Otis is now 18 weeks old. He is my second Bengal....sadly, my five year old was stolen just before Christmas.

Otis is seriously aggressive. I play with him a lot with all manner of toys. But he will attack me, my husband or my husband's gun dog for no reason. He lies in wait and pounces and it hurts. The dog is now terrified of him and it is causing friction between my husband and I.

I have tried hissing, a water spray...the spray does make him back off but when he leaps on me from behind, it is not much use.

He can be so sweet and loving but seems to have the devil in his heart. He has been neutered.

What can I do to make life more harmonious for all of us?!

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Jannette

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The little monsters 3

I've had kittens like this in the past. Just normal moggies and they have been exactly as you describe.

We were often ambushed by kittens jumping out at us and clinging on for dear life round our legs with their sharp little claws, running up our trousers legs, flinging themselves at our faces and all sorts! It's all part of being a kitten and I find it quite amusing although obviously if you are getting badly hurt you need to address that.

As Brian suggested I would give a time out rather than spraying. I don't think that really works very well and you just end up more frustrated and constantly on your feet chasing the cat around which in turn can make quite a game in itself.

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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

Thank you both for your input. We have a large pen in the house that Otis sleeps in at night. I think I will try putting him in it during the day time for a short while when he has a biting episode - maybe it will calm him down! The gun dog did growl when Otis launched himself off his cat tree onto her back this morning - she is a very gentle dog and Otis takes advantage of her nice nature! But he can be nice to her and rubs his face against her when he has not seen him for sometime - I guess we just have to go through these "teenage" months!

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Jannette

I looked like I self-harmed for the first 6 months or so with Jagger and Hendrix. Even now, they've never learnt to play with their claws in!

However, they do calm down (a bit!) and I'm nowhere near as scratched up now!

You need to play him hard! The Da'Bird toy is known as a Flying Frenzy in the UK and is a massive hit in our household and they are panting by the end of a good session with that. You can get it from Amazon. A laser light toy is another good one to get him running around.

So tire him out, and never play with your hands and if he does attack your hands, walk away, same as if he attacks your legs. Bengals are pretty bright, he'll soon catch on that it isn't behaviour you like as it stops play. I was on my own with two when they were at their worst and if they got really boisterous I would shut myself in the front room for 10 minutes and when I went back out they'd be curled up in their beds looking like butter wouldn't melt lol

He is just playing and being a kitten at the end of the day - the one thing I was certain of was that there isn't a bad or mean bone in either of our two, they don't mean to hurt you, they are just young and over excitable! You also need to look for trigger points, Jagger was prone to going 'pyscho' when he became overstimulated, and you need to watch for that and try to calm things down or stop play if he gets too aggressive - but you will learn his triggers pretty quickly I'm sure!

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Clare
Hendrix and Jagger, Brown Marble Boys (born 18 August 2013)
Hampshire, UK

My two cats are a year old now and I still get scratched by accident so I keep their nails trimmed. They are due for mani/pedis on Saturday so their nails are long and sharp right now. The other night Grace was rolling on her back too close to the edge of the bed and swiped my arm as she caught herself from falling on the floor. She barely grazed my arm but I have a nasty swollen gash. Last night I was holding a treat out for Blondie as she ran on her cat wheel. Well she grabbed the treat with her nails and put a gash on the inside of my finger, my bad. At least these things rarely happen now. It was constant when they were babies. I can't wait until Saturday so they can knead me again without puncturing my skin, lol.

Well, a kitten will be a kitten and a bengal is especially high energy. First of all, I'm so sorry to hear that your previous bengal was stolen. That's one of the perils of allowing the cat to be outdoors unsupervised. Now onto your biting problem. Bengals are hunters. You've got to have an array of toys and interact with him throughout the day. A spray bottle is of no use. All it does is get the kitty terrified of you and any bond that you have can fall by the wayside. You can try and use a stern "NO!" when he goes after the dog or human hands and legs. But redirecting his energy to toys is the best thing. You've got to wait until he grows into an adult -- and even then he'll still have more energy than you'll ever have. There are battery-operated toys that you can set and maybe Otis will amuse himself with it. They usually love a laser light and you can sit in one spot and let him chase the light. Teach him how to fetch where you toss the toy an he returns it to you. The dog may be a good teacher for something like that. You've got to wear Otis out -- and it takes a lot to wear out a bengal kitten.

Good luck.

Thanks for all the help! Otis does retrieve thrown toys and I can throw something and he will wait to retrieve it until I say "Go". So he is trainable! He also always comes when called no matter where he is. I think I had forgotten how boisterous they are as kittens.

My husband is going to try to train him some more. Otis seems to like having his energy channeled into retrieving. Next step is to make him stop half way into a retrieve and then continue when told to do so. We train with tiny pieces of cheese as rewards and only do five minutes at a time.

We have a very large pen in the garden with toys, a real tree and a very shallow pond and Otis goes out there for an hour or two on sunny days. I shall not be letting him roam free......I have learned my lesson having lost one Bengal. He had a tracking device but it had to be read in my Mac .....you removed the card from the device when he came home and the Mac could show you where he had been. It was amazing.....he used to go four miles in the night. One day he did not return and so the tracker was no good. I am 99% sure someone took him as we live up a country lane and there is very little traffic in the night and we searched and searched....no sign of a body. I never want to go through the heartbreak again.

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Jannette

Others have already given some good advice so I don't have a lot to add.

Vertical climbing spaces are good. We have a floor to ceiling tree which our two love to run up and down.
We also used to throw toys up the stairs and they'd go running up to fetch them and bat them back down again.

Wand toys (as already mentioned) are brilliant for hunt and catch style games.

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Katrina

Owned by:

A cat traveling four miles can come into contact with a lot of other animals. Don't be so sure someone took him. I'm glad your new arrival will be kept safe and sound. You live and you learn. I've had cats vanish the same way and now Raiden is walked on a harness and leash and has a cat enclosure.

Bengals are highly trainable if one has the time to put into it. They seem to require a ton of interaction from the owner. Keep up the training and the serious biting should end as well.