Hello There!

Firstly, what a great community! I have spent countless hours reading as much as I can and I love how everyone takes the time to provide good detailed answers... not something you find often on forums :)

On to my 'issue'.. And my apologies for the length of this post, I just wanted to make sure I get all the info in there..

I have purchased my first begal kitten (Simba) and he's 13 weeks old, arrived at our (and his) new home a few days ago.

He pretty much settled in from the get go, showed no signs of missing home and he's excited about everything 24x7. I was lucky to have found a good breeder that has socialised him extremely well.. He's not the least bit shy, not shy of strangers, extremely confident, energetic, smart and surprisingly affectionate...

He knows where his toilet is, had no accidents (touch wood) and pretty much acts like he's been with us for years.. I suppose it helped that the breeder let me spent countless hours with him prior to picking him up and that she had a lot of people coming and going so he's used to noise and different people.

So far, so good.. but that's half the story..

Knowing bengals are attention seekers, my wife and I thought it would be a good idea to purchase a second kitten at the same time (maine coon X ragdoll, half pedigree), called Leo..Plus, she wanted to choose a cat and her original choice was not a bengal.. He's only 8 weeks old and is having a tough time settling in.. runny poo, very shy, missing home loads, not eating well..

We've given him a room dedicated to him to settle in.. been giving him a lot of attention & cuddles.. he's slowly becoming a lot more confident and has began eating, playing, wrestling.. it's only been a day and a bit but he's making progress. Wife spent the night in his room last night to give him a bit more comfort.

Now onto my issue.. I thought with the bengal being a kitten, and my wife's cat also being a kitten, the both would begin to get along quite quickly since no territory had been established and both of them were going to be scared.. I didn't anticipate the Simba being so confident and seemingly, not scared of anything.. We received Simba on the friday and Leo on the saturday..

Introducing them, hasn't been great.. While I expected hissing and growling, when we do introductions, Simba runs straight to him, sniffs, hisses, growls and then goes for a swipe.. I always hold onto him and pull him back before he can..

We've done 3-4 introductions now and it's the same every time, except that 8 week old Leo now has a bit more confidence to growl back..

Things I have done to help with introductions:

1. I stroke Simba when he stops growling & hissing, but stop the moment he starts..kind of to help him understand what will be rewarded and what won't.

2. I've put Simba's food bowl outside of Leo's room to have some positive re-inforcement.

3. I stroke Leo with a blanket and get his scent on, and stroke Simba with the same blanket to get them used to each others scent.

4. I take Leo out of his room and let him do some exploring and put Simba in Leo's room so he can sniff about

Ultimately, the introductions aren't seeming to make progress and I don't want to get in the situation where they will never get along and one of them has to be re-homed... I wanted them to be best buds! We love both kittens and don't want to give either up...

Is there anything I'm doing wrong? Am I on the right track? Anything else I can do to ensure Simba stops feeling so threatened by the very small Leo?

Many thanks in advance for any help!

First of all, welcome to the forum. Second of all, you're expecting too much too soon! Both of these kittens are now experiencing a brand new life with new humans, new surroundings, new smells. Many introductions do not go well the first, second, third, fourth, fifth time. What you need is patience! It seems you're doing a lot of the right things. Are you feeding them together in close proximity? Are you engaging them in play -- interacting with them. An introduction is not when you put them both face to face where their attention is on the other. Feeding them in the same area where they can see each other, they will locus on the food and not the other cat. Playing with them together will allow them to focus on the toys and not each other. Sitting them face to face ... well, they have no choice but to look at the other. The best thing is for each of you to play with a kitten. Each kitten needs to know the other one is not a threat to them. They should learn to get along fine .... but it takes time.

Make sure you have cat trees or shelves where your kitties can climb -- I know they are just kittens right now, but they will grow up fast. Bengals, especially love to be high up. You've also got two kittens with different energy levels. Bengals seem to never stop. Your other kitty will be more laid back. As kittens, they should play well with each other.

Make sure you have a litter box for each of them and they aren't sharing. That should help with any future problems with their using the box.

Most of all .... don't become stressed out when you're trying to introduce them as they can sense that. They are probably already stressed due to the change in their environment. Hang in there ... it's only been a couple of days. There's no reason to talk about rehoming either of these kitties. You haven't given them a fair chance YET! Just be patient and work with them both. You'll slowly see improvement. I said "slowly." You should see them both gain more confidence each day. Can't wait to see a picture of them snuggled up together.

Congratulations! And good luck.

Hi there.

We have a new Bengal kitten and an older (14 years) Burmese cat.

I knew our Burmese would be accepting eventually as he is not an aggressive or dominant type of cat. Even so we took things very slowly.

We didn't introduce them at all on the first couple of days as I wanted the kitten to get used to his new surroundings. After that introductions were us leaving the door open for our Burmese to come in, have a sniff (and a hiss lol) and then when it got to much for either of them separating them again.

Even though our Burmese is a sweetheart it has still taken over a week for them to start to accept each other. Only over the last couple of days have they now started to eat, play and sleep together and I see that as amazingly fast progress! I thought it would take much longer.

I would take it a slowly and let your cats take the lead for now. Try not to force it along.

_________________
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

Thank you so much for your replies, they're very re-assuring!

Firstly, some photos..

Simba:
Here is one of him sleeping:
http://imgur.com/m3NaN5T,9K2p1ah#0

And another one of him (not sleeping):
http://imgur.com/m3NaN5T,9K2p1ah#1

And the 8 week old maine coon X ragdoll
http://imgur.com/2zUL63K

@sherry, they do have separate litter trays, beds, bowls & rooms.
I've made sure they can see each other from the crack of the door when they're eating.. Simba tends to growl at him but then carry on eating making his nomnom noises!

They made some progress today, I noticed Simba is a bit content after eating, he did walk up to Leo and rub his nose, then retreated, growled and hissed, but it's still progress :)

I was playing with them both separately, Simba didn't appreciate Da Bird being used for Leo as he's used to playing with it - when he saw Leo trying to catch it he ran up to him and gave him a slap - Leo didn't seem bothered, nor really seemed to notice and carried on playing but I decided that was enough for both of them.. They do have a nice tall cat tree which they tend to use and enjoy.

I'm going to slow things down a bit more and take it easy on them...

Simba is becoming more and more "adventurous" (or a psycho as the wife calls it).. racing around, chasing invisible things, rolling and tumbling around randomly, following me every where (for some reason he thinks it's always a race to see who goes down stairs first and into the living room on the sofa), meowing for play time - and that does make me happy.. as my cousin calls it "he's like the cats off youtube".. it's exactly why I wanted a bengal! Put a ball in a cereal box with a couple of small holes and that's him sorted for the next 45 mins..

I'll report back my progress as I go along, maybe someone else out there is having the same issue (or will in the future)...

A kitten with runny poo should not be introduced to another healthy kitten, otherwise you will have two kittens with runny poo.
Runny poo in kittens may be stress but kittens are very prone to parasites and the notorious Tritrichomonas Foetus which can be endemic in pedigree catteries, breeding establishments and rescue centres.
It can cause a lot of long term issues in young cats.

Hi there they are beautiful kitties you have there.

The Bengal reminds me of mine, Dexter he loves to sleep on his back.

Maybe if your kitten still has the runs, not eating etc it may be a sign of something else so worth popping him to the vets just for a check over.

We've had our kitten for just over a week now and although he seems fine I'm taking him to the vets anyway for a health check.

_________________
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

Hi Elaine & eggman,

Thank you for your replies!

I didn't consider that it may be anything else other than stress, but it very well could be.. I've got them both booked in for a health check at the vets on Monday just to be on the safe side!

Leo's appetite has grown considerably now, having good decent meals..His confidence has grown and he's slowly becoming more cheekier which is great to see..