Have an 18 mth male bengal (also a female - full sister). He often chases my older moggie, but rarely aggressively, and often has a cuddle with her too.

However, I've just had to seperate them, he attacked her, she was on her back, screaming, with his teeth sunk into her neck. I've yelled at him, and as I chased him upstairs, he just sat there with an "Am I bovvered" look on his face. Needless to say, he is now locked up in the bedroom in disgrace. Moggie is fine, although understandably shaken.

Nothing is different, it wasn't feeding time, she wasn't getting any attention, no games going on, nothing, just a normal boring night infront of the telly.

I'm concerned that he's going to do it again though - and as Moggie is 11 years old, and not got an attacking bone in her body, I'm worried that he will do it again.

Help please!!

Hey Bexj, sorry to hear about your poor moggie.

I have three bengal boys and one moggie. Generally they all get along just fine however my young boy Lenny (who happens to be the biggest) has got into a few similar situations with my moggie.

In my experience there has been 2 reasons for this (a) he has been a bit bored and looking for trouble or (b) and probably more likely, he starts off as boisterous play, my moggie takes it really seriously and he ends up retaliating.

My solution has been not to leave my moggie with them unsupervised (which is fine for me as I have a fairly big home). Also keeping young Lenny stimulated keeps him out of trouble.

My moggie is fairly young and gives as good as she gets to be honest, I can see your dilemma with an 11 year old. Have you tried using feliway diffuser - worked wonders for first three months I had the boys home - peace and harmony prevailed

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www.supernova-bengals.co.uk

Hi Linda

Thanks for your reply. He could be bored I think - my partner has just been off work for 2 weeks and has gone back today, so they've had themselves for company today. When he's allowed out of disgrace (he's been upstairs now for about an hour so I guess soon...), then we'll play with him - although I don't want him to see it as a reward.

What is a feliway diffuser? Never heard of it!

Will struggle to keep them apart when we are not around - small terrace house and most of the doors are missing! Or shut to keep the cats out!!

My male Bengal does this with our other cats when he gets bored. I agree that it may have started out as play, but when she reacted badly, he escalated, too.

Feliway is a synthetic pheromone that is used to help control spraying and to calm cats, especially when introducing them into a new environment. Here's a link to the intro of the site:

http://www.feliway.com/homefeliway.nsf

Select your country, then select "behavior." You should be able to get it from your vet. It mimics the facial pheromones that cats secrete when they rub their faces on furniture, etc. I've never used it, but my friends who have find it very effective.

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SharonCville

Is he neutered? If not I would get him down to the vet ASAP.

If he is neutered then I agree with the previous posts. Personally I wouldn't leave them alone together unsupervised for a while until he settles down again. I wouldn't risk my moggie getting injured at her time of life, she probably is no match for him.

I have a few cats and every now and again a scrap gets up between two which results in fur flying but it is over very quickly and doesn't seem to recur at least not for another few months/years. Hopefully this was just one of these events and won't escalate into bullying.

This is however the problem with multi-cat households with no outdoors for them to let off steam, or to manifest their drive to go a-hunting.
(I wouldn't however advocate letting them outside unless you feel it is very safe from cars, predators, other cats, disease, being stolen etc etc.)

Pent up emotions I'm afraid, but I would definitely separate them while you are not around, at least for a while.

As much as you may not want to accept this as a solution, their fighting is a way of establishing the pecking order. It happens in all multi-cat households, and even between cats and an owner who doesnt lay down the law.

My two Bengals (sisters), do this daily... they each instigate at times, but Moe will always win if she decides she wants to. Its usually over the preferred nesting spot on the back of the couch, or the shelf over the computer. Sometimes its just because one of them is bored. They do the whole biting-the-neck sleeper-hold routine, squalling and wrestling ensues and eventually one flees to be chased by the other.

As long as their isnt any REAL damage (blood, scratch injuries, real bites), I'd let them work it out. If your Bengal is really attacking to injur, thats a different story.