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As stated, I've mostly only been lurking. Haven't even posted an introduction to myself and my insane little beastlet - a rescue, whom we believe to be an EG cat. Maybe she's just a "problem kitty", but her problems are very, very much in line with those of EG cats - so even if she is just a "problem kitty", I think I have at least some idea what you'd be up against.
First, a bit about my beloved little beastlet. Her name's Maia. She's possibly an F1 or F2. From all the research I've been able to do into her background, I'm semi-confident of the breeder she came from, and that breeder did produce a number of F1s that would be the right age for Maia to have been from there, and that breeder now produces F2s. I do not know if they will continue to produce F1s, but.... I do hope not.
Maia was very, very lucky. She was purchased from a breeder, and owned by folks who couldn't deal with her issues - and she has many. They dumped her at an SPCA for spraying and yowling. This is an absolute death sentence - the SPCA does all it can, but is not limitlessly funded. Their funds have to go toward animals that can be safely adopted out. A cat that sprays and yowls gets put down; they don't get a chance. I understand that. It's sad, but it is what it is.
Fortunately for Maia, she is really cute. She caught the eye of shelter workers, who thought she acted as though she were in heat. They called a rescue group, and thank goodness, the rescue group was willing to foot the bill for an exploratory spay - although she had a scar and tattoo, it was found that the spay was incomplete. They removed the left-behind ovary, and Maia went to the rescue shelter to wait for a future.
When I called inquiring about her (I didn't want a bengal, per se; I wanted a crazy-silly-active-kitty, not a lap cat, with go-go-go feet and a bold personality), after being questioned for forty minutes by the shelter lady, she decided that I "might just be weird enough for this cat". So I researched bengals, learned about EG cats, decided that, as long as Maia wasn't an EG cat, we'd be good to go.
Well....
Long story short, Maia's pretty likely an F1 or F2. But she lives with me anyway - she made it plain on my second visit to her that I was her person (I did a LOT of soul-searching and even more research after meeting her the first time). My decision to adopt her wasn't made lightly (just as I know that your decision to buy or not buy an EG cat isn't going to be made lightly). But in Maia's case, her being an EG cat wasn't her fault. She already needed a home, and I wasn't (and wouldn't - no offense meant to any breeders out there at all, I swear) supporting a breeder of EG cats. FOR ME, I couldn't morally purchase an EG cat. I PERSONALLY don't think they should continue to be made. But that's JUST ME, and I DO NOT feel that it should influence or impact breeders or purchasers of EG cats....
So why am I writing all of this? Well, you wanted to know what living with an EG cat is like.
So:
I come home from work and Maia demands a snuggle. Then she pretends to eat things (the air, a box, cat food can, a shoe) until I put down her first dinner.
I make a meal for myself while Maia eats and cleans up after herself (she only cleans HERSELF, of course - the splash radius from tearing into her food is my job). And her food is important - she will ONLY eat cans that you open and it's full of actual meat - Weruva, Soulistic, and the like. I am hesitant to consider transitioning to raw, but am thinking about it.
After (or during) my meal, Maia wants to play. If I don't play, she runs back and forth, and climbs the walls at doorjambs. She often makes it close to the ceiling. There are claw marks in the walls. I think this is awesome. Most people wouldn't. We play with Da Bird while I sit and eat if we play during dinner.
Sometimes we do some treat training - she knows "sit" very well, and will also step onto things if I point to them. But she won't eat cat treats. The only "treat" she'll take is boiled chicken. I do this in big batches, then cut up into treat size and freeze in small portions to take out and thaw.
If she gets bored of interaction, I watch a show or something for a while, then she gets second dinner. You see, if I give her her whole dinner at once, she eats it too fast and pukes it up again. No good. So: meals have to be ACTUAL MEAT, no pate, and can't have it all at once.
If I stay up late enough, she has third dinner around 2 am. This gives me a solid six hours to sleep, if I'm very lucky, before Maia wants first breakfast. Otherwise, she wakes me for first breakfast in the middle of my night (if I go to bed early, say, 11 or 12, she will wake me around 4 or 5).
When I go to bed, we have at a minimum a solid 30 minutes of play time with a feather wand. She GOES CRAZY for this. She climbs the tapestries, runs like mad across me and my bed, goes tearing out of the bedroom all saucer-eyed, comes galloping back in, tackles the feathers.... It's tons and tons of fun. To me. Most people, maybe not so much. I can understand why the previous owner couldn't handle her; she is a serious handful, and if they were expecting a normal cat - even a normal bengal - they wouldn't have been able to deal.
In the morning, before second breakfast, we have a snuggle. This is great. She lets me rub my face all in her fur, and scratch her tummy. She purrrrrrrrrrs. We snuggle. And then she demands second breakfast. Second breakfast is her largest meal; for some reason, she doesn't eat this one fast, so I can give her a big portion before work. On the weekends, I get to watch her eat this; she scarfs about a third, then picks at the rest very slowly over a couple of hours - leave, come back, bury it, un-bury it, eat some, bury it, go, come back, etc.
All said and done, my 7lb cat eats two 6oz cans of food per day, divided into four or five meals.
So, she doesn't spray and yowl. Fortunately, removing the overlooked ovary removed those habits as well. But aside from her really, really demanding appetite and absolutely crazy activity level, what other problems are there?
Wellllll, there's the small matter of not peeing in the litterbox. When I took Maia home, I thought, as long as she uses the litterbox, we'll be okay. I can deal with anything, everything, as long as she doesn't go outside of the litterbox.
She poops in the litterbox. Consistently. But peeing? Maybe five or ten percent of the time, she pees in the litterbox. The other 90 to 95 percent of the time, she pees in the wet bar sink in the living room. The first time this happened, I was utterly and completely dismayed. I knew it was possible for her to have issues with the litterbox, but I had truly hoped she wouldn't. As the days went on and the peeing became very consistently in the wet bar sink, I finally decided I didn't mind so much. I mean, really, what is a sink but a simplified toilet? I flush for her when I get home from work and in the morning before work. It's kind of odd when she climbs up to have a pee in the sink while a friend is over (her tail twitches and her eyes shut halfway and she pointedly tries to make eye contact - it's really, um, weird). I see it as a positive thing. I don't have to scoop pees, just poops. I have NEVER ONCE, not even that very first time, discouraged her from this habit. I am utterly terrified that discouraging her will cause her to find elsewhere - like a pillow or something - to pee. I actually even praise her for it.
Let's see, what else....
Oh, she likes to destroy things. Especially to bury her leftover food. She'll drag things from elsewhere to take apart and cover the food. She knocks over trash bins, just for fun I think. She LOVES to "pretend" to eat plastic - ALMOST never actually puts the plastic into her mouth, just licks and then chews the air around it - SO weird - but as a precaution I try to never, ever have plastic in the house. You wouldn't believe how limiting this is. No plastic grocery bags, no wrappers, no packing materials, etc. It's actually very inconvenient, but it's MUCH more convenient than a gut blockage!!!!
So, all of these "problems" aside - I love Maia to bits. She is AMAZING. I mean, holy Gods, my cat CLIMBS WALLS. She's just absolutely spectacular! I really enjoy her craziness, her personality.... She's really, REALLY unique.
What I don't love is that there are others out there, at least a couple that are possibly her half-siblings, that haven't been so lucky. Having a cat like Maia is NOT easy, and some folks who try give up. When they give up, they take the cat to the shelter, thinking someone will surely want a bengal, even a problem bengal. The trouble is, a problem cat gets put down. Maia is LUCKY. Most aren't.
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. My questions don't lie in thinking I couldn't handle one..I was wondering more about people who live with them, or breeders that have them stories and tips. 
