Hi,

I am the proud owner of a 10 month old male bengal cat named Yoshi. As i am completing my Master's degree in finance in 2 month, I recently decided to purchase a female kitten (2 month and a half old) that i named Peach so that Yoshi has someone to play with during the day, as i anticipate i will be working around 50-60 hours a week eventually.

So far, everything is great and they love each other. It took 1 day before Peach and Yoshi started licking each others and cuddling, which is surprising to me as i expected this process to take at least 2-4 days. They are simply adorable.


Here's my concern: Peach won't let any humans (me or my girlfriend) touch her. She plays with us and is very curious about us. However, as soon as we try petting her she's scared and run away. The only time i can touch her is when she sleeps/wake up as she's more relaxed. I am not talking about HOLDING her here, simply touching her and petting her...

The person that sold her to me tell me to let her come on her own and never force myself on her, (which i never did). It's been two weeks and this is still happening. I never had this problem with Yoshi as he only had us (humans) to give/receive love, but now Peach can give/get love from Yoshi whenever she feels like cuddling so I wonder if this is the reason the process of '' Human socialization '' is taking so long...

N.B. The '' farmer '' that sold me Yoshi and Peach has approximately 60 bengal cat in his breeding. He's licensed, and extremely competent at what he does. He has an enormous garage where he keeps most of his reproductive cats and newborns. Once they're old enough, he lets a few cats at a time in his house in order to socialize them to humans. He's a very good person and he's sincerily concerned about the cat he sells and who he sells them to: he's clearly doing it out of passion. I.e. he called me every 2 days for a week after i bought both cat to make sure everything was OK. When i went to buy Peach, he told me she catched a few of the timid behaviors of one cat that was in the house with her during her '' socialization period '' but that this behaviour wouldn't last once she's introduced to a new environment.

At first i didn't really care as i knew she would adjust and feel comfortable in our home, but now i'm a bit concerned. I sincerily hope Peach's timid behavior won't last forever ! Other than that, she's an adorable and extremely curious bengal kitten !


Experienced bengal owners out there, i'm asking for your help! Sorry for the poor english grammar as this is not my main language.

Thank you very much.

Welcome to the forum and congratulations on your kitty! The one thing that concerns me is how a breeder can socialize 60 bengal cats. There is no way one can spend enough time with them to get them used to human contact. This is not a good breeder!!!

Going to a new home is a very stressful time for a kitty. I'm happy to hear that the bonding between the two kitties has taken place. You're just going to have to give your new baby some time. Two weeks should be long enough, but if a cat is not socialized and it is terrified of human giants, it is going to take more time.

For the time being, just let her know of your presence. Talk to her. Sit near her when she eats. Can you not pick her up? Is your other kitty snuggly and affectionate? There might be some training that can be done there from your other kitty. Are you engaging the new kitty in play time with toys? She needs her confidence around people built up.

Give it another two weeks and come back and update us on any progress. I'm guessing most of the kittens at this breeders are more feral than domestic due to his breeding program. This is really sad. The kittens deserve more.

If she left her mother at 8 weeks, that is probably too soon. The norm is 12 weeks with the mother I believe. The kitten learns important developmental and socialization skills during that time. It's kind of like putting an infant into kindergarten and expecting it to behave like the other children.

It sounds like she bonded with your other kitten. Give it some time. They will both be changing constantly over the next year.

The advice I have is: don't obsess over the touching thing. You have a nice cat who fulfills the exact reason for getting her. And then chip away at it, don't set deadlines or such, or impose some pre-conceived timeline of when she should be friendlier to you and what sort of interactions you should or shouldn't have. All cats are different. Just keep having positive interactions with her. If she likes to play with you, then play with her a lot. When you discover what her favorite foods and treats are, try to feed those to her by hand, and if she won't go for that, then at least set it down close to her so she knows that your hand brings good things. If you can move your hand two feet away from her before she bolts, then move your hand two feet away and keep it there, so she learns you won't harm her, and your hand is not a bad thing. Then next time move it an inch closer.

Just as an example, my Serafina took months before she discovered that my scratching her on the head was an extremely desirable thing (mostly on her terms). Now she seeks me out pretty frequently to request this "service".

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The little monsters 3