not be as interested, its not persistent but he had burnt whiskers when I bought him - I'm worried about the cooker. I am not using a water pistol on him. Any advice? I've picked him and up and showed him the heat of the cooker rings but he's jumped up since. Not often, but he could do it and knock a pan of boiling water on himself or my daughter. Just supervising at the moment but thats not entirely practical and i might not be able to do that every second the cooker is on.

Thank you in advance!

Welcome to the forum.

The last point first: keep him out of the kitchen whenever you are doing something that could lead to him being harmed - so anything with knives/heat. Basically, if you are cooking or preparing food he shouldn't be in the room.

As for playing, any use of teeth/claws should, IMHO, cause an end to play and attention and a timeout. If you are _consistent_ he will soon* learn that biting/scratching is not in his interest and will no longer do it. I can't stress the consistency part enough though, and that is hard - sometimes you'll be worn out and just in need of a quite sit down or he'll have been really cute apart from nibbling you a bit when you stopped him doing something, but you have to react the same way each time. Instead of carrying him as normal, when Babbage used his teeth - never aggressively - I would pick him up with 2 hands underneath him and carry him at arms length ( rather than the normal way of giving him a cuddle as I carried him somewhere ). Carrying him in this way was an immediate way of showing that he had done something wrong, and he would sometimes start licking my hand as I carried him to his room for the timeout.
My two have now been with me for 11 months and I haven't had them try to mouth me for at least half a year using the above

Finally, pictures of of him would be nice.


* when I say soon, he'll understand, but probably still try it on now and again to see if he can get away with it.

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your kitty. Bengal kittens are especially energetic and playful. They love interactive play with their humans as well, so playing with him is essential.

He can be fed both wet and dry food. It's important in the beginning to feed him the food the breeder had him on. You can introduce some high quality dry kitten food to supplement. My 8-year old bengal gets both wet and dry food daily.

Since bengals are perpetual 3-year olds and you have a 3-year old, I'm not sure which one you can train to be more gentle around the other. I think your kitty is being playful. And small children get excited around pets and they don't really know how to treat a pet yet. That will come as the child gets older, but it's easy to show a young child how to gently pet a cat. Kitten claws are super sharp. You can put some "soft paws" on them which will help until they wear them down.

Hopefully, you have some cat beds around your home. It's nice he wants to sleep on the couch, but they really prefer beds of their own. Bengals do love to sleep with people and my Raiden sleeps at my feet every single night.

Realize, too, that you've had him only a couple of weeks and there is a learning curve here for both you and the kitty. He's bonding right now, he's super curious. Any type of punishment at this point in the game is going to confuse him. He's just a baby.

Kittens look at human hands and feet as prey, especially because they move a lot. You need to replace hands and feet with toys. When I say a kitten needs a lot of play time, I mean a LOT of play time. Your bengal will always want to play. That's the breed. So, you've got to give him a lot of attention! Bengals demand it.

I am a huge advocate of keeping your cat indoors. Raiden was allowed to roam free the first six years of his life with his previous owner and he used up most of his 9 lives getting into horrific cat fights. He was always at the vet getting treated for infections from the bites. He came to my back door after the last one and I rushed him to the vet since the owner was out of town. He's battered and scarred and has a torn ear from all the fighting. I decided I could not risk this. Cats fight to kill! They attack the neck and hope to hit the jugular vein which will cause the other cat to bleed to death! This is not what you want for your kitty. Raiden plays the "big cat" when we are on our walks and he sees a cat, but his vet says "Raiden is a very poor fighter."

Once the neighbor gave Raiden to me, I purchased a harness and leash and we go out for walks -- twice a day now. We also built him a 12'x12' enclosure on our deck that he can access 24/7. This assures that he is safe. He still runs to the door when we walk through it and he escapes every now and then, but at least he stops once he gets outside and I can grab him. This is a whole lot better than letting him roam around the neighborhood. In the beginning, your kitty will hang around your yard, but as confidence is gained, his territory will increase and there will be times when he does not return home when called and you'll be frantic. It's not worth the pain of not knowing what's happened to him and there are too many dangers out there. Your vet is correct! There are portable enclosures that can be purchased through Amazon or at your local pet store. I know many people on here allow their bengals to roam free. I wouldn't dream of putting him through the pain that I saw he was suffering after his last fight. His eyes were scratched, he had deep puncture wounds. I paid the previous owner nothing for him, but I know your kitty wasn't free. You must be in the UK as your spelling is a little different. Since you say there are other cats around, please do not allow your kitty to intermingle with them. There is always the chance of his getting FIV (feline aids). And if he isn't vaccinated against FeLV (feline leukemia), that is a deadly disease if contracted.

Cats do love kitchen counters. Right now it may be part of his "investigating" every inch of your home. However, the easiest thing is to tell him "NO" and put him down on the floor. Eventually, a cat learns what "NO" means, even though they don't always mind (just like a child). You definitely do not want him to get hurt, so he needs to be off doing other things while you're in the kitchen cooking. Like I said, bengals want to be where you are. Thankfully, mine only hops up when I'm preparing his food or I'm in the kitchen and he's anxious to get outside for his walk.

Owning a bengal full time is different than a "half" ownership as you will find out! And bengals are not like a regular domestic cat. They are challenging, intelligent, very vocal, energetic, and social. It seems as if he's adjusted well in the short time you've had him and it will only get better from here.

Hello and welcome!

Just a note, in addition to the advice that you have already received...

Dry food could be an option but it is definitely not the best one. It does not help prevent tooth decay or clean kitty's teeth.

Au contraire, dry food acts in quite the opposite manner by sticking to the teeth and gums causing irritation and dental damage.

Do not feed dry food for this reason. I know your vet told you to do this but veterinarians have very little education related to diet and nutrition. Most of their "education" is provided by pet food companies. Listen to your breeder.

The best way to keep his teeth in immaculate condition is with a raw diet. Even if you should not choose to go that route, small RAW bones, i.e. chicken wing tips or ribs, are an excellent option as they both scrape the teeth and exercise the jaw.

Good luck and enjoy your kitten.

Please post a picture so we can enjoy him too.

_________________
~ Kyenta

Raiden probably eats a tablespoon of dry food per day. His main diet is wet and he won't eat raw, period! Had I gotten him as a kitten, things would be different, but his previous owner only fed him dry food for six years. The dry food is there in the event he's hungry and his other food bowl is empty and I haven't gotten around to filling it. My kitty eats a few bites, walks away, and will return 10 minutes later for another round. It takes him hours to go through a 3 oz can of wet food. Every other cat I've had will eat until the plate is clean. Raiden never has been like that. He's a perfect weight and size, so I'll keep doing what I've been doing.