Thank you all so much for your support and your nice comments. You guys are all super nice!And Im really not kidding when I say this: I couldn't have this without everyone's help. So a BIG thank you and maybe give yourselves a pat on the back

So here's a quick update: He has been eating his wet food really well, finished all of it every time. He hasn't touched the dry food but Im guessing its because of the nerves (plus breeder said he doesnt love eating the dry stuff). He left me 2-3 HUGE presents in the litter box this morning I was quite pleased.

I got a few wand toys in the mail today as well as a new Armarkat cat bed. He seems to like the bed and he LOVES the new wands. He's been much more playful and curious today, than yesterday, but I can still sense some nervousness. So whenever he retreats to the carrier (he likes sleeping in there even though theres like 3-4 other beds), I just give him some space and come back in an hour or so.

Here is a video of him playing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXFPPzfj8gE

And a picture of him taking a power nap last night after a play session:

_________________
~
Matt

Sounds like everything is going really well! Not a bad thing he likes to sleep in his carrier. One of mine still sleeps in his and believe me, it helps getting them to the vet if the carrier doesn't instil fear and suspicion! Ours is always out by a radiator and I often find Hendrix snuggled up in it.

My guys took a couple of days to fully come out of their shells and then started to use me as a climbing frame. Hopefully Miko will prefer his trees

Expect to look like you self-harm very, VERY soon!!!

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

Very cute kitten!

Great to see that he is settling in nicely and hunting down that pesky Da Bird.

Thanks for starting my day off with a smile! He is gorgeous!

Thanks you guys!

So I discovered a few things about Miko yesterday/today.

I went out to eat lunch after playing with him yesterday and I specifically put the DaBird toy on top of the washing machine, so that he wouldn't be able to get it. To my surprise, the toy was lying on the ground when I got back, and sure enough, it no longer had any feathers on it lol.

My two other wands are also maimed and damaged. He likes chasing after the wands but when he catches it, he always tries to bring it back into a cave to kill (aka shred it to pieces, or better yet, bite the string off lol). Gonna make some DIY wand attachments I think.

So I also made a mistake this morning. After I fed him and played a bit with him, he seemed really curious about what was "beyond" the safe room. He kept trying to follow me out last night too. So I thought maybe he's ready to explore a bit. So he went outside, slowly walked around, found the stairs to the basement and at this point I immediately knew it was too early to bring him out because of the way he was looking at me, but I didn't want to scare him by chasing after him. So he went down the stairs and hid under a couch, great! lol. It probably took me around 20 minutes to convince him to come out (didnt want to grab him) and then I picked him up and put him back in the safe room.

After a minute or two back in the safe room, I sat down with him and he climbed in my lap and started purring like CRAZY. It was like he was happy he was back in a comfortable place. We've played a bit too and now hes in my lap purring and taking a nap again. So hopefully bringing him outside didn't do too much damage. Probably will keep him in the safe room for at least another few days.

_________________
~
Matt

Aww, Papa Matt! I would love to be a fly on the wall in your home. Miko will be extremely curious and will inspect every corner of your home, but know that eventually, all of that curiosity will be gone and he won't care that much. As for the toys -- as long as he doesn't EAT the feathers, you are good. But sounds like he is going to be a destructive little boy. Since you are so good at making cat trees, I'm sure you can come up with something. Interactive toys are great, too. And one can never have too many toys for their cats.

Love that he enjoys your lap! I know you love that as well. It is apparent that the bonding is going great and that he has fallen as much in love with you as you have with him. I am so happy for you.

_________________
Thomas

Lily & Noha - Oct 7th 2015

Thanks everyone! It has been going pretty well the last two days, took Miko to the vet for a check up this morning. He did really well at the vets, even though he was crying in the car.

However, today Miko has given me some stress lol. He's showing me two different sides of himself and its making it hard for me to decide what to do. Here's what Im talking about: (Sorry for this super long post, I just need to vent and find out from you all if Im doing things correctly)

1) "Lap cat one minute, trying to destroy my legs the other."

Sometimes after a long play session, he likes to come onto my lap (or sometimes my chest if im lying down) and he likes to take a nap/cuddle with me. During the day time, he does this for long periods of time after we play. He usually stays until I move him lol, and often he falls asleep right there on my lap. I often play for 30-45 minute sessions or until he loses interest, and because I took a week off work, I've been doing at least 4 play sessions a day with him.

Everything was going fine until tonight, after playing with him for 30~ minutes after dinner, I figured he must be a little tired by now (we had played for around 2-2.5~ hours throughout the day on top of that as well). So I sat down and invited him onto my lap as usual. He gets up on my lap and I'm busy reading something on my phone, he starts clawing at my leg and bites my leg decently hard. It didn't hurt much but just startled me, and I gave out a loud "Ow Miko!" and a decisive, but not mean, "No". He didn't quite get the message though so I decided to leave the room for 5 minutes. I know cats don't respond well to punishment but if I didn't leave, he would have kept pouncing and clawing at my feet. So after 5 minutes, I figured he needed to play more to get some energy out, so I went back in and I got one of his favorite wand toys and played with him for another 20 minutes until he got bored of the wands. After this play session, I told him good job and I praised him a bit.

After this second play session of the evening, he was still really hyper and energetic though somehow. He was literally running like crazy, pouncing on random toys, and (mostly) leaping onto my legs, claws fully out, trying to climb up to the washing machine. I eventually just gave in (not wanting to punish him more) and lifted him up to the washing machine and then I managed to calm him down/distract him by running some water out of the faucet. And then after watching the water for a bit, he jumped down and snuggled up with me for a bit (without hurting me this time).

So I guess I made a tiny bit of progress with Miko in terms of correcting his rough play, but I am wondering if you guys have any suggestions? Im worried I won't have time to play with him for 3-4 hours a day when I go back to work. Maybe he is just extra feisty right now because he's a kitten?

2) Wanting to go "beyond" safe room / getting really scared once out there

So this one is simple to explain. Since the second day Ive had Miko, he's been showing more and more interest in trying to leave the safe room when I open the door. Today, after the vet, he literally tried to squeeze through the door as I was closing it, so I thought "Hmm maybe he's had a change of heart and wants to explore a little". I let him out and he started climbing up the stairs to the second floor (all the doors up there are closed).

I let him explore the second floor and come down at his own pace, and then he went off towards the living room. I decided to walk slowly and follow him to supervise, but I noticed him acting much more nervous with me when outside of the safe room. He would avoid me and it seemed like he would look at me like I was a predator. After not too much time in the living room, he darted up the stairs. I was worried that because he was acting nervous, that he might hurt himself from falling, so I decided to follow him up the stairs and catch him to bring him back to the safe room because he was clearly not ready.

Turns out he was too fast for me and just darted past me back into the safe room.

I keep worrying myself by thinking about the fact that Miko might never feel comfortable with the big house, but I am probably just over-worrying as usual. My guess is that he doesn't yet feel 100% comfortable with me and I need to work on fully gaining his trust in the safe room first? Even though he's on my lap purring a lot, often when I enter the room, it takes him around 5~ minutes of hiding in the carrier until he comes out to see me. I dont know why but I am guessing he's still not 100% sure of me?

3) Hunting/killing toys & Eating feathers

At first, when I would play with the wand toys with Miko, I would let him catch it, and then he would drag it into one of his caves to destroy. At first, I just thought he was shredding it with his claws, but it turns out he is actually trying to eat the toys. After the whole debacle of letting him out of the safe room today, he went back in the room and after some comforting, he went to the litter box and started heaving like he wanted to throw up. After a few seconds, he threw up three small one inch long feathers tips (from the toy I used before the vet), and a tiny bit of liquid.

I was super worried, so I looked up online what to do. Most people said that I should keep a really close eye on Miko, and see if he acts like he's in pain or discomfort. He seemed just fine to me and actually wanted to play right after. So I kept a close eye this time when playing with the wands, and then as usual, I fed him his wet food after playtime. Luckily for me, he ate all of his food, which people said probably meant he threw up everything he needed to. He also pooped later on and luckily, I didn't find any feathers in his poop.

This issue has also gotten me quite stressed, as he likes to eat all of the wand toys that I have. Its either string or feather on the toy and he chews on it to break it apart and then tries to swallow it. He also wont let go of the toy after he has caught it, and I literally have to grab it and wrestle it out of his mouth/claws. I keep thinking that I shouldn't be wrestling toys out because Im worried it might spur some aggression in him. The wand toys are his favorite to play with though (he doesnt really like any of his other toys much) but it seems they are also quite dangerous in Miko's case. How do I find a happy medium here? Cat Dancer makes these metal wire/cardboard toys that my vet gave me, and that seems like a decent option, but it doesnt really provide the same amount of running/chasing as the Da Bird for example. Should I just not let him play with feather toys anymore?

Sorry for making you read all that (and thank you if you did!!). I would really appreciate some feedback. Im a little stressed about my little guy lol, but I guess its good at least hes eating, drinking, pooping and playing still.

_________________
~
Matt

Answers:

1. Inappropriately rough play

You are doing all the right things, except you have a REALLY unrealistic set of expectations. You are expecting that he does something you don't like, you rebuke him in some way, then the problem will be resolved

It doesn't quite work that way He will learn, and it will get better... over MONTHS (not hours or days). He needs time to figure it out. And the biggest lesson for this stuff is that there are many fun ways that you play with him, and that there are many not-so-fun ways that he tries to play with you. He needs time to sort that out, and it happens through lots of repitition. In my experience, he's going to get worse before he gets better (especially because he'll get stronger). The next 3 months are going to be rough on your limbs, get some good band-aids and anti-bacterial products, but by his first birthday or so, he'll be much much better. Have patience.

2. Exploring And Getting Scared
I think what you are doing is fine. Maybe you're pushing it a bit. Again, like the aggression issue, it takes time. Of *course* he is going to fully acclimate to your home. He will own your home and know it better than you do in a few weeks. But it will probably take that much time. My bengals stayed in the saferoom for a week or so, but that was the first time they started to be interested in what was behind the door. Then they would venture out, run back into their saferoom, venture out more, run back in etc. I think that's why they call it a saferoom, because it was the one place they felt entirely safe. Keep in mind that one thing that freaks out most kittens is having a human adult looming over them at full height. They do a lot better when you are sitting down, and even better when you are sitting or lying on the floor. I think that might be part of it. If they are getting too stressed, keep them in the saferoom for a day or two, then try again. No biggie.

3. I would continue letting him play with dabirds, just because it's something important to him and something that he loves (but buy more feathers, they sell multi-packs ), and even let him run off with it, but then take it away from him before he chews it up. Also never never leave it out. It's a special toy that comes out when you play with him, then gets carefully stored for the next play session. Serafina always does this (tries to run off with it), even now. But I've become good at cutting her off, and when she does get by me, I get the toy back quickly. She knows now what it means when I hold my hand out, and she lets me take it (only slightly grudgingly). I often tell her "Catch and release Serafina, C'mon", and she does. She learned pretty quickly that it is to her advantage to do this, because then the game continues! There are mouse attachments that you could try also. Those can't really be pulled apart.

Good luck, but the key word is patience!

_________________
The little monsters 3

_________________
~
Matt

_________________
The little monsters 3

1) "Lap cat one minute, trying to destroy my legs the other."

Ohhh yes. :-) My two would be played with to the point of ( seeming ) exhaustion several times a night when I got in from work - perhaps 4 hours of play, I'd sit down with a glass of wine and two snoozing angels, only to find one of them thinking "the leg must die! Banzai!". You'd give a timeout, come back, get attacked by the other kitten - is it still a timeout if everyone but me is now in the cat room ?? Let them out of the room and get attacked again and again. This is part of having a beautiful, part wild, cat. As Brian says they have a strong prey drive and seemingly limitless energy as kittens.

Consistent love and limits, bandaids and whatever the American version of Germolene is the way forward. Any use of teeth/claws needs to lead to a negative consequence for the kitten - If he was playing inappropriately with his mum he'd get a warning paw on the top of his head/swatted and his mum would turn her back on him. It goes without saying that a person must never hit a cat, but you can easily remove attention.

One thing that I noted, that I think you did a bit wrong - when you were attacked you were the one to leave - separation is right, but it should have been the other way around - the kitten leaves and therefore loses his spot and the strokes that go with it. Otherwise he might start getting ideas about wherever you were sitting being his territory.

I apologise, but I did giggle when I read your post

Welcome to world of Bengal kittenhood! Savlon was my best friend during this time. I think Brian and Cranberry have covered pretty much everything above, but I would say, it sounds like Miko is settling in well and seems confident and well-socialised which are good things.

Hendrix was terrible for chewing and eating things too (especially his bouncy balls) so all toys Miko can chew up and swallow, put somewhere Bengal proof when you are not there to supervise. Purchase plenty of bitter apple spray for wires/leads - I didn't know about this when my two were kittens and it was a nightmare trying to stop them chewing wires.

Hopefully you have put away anything on shelves that can be knocked off in a cabinet or somewhere as that is a fabulous game for Bengals. they love to know what happens when something hits the ground.

Miko will get into all sorts of things you won't have thought of, get down on your hands and knees to his eye level and look around to see what mischief he can get up to in your absence... One thing that used to stress me out was in the kitchen. Jagger in particular was always trying to get behind the kick boards, especially when I opened the dishwasher, a space used to open up and he'd be trying to get in there, or the actual dishwasher. So once he's in that area be very aware of what he can get into!

And wear thick clothing on your legs and arms!!!

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