So as I wait for my bengal kitten to get a little older before he can come home with me, I've been doing a lot of research and I'm trying to get my house as bengal-proofed as possible. I already have accumulated quite the list of things I will be getting before he 'moves in' :)

I'm worried about a couple of things currently, that I would appreciate some info on if anyone has experience.


1. I have an expensive PC gaming setup. 3 monitors on my desk, and lots of computer cords under my desk.
My question is, what have you guys done to prevent your kittens from chewing on expensive cords or cables? I've been reading the sprays/lemon juice/hot sauce dont always work so well. I'm planning on tying all the cables together tightly and covering them with some kind of plastic/rubber covering. Do you think that will be sufficient?
Also, do you think the kitten will be interested in scratching up my computer monitors? Should I put them away or cover them with something while I'm not home?


2. My roommate has some expensive tower speakers in the living room. How can I try to prevent the cat from being interesting in them as a scratching post? I will be ordering a cat tower and a couple scratching posts to try and deter him from gaining interest in them, as well as lots of toys and a squirt gun just in case lol. But i'm also wondering if a cover or something to put over them would be a good idea.






Heres a few things I'm ordering soon.

-Enclosed litter box
-WiFi Enabled 720p Surveillance camera w/ speak/listen/turn capabilities (to watch him when I'm not home and yell at him when hes being naughty)
-Cat grass (for teh chews)
-Bergan Turbo Scratcher cat toy
-Amarkat Cat Tree (one between 50-60")
-Water squirt gun
-Cable ties/plastic cord wrap
-Leash-like toys, little mice, etc toys

Any other general advice relating to owning a 11-12 week old bengal boy would be appreciated as well. Or other good toys to get. Thanks!

I have no idea how you can stop him using the speakers as scratch posts - although having said that, only one of mine does that with our surround sound speakers and believe me, they have plenty of scratching posts and boxes etc all over the house. He may not be interested.

Have you checked the type of litter tray the kitten is currently using with the breeder? Some don't like covered litter trays, and you should also use the same litter that the breeder is using - try to keep as many things the same as at the breeder to make the transition to your home as easy as possible for the kitten.

I wouldn't recommend using a water squirt gun AT ALL. You want to build up trust and a firm bond with your kitten. Squirting him with water won't help your relationship at all. I have a water gun - I use it on other cats that come in our garden and bully my two. They hate me and run at the first glimpse of me. You don't want that sort of relationship with your new addition.

Our two are into everything. As kittens they used to climb on top of our TVs and they are the really thin flat screen ones - so you'll have to see what happens with your monitors really. They also used to pull the wires out of the back. They do tend to grow out of this, but I believe there is a sour apple spray that works - I don't know, I used to tie all ours together and as you are suggesting hide them under mats etc.

Definitely purchase a Da'Bird or flying frenzy toy - always a massive hit! Springs are great too, they love chasing them around and you may find your Bengal loves playing fetch with little bouncy balls. Don't leave them unattended with toys though, it's amazing what they think might be nice to eat. Play/combat tunnels - they love charging through those and keep any cardboard boxes it all comes in - all cats love boxes! Amazon is great for all these things.

I'm sure you will get plenty of other suggestions and advice - good luck!!

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

Good to know about the squirt gun. I guess I will hold off on that, it was more of a just-in-case kind of thing anyway.

I will ask the breeder about the litter box/type of litter before purchasing any of that.

Da bird is in my Amazon cart!



In regards to a scratching posts - have you found your cats like the scratching pads or the posts better? I'm ordering a nice big cat tower for sure that has a couple of posts on it, but should I order another separate post or a scratching pad?'

And for a cat bed, should I get a separate one? Or should the one integrated into the cat tree be fine?

When it comes to litter trays and cat carrier, get the biggest you can - you will only be replacing them pretty quickly otherwise! I know we did.

Initially we had scratch posts with beds on top, they both liked sleeping on those, but as they got bigger, they would pull them over as they are big, strong cats.

I bought one of these from Amazon - they love it, its really tall and it doesn't keep being pulled over. they can have a full stretch on it and it has toys on one side that they can play with as well.

FullSizeRender (470x640).jpg

We have beds or blankets all over the house of one kind or another, and initially they both ended up in the basket drawers in the kitchen, so I had to take everything out and put bedding in there instead. When you buy beds its worth getting ones with removable covers as they don't always wash well otherwise. Snuggle beds tend to be a hit.

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

Thanks for the info. I'm going to get this cat tower I think for now
http://www.amazon.com/Armarkat-B5701-57 ... PDKIKX0DER
Hopefully with that and a couple of scratchy-toys I'll be okay.

For my computer/TV cables, what would you recommend I get? I can get neoprene/fabric wrap to cover all of the cords and bundle them together, or I can get hard-plastic tubing and put the cords in them. Not sure which he would be less interested in.

And here is my cart so far... minus the litter box

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The little monsters 3

Mine don't care about my speakers. They jump on them occasionally as one is by the window and the other between one of the trees and the staircase but they have never shown any interest in scratching or moving them, with or without the music on.

TV/cable-wise I have quite a mess behind and around my TV rack: the TV, DVD, amplifier, CD player, the mutimedia HDD, Playstation with its pads... all of it connected to the current and to each other as appropriate and most of it connected the Internet (mostly by cable) so there's a lot of cables. Oh, I forgot the guitar amp and the speaker next to it. Again, they're not interested in any of those, they sometimes try to climb the TV but no harm has come to it so far, they're repeatedly on top of the guitar amp but that by its nature is very heavy and bomb-proof. They don't care about the cables at all.

The PC (desktop) with its speakers and monitor (and all the cables in between) is ok as well, they do jump on top of the PC tower as its by the window and quite high but they're not interested in scratching any of these.

They have 3 trees and a couple of scratching pads around the place and also a big cardboard box on he floor which they love, although less than before. They occasionally go for the blankets on the chairs but that's what they're for. I also have a few mats like this:

http://www.ikea.com/es/es/catalog/products/80186688/.

I've had them before as they're ridiculously cheap and quite useful if your feet are wet or dirty (coming back from the porch, for example) and the casts like to scratch them as they're quite rough on the surface and don't easily move around.

Good luck if you have curtains, though.

One funny aspect of bengal proofing my place is that I managed to successfully hide a lot of small items I now can't find myself .

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Thomas

Lily & Noha - Oct 7th 2015

For wires and cables I bought the tubing you can get for fish tanks, it's like a clear thick tube, I either fed wires through or if I couldn't do this I slit the tubing and placed wires inside then taped it back together.
This has worked well for me in the past.

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Clare
Magic (brown spotted boy born 31 March 2012)
Pearl (seal Lynx Point girl born 1 October 2015)
Bristol, UK

I bought an Armarkat 7 foot cat tree 10 years ago and it's still going strong 3 bengals later, I've only had to replace some of the sisal rope and 1 piece of fluffy material.
It was the best cat tree I have ever bought and still got years of use to go.

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Clare
Magic (brown spotted boy born 31 March 2012)
Pearl (seal Lynx Point girl born 1 October 2015)
Bristol, UK

I do hope yours will play with all the toys you are getting him. Mine will not play with an interactive toy, period. Won't play fetch or gnaw on catnip mice. He does love his kicker toys and the end of the wand of Da Bird. Preparing for a bengal is like preparing for a human baby! Lots of stuff to buy. You have limited space so hope it all works out for you. The cat tree looks great. Mine doesn't bother with any wires, so I have no ideas there. t know you can't wait to get him home with you.

One of my prized possessions is my custom made sound system. I was so worried the cats would damage it when they came to live with me and were going through their insane period. When they were still teeny-tiny, they would dive into the component cabinet (there are small fans in the back and a large pass through behind the unit for all the cables). That was a little worrisome but they never did any damage and soon became too big to fit between the equipment. They do occasionally knock the grill off my subwoofer (it is held in place by magnets) then they jump up and down on it (it's white) but so far they have not harmed it. When they were little they would race up to the sub and stare at it. I guess they could see it vibrating behind the grill. They have never expressed interest in the towers. They have a high gloss finish, so their paws would just slide down. I have tons of scratching posts for them to use. I was recently more concerned that Grace would start gnawing on them, but again she wants pointy edges about two feet off the ground so she can walk up to it and chew when she is waiting for her food to be served. That's one of her peculiar habits that I cannot seem to stop.