Hi Bengal Kitty friends,

My cat lover boyfriend and I got our first kitten, Earl Grey, last week over the Christmas/New Year period and he was nothing but purry, cuddly and affectionate.

Since the holidays are over, we are now back at work (close enough to home to give Earl a wet food meal at lunch time). We find that he's very giddy and super-playful every time we get back from work, which is adorable.

The problem however is that he seems to always be in "attack mode" - claws out when being stroked, biting and ears back. When we tell him off with the neck scruff pinch and moving him, he jumps straight back to return to what the same behaviour.
He's attacking feet, ready to jump to claw faces (unsuccessfully because we're ninjas. LOL), generally up for constant rough play.

We find that we are telling him off far too often (spray bottle, saying NO firmly, and everything else the internet suggests), which I think is making him either worse, or jumpy.

I would sincerely appreciate . I'm a little stressed out and not sleeping well from worry and anxiety.

Your kitty has a lot of energy. He wants to play. When you try to stop him by the means you describe, you only entice him further into this play aggression.

You need to play with him and you need to play him out to exhaustion.

Scruffing, scolding, spraying him with water all serve to build distrust with your kitten and they do NOT work.

Please try a teaser toy. Be prepared to play with him at lunch time. It will be more fun and rewarding for you and for him.

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~ Kyenta

Here's the thing... from about here to about 12 months or so, your kitten is very likely to be in that "turbo play mode" much of the time. That's kittenhood, and it's being a bengal. You cannot scold away his need to play. You cannot tell him that you don't want to him to play, you want to cuddle and snuggle and get him purry etc. He is "practicing to become a cat" and that means all sorts of hunting and playfighting kinds of behavior.

So what do you do? By far the most important thing is to establish the "YES" before you can tell him "NO". You need to establish play that meets his needs but that is acceptable to you, and then you have to devote a considerable amount of time each day to play with him. Once you do that, you'll be on the right path, but you are still going to pretty much have scratches up and down your legs and arms for the next several months while he learns to accept your way of play and to not beat you up. Having a bengal kitten is a very fun and memorable experience, but you have to take the good with the bad.

BTW, really good ways to give him that hunting sort of play is to use toys like dabird, flying frenzy, and neko flies.

Also... in general, for a bengal kitten to be in the hellish, turbo, playful, mischevious sort of mode, that indicates that he's actually healthy and pretty well-adjusted. If your kitten isn't like that for a couple of days, then you start to worry about him being ill.

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The little monsters 3

Welcome to our forum! Well, you have a bengal. And a bengal kitten at that. Bengals have so much energy, get bored easily, are very social and want to be with humans at all times. I'm sure you were home a lot over the holidays and he got used to your company. Now, he is spending a lot of time alone, gets bored, doesn't exert is energy, and when you appear, goes absolutely bonkers over the fact someone is there to interact with. Many bengals are like dogs -- super happy to see you when you walk through the door. They feel they must be a priority.

If you thought having a bengal would mean the cat sleeps 20 hours a day -- not happening with a bengal. They take short spurts of naps, but want to be awake and interacting with you. Kittens are extremely playful and have prey instincts. You needs toys -- lots of toys to distract the cat away from your hands and legs. You need to be playing with your kitty -- morning, noon, and night. Bengals are not your regular cat and this is why many end up in rescues or are rehomed because owners are unable to deal with their quirky behavior. Things should improve as your kitten gets older.

Know that spray bottles do not work and will never work and only instill fear in your cat of humans. You want your kitty to bond with you, not be scared to death of you. Punishment doesn't work either. So give up. It's more of accept your cat the way it is because the cat is not going to change. Many of us have discovered that WE are the ones who have to adjust and change. Welcome to Life With A Bengal.

Congratulations on getting your new kitten.

The good news is that you have a 2:1 ratio of humans to bengal kittens in your house - you have 2 humans to wear out 1 kitten. You need to both play with the kitten in the morning when you are getting ready for work, play a little at lunchtime and expect a couple of hours of on and off play in the evening - some evenings more will be required.

Get a Da Bird- they are excellent for getting a kitten running and jumping. Wear Earl Grey out to the point that he's laid on the floor panting, give him a minute and wear out his 2nd wind, repeat until he just can't play anymore. Repeat. Frequently.

Bengal kittens have an immense amount of energy, the adults too :-) They need that energy running out of them. Other cats that we've had have always calmed down and done some grooming after eating. With a bengal kitten eating is more like a pit stop for a Formula One car:

VRoooom. Screech to a halt. Refuel. VRoooooooooom off into the distance at 200 mph.

My two are now 2.5 years old and I've been playing with them for the last hour and a half, off and on as I get ready for work this morning. They are generally much calmer than they were, but they'll also sometimes play for 4 hours when I get home.

Of course, there's another option which will sometimes* help wear out your kitten - a second bengal kitten. :-)

* other times, of course, you end up with twice the trouble and 2 bengal kittens to wear out :-0