Hello everyone!
So just recently my one year old bengal cat Jovi has started attacking me at night when I watch tv before bed. He sometimes jumps on my arms wrap his paws around it and claws into me bites me and kicks me like a kangaroo. Usually he comes and lay down beside me or on me and I pet him and all he does is lick himself or cuddles and sleep beside me. Now he started attacking my feet and getting a little aggressive. He just recently looked me in the eyes as I said no to him attacking my feet and his eyes got really big and he tried pouncing on me. I looked at him again and said no and he still looked me in the eyes and was ready to pounce on me again. What can I do for him to stop attacking me? I do play with him quite often with his little fishing rod toys. Before there used to have another cat in the house (my roommate's cat) and he used to play with her all day but it's been a few months since he's not with her anymore and this behaviour has just started recently. Any tips?

Thanks!

Jovi needs a wrestling buddy. Get him a large stuffed toy. They do sell them for cats. I got a TNR buddy for Raiden and he loves to wrestle with it. The ends are fraying on it, but he loves it. He also has a large stuffed bow tie that he can wrestle. Your kitty needs playtime with you. Bengals have so much energy. Wear the little guy out with wand toys and he will not come around for your arms. I guess owners don't realize how much time a bengal cat requires. Sometimes I think it's worse than having a dog! You might also want to consider training Jovi to walk on a leash! It's not difficult with a bengal and taking him out for a walk will exercise him, too. To solve your problem is easy ... spend a lot more time with your kitty and divert his attention away from your body to the body of a stuffed thing.

There's different things you can do. My suggestion would be:

1. Have a play time with him and wear him out before you do your tv and bedtime routine.
2. Get a "kicker" toy like Sherry said, and keep that on your bed with you. That way if he still has some pent up energy you can re-direct to the toy. You could even give him a treat when he uses the kicker toy.
3. On occasions where he still attacks you, give him a "time out" and don't interact with him for awhile. Put him out of the room or similar.

Something like this:

http://www.shop.happyhousecats.co.uk/in ... 308739e692

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The little monsters 3

By no means an expert here... but is your boy just reaching adulthood and becoming a bit boisterous? May be time to have his nuts off?

Hello everyone!
Thank you so much for all your great tips! I will make sure to try them out and let you know what the outcome is. Jovi does have fishing rod toys he loves them! I play with him daily, and still but I will deffenetly get the toys you all recommended since I only have fishing rod toys and cat tree's. I used to walk him a lot but not lately so maybe I should start again. I was just scared since there's alot of dogs that go in the park where I used to walk him and I was afraid of losing him cause he gets scared and run's off! I will definitely get him a play mate that's for sure but not just yet. I am anxious to see how he will react to the toys you suggested! Also Jovi already has his balls chopped off since the time he left the breeders. But he is still young he is 15 months old (a year and three months). Thanks everybody :)

Very common in Bengals, and can be a bit scary because some Bengals appear to be very determined and do not take no for an answer.
There was a very good article about how to deal with wild cats and a lot of that applies to Bengals too. Unfortunately it is long gone, but the gist of it was that the writer had a Bobcat and in play, the Bobcat got rough.
The writer tried to take control and the Bobcat loved it, his eyes shone and the rougher she was in return, the rougher the Bobcat became and the more excited and happy he was.
She realised that was not the way to deal with the situation, as that was great for the bobcat but she could get hurt.
Her ploy was to first of all recognise the signs that things were getting rough, ie the eyes, the ears, the general demeanour and take the heat out of the situation by ignoring the cat completely. Refuse to play, take yourself out of the room, start up doing something else without the cat, etc.
If the cat takes hold of you keep your hand still, do not attempt to extricate yourself, stay calm. if you can substitute your hand with a toy then do so, if he will accept the toy. If not whine like an injured puppy, most cats are "playing" so they do not want to injure you. If you look at cats playing if one gets injured or screams out the other lets go immediately, the whining from you should make the cat let go, if even for a second and that may be long enough for you to escape.

However, my contention is that if you want a contented Bengal that is not going to attack you, then stop making yourself into prey.
So many have trained their cats to be play machines, everything is about chasing and playing, so as soon as the cat sees its owner it is about play.
Little kittens do no harm, they place their little paws and claws around you in play and we all love it as they do not hurt, but everything that is fun for a kitten is also fun for an adult. Start as you mean to go on. Adult claws are not fun for humans.

The fad for stirring up Bengals with Da bird and other chasing toys, sometimes for extended periods, makes then into athletes and adrenaline junkies, they need the buzz, they are super fit and everything in their life is about play. They may be exhausted but they are not contented. NO cat in the wild spends hours "playing", it is artificial and IMO bad for the cat's emotional well-being.
The solution is to calm them down, put away the toys, have set times for short bursts of play, get toys that will stimulate the cat's mind, and spend the rest of the time getting to know the cat.

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The little monsters 3

I didn't say not to play with them, but 5, 10, 15 minutes is adequate at a time.
Cats normally go out, spend some time identifying the prey, some will sit watching and waiting for hours, then they do a quick grab, catch it and spend less than 10 minutes playing with it, then they either dump it or eat it. Curl up somewhere and sleep and do the same stuff again.
But I have heard on here that some play till exhaustion and that I feel is not good for the cat. What sort of relationship is that?
It is an easy fix for some to make the cat fit in with their life, it has little to do with what is good for the cat.
I used to do a lot of play, until someone asked me one day, "why are you continually stirring your cats up to attack things" and it made sense to me.
Since then I do minimal high speed chasing play, but spend more time interacting with the cats.

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Proud servant of Ramses and Djoser

Who said cats don't play? Of course they play, kittens love playing.
There is a big difference between kittens playing with each other, with stealth, thinking and testing each other out, and the mad acrobatic regimes that some owners put their cats through chasing da bird.
What I am disputing is that cats and kittens need exhausting, chasing play sessions that go on for long periods of time, "to tire them out" completely.
Kittens especially do not know when to stop, and I do not think young bones and muscles should be put through exhausting acrobatic da bird regimes either.

Well, I don't believe in exhausting but I do believe in "make them tired". And I found that a lot of cats/kittens know their limits very well. As soon as they feel that they are tired they just lye on a floor and show no interest in playing :). If the toy is new or really desirable they can be more affectionate but there should be a common sense (breathing can show it). For example my kittens can play for 20 minutes (and obviously it is NOT non-stop, as normally while one is playing, second is lying and watching as they hate when brother accidentally jumps on the head :) )

Again it is natural in wild that cats get tired. Here is an example the laziest cat ever is lion. Lions sleep up to 20-22 hours per day. But other 2-4 hours they move a lot e.g .walk sometimes up to 15-20 kilometers per day and, guess what, their kittens (older than 3 month) walk with the pride.

And even when kitten is alone (e.g. does not have siblings and mom left for hunting) in wild life there are a lot of things around that promote movements (games with tree climbing, flies, butterflies, squirrels, lizards and so much more).

Being adult also does not help to avoid lots of movement as I mentioned before: hunt is not the only cats' activity, female cats play with their kittens and patrol their territory, male cats patrol their territory (which is normally 5-6 times bigger than female's one) and fight for it. And all cats other than lions have to run from bigger predators (and even lions have to run from elephants or rhinos :) ). The smaller the cat the more it has to move.

On the other side, we protect our animals from everything, so our pets normally do not have enough movement.

And let's say if there is only one kitten in the family then there is nobody to actively play with. So humans should help to provide this type of movement.

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Proud servant of Ramses and Djoser

My little guy did the exact same thing as he was approaching a year. Maybe it's a surge in testosterone? I'm not sure. Anyway, I found that with mine if I swatted him or tried to pry him off my arm he would come back and do it again! Upon the suggestion of my mom any time he acted up I would take both hands and hold him down firmly and say "NO" loudly to him and keep him still for a few seconds and then let him go and immediately started petting him. That method has worked almost 100% of the time for all his bad behavior. The time out thing is a great idea too. Sometimes I have to do that when he starts to get to aggressive. Gives him a chance to cool down.

He might just be going through a phase.

I've had cats who have done this to me before and you just need to be very firm with them. I think people on here have given you very good advice.

I have a Bengal kitten and I play with him for around an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. I do this pretty much for him to socialise and get used to me as he is new to our home. The rest of the time our Burmese will play with him or he'll just play on his own.

Like the toy suggested by the way. Might get my cats one for Christmas :)

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Oscar and Jasper (or one ear and two ears as dh calls them) black rescue mogges

RIP my sweet baby Dexter, Snow Bengal 19/5/14 to 5/3/15 and my lovely dear old friend Muskey, Brown Burmese put to rest aged 15 on 14/11/15.

Debbie

Yes I would agree with that too.

I tend to step in and play with my kitten when he is hyper and tormenting our elderly cat a bit too much!

A chase with a ball of paper tied to a string wears him out pretty quickly and then he is much more relaxed.

Can't imagine playing with him non-stop though, think it would drive us both nuts lol.

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Oscar and Jasper (or one ear and two ears as dh calls them) black rescue mogges

RIP my sweet baby Dexter, Snow Bengal 19/5/14 to 5/3/15 and my lovely dear old friend Muskey, Brown Burmese put to rest aged 15 on 14/11/15.

Debbie