Given that you are home 20-24 hours a day, you would probably have one very happy Bengal and the two of you would bond very well. Get a Bengal! Just be sure to provide him/her with lots of playtime and lots of vertical climbing spots.

I'm getting pretty close to securing an apartment (but will have to wait till September to move in, if all goes well)
It's a 500 square foot 2-rooms apartment on the first floor. A very quiet and lovely neighborhood.
I've been told the couple above this apartment has two cats, but that there's nothing to hear from them - current tennant never even knew they had cats until he met them in the hall and they asked if he could hear them.

I can't help but wonder if a Bengal might be so loud it causes complaints?
Anyone have any experience with this?

I think that you must decide by yourself what breed you should choose. However Bengals are great, really cute kittens!

Hello there!

I think you should get a bengal if you really want one! Last year I bought my little bengal kitty! I been told that bengals are very large cats, they need a lot of space and they are mega active, and very talkative. This is not always the case. Every bengal cat is an individual animal and they all have different personalities. My female bengal is just a normal size cat. I live in a large 2 bedroom flat and there is plenty of space for my cat. She have a large climbing tree, there are a lot of shelfs she can jump on, and she have plenty of interactive toys. Yes my cat is very active and intelligent, but I can handle her alright. She is also very loving and friendly. I guess what I am trying to say is, yes they are more active then your average moggy but they are not some crazy creatures who need attentions 24/7 otherwise they will wreck your house. It's not like that. I heard all sorts of crazy stories about bengals, and people made me think that I will not be able to handle one. At the end of the day they are house cats. Seriously, getting a bengal was the best decision I ever made! I make interactive toys for her as the ones I bought wasn't difficult enough for her, but I enjoy making toys for her! If you are home everyday all day, you will have a great companion! They are amazing animals ;)

Hey Kiki, thank you for the encouragement!
It's pretty much the same with me - people telling me I can't handle a Bengal (they don't have a very good reputation here). The crazy stories are pretty much all I hear here!

I think I will be happy with a Bengal.
It might be a challenge, but I feel that might just be what I need in my life. Thank you for telling me about your girl, she sounds amazing :)

Hi,

I have anxiety (from lots of surgical procedures as a child) and I've found that my animals really help me, they always take my mind off my own personal problems. With bengals they should be fine as long as you have the time to play with them as they like a lot of stimulation but it's not crazy time they just are more dog than cat like in needing time from you. I've always found at least with my girl who I had for 16 years, that as long as there's lots of vertical things to climb on she was happy. She was more inclined to be sitting up high on top of wardrobes than running around tons. So just invest in a tall cat tree lol.

She was rather talkative though but I actually liked that part of her personality, she also loved cuddles and hated being left for long amounts of time or she would pull her hair out, I had a bit of an issue with her doing that when I was at university and she lived with my parents as when they do bond with someone and you're their special person they need you around.

If you really want one you will make it work and they will give back ten fold what you give them.

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- Sarah
Arya 24/04/16 - Seal Lynx Point Rosetted Bengal
Griffith 16/04/16 - Silver Seal Lynx Point Rosetted Bengal
Mina (in my avatar)- 1999-2016 - Seal Mink Spotted Bengal (Snow) - run free at rainbow bridge

You are welcome! You are the best judge of your own character and only you know what you can and can't handle. First week I got my girl I was very anxious because I am germaphobe. And I am sure you may be too (for other reasons), as it is big change to your everyday life. Your bengal may be a bit stressed and uncomfortable with the new place too. So first week will definitely be adjusting week. But once you are both get used to the situation and one another you will have a lot of fun :) Also make sure that you buy your bengal from a family home, and not a big breeder who keep kittens separated from the family. My bengal girl came form a family home with small children and a dog, so she is very sociable and not scared of new people at all.

Good Luck!

Bengals are not unusually large cats! I feed a b/w moggie that is much larger than my bengal. Ironically, my bengal weighs more than this other kitty.

Oh yes! A family home is definitely a big part of the choosing - I've actually found a rather nice breeder, with little children, who is a hobby breeder :) she's home all day to take care of them and her 9 week old son.
I went to visit a Toyger breeder a few weeks ago - they were very lovely and such people friendly cats! But after my second visit I came to realize how much I've fallen in love with the bengals. It's just not the same.
It's so hard to settle on a kitten though - They're all so very adorable, but at the same time you have this nagging feeling "is this it, or maybe if you wait a better one comes along?" I do this with pretty much everything in my life. Before a kitten it was which plates to buy XD my gosh that took weeks of visiting shops and touching different plates. And I still ended up with the first ones I really liked.

I do feel like this kitten will be a challenge - but also that it will be worth it in the long run. Oscar, our youngest rescue moggie, was very shy in the beginning and definitely not what I thought would be a good cat. It has taken us years of encouragement and gentleness to get him to settle down and Relax.
But it was worth the effort, frustration and UGH sometimes I really wanted to give him back.
Worth it because he is now my special friend :) and he tends to have some Bengal traits, so I think a Bengal will really be just the right cat for me - to become MY special friend for life

Ad of course I can't wait to share my life with him/her with you guys :D This is by far the most positive forum I have joined. It feels very liberating to be able to share my thoughts here (which are currently laser-point focused on a kitten )

Well, hold on. Bengals certainly are big cats, there's no denying that, but it's the *males* that are big. Yes, there are exceptions (of course), just like I'm sure you can find small main coons, but if you get a male bengal, you are most likely going to have a big, muscular, 15-20lb cat... and that's a big cat!

It sounds like a pretty good living situation btw, noise is definitely a consideration, but the fact that the adjacent neighbors have cats themselves, you would hope would mean they would have some empathy with others that also had cats, so that sounds promising.

Please let us know how things go, I'll be watching this with interest.

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The little monsters 3

They're definitely big. They may look smaller than they are as the hair's quite short and they have a lot of muscle but they're definitely strong. Noha is 5.6kg or 12.5 lbs and he's not even 8 months old and it's not dead weight like some passive, less energetic cats. In a small apartment you will definitely notice your grown boy's size and strength. Which is one of the reasons that make them so special :)

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Thomas

Lily & Noha - Oct 7th 2015

I am probably the most awful bengal cat owner on this forum and I feel terrible for the way I treated leonardo when I first got him

you seem a lot more prepared for this than I was so why not?

my advice based on my experience

1 - prepare them to use the litterbox as soon as they are brought home or he/she may urinate on your couch and poop on your carpet
2 - let them sleep with you, i don't know why i kept him outside for a few months when he was young and he'd cry for an hour every night to get in - but i had read that they'd learn not to if you didn't open the door - don't do that, just letem sleep at the foot of your bed
3- expect them to occasionally destroy wires, scratch sofa's, knock over things

Just as a note, Bengals can be extremely loud. Sometimes, my Mika will just follow me around the house and chatter away quietly and I "talk" back to her and we have little "conversations" about her day ... Other times, I walk in the door and she is SO excited that she just HOWLS. It's loud, it's shrill and my downstairs neighbour can DEFINITELY hear her. I am lucky that she is very understanding and has cats of her own and knows that, sometimes, they are just loud.

My last roommate was not so forgiving. I had to move because Mika's Bengal chatter annoyed her. Mika knew my roommate didn't like her and that just made it worse so she got louder and louder. It got to be very stressful for all involved. In the end, I had to move to a place where it's just the two of us. We are all happier now, but because I always had to respond to Mika's meowing immediately to try and mitigate the roommate issues, I inadvertently rewarded her for meowing and the louder she meowed, the faster I responded. Also, she used to howl at my roommate when I wasn't home and, every time she did, my roommate fed her. I am now having to do some major behavioural reconditioning to break her of the habit because she has continued the howling meows whenever she wants something. She is slowly relearning that if she wants attention or food, she must sit quietly or ask with quiet meows. There is no need to "yell".

You will NEVER get a Bengal to stop talking to you. They love to "chat" and I actually love that about Mika. You will never feel lonely with a Bengal for a friend. Just be aware that neighbours are not always as appreciative of that as you might be, so it's very important to train your cat to maintain appropriate volumes. Mika and I will get there ... we were fine before the roommate issues and we will get back to that point again, but, since nobody had answered your question about whether or not a Bengal might bother the neighbours, I figured I'd respond ...

That being said, it sounds like you would make a very good Bengal parent and that you've considered it thoroughly. Being home all the time would be an ideal living situation for a Bengal because what they really love is time with their person. If you are careful to ignore behaviours you don't like (such as loud meowing) and you reward the appropriate behaviours, you should have no problems with your Bengal bothering your neighbours.