Hi everyone,

Looking for some advise and wisdom from experienced Bengal owners and experts.

We have a Bengal kitten F6, and it seems like he is determined to eat us out of the house and home :)

When we got him, he had worms, that at the time explained his mad appetite, he has been deformed by us twice now, but the eating habits seem to just get worse! He is 6.5 months old and weighs 4.300kg (that is almost 9.5 pounds) and has quite impressive bit of fat on his tummy. He seems constantly hungry, prefers wet diet, doesn't like dry cat food, but always steals dog food from our Rottweiler .
I avoid supermarkets cat food and opt for higher quality wet food, also make own sometimes.

Can you please tell me if this is normal, perhaps I should change something?

We had Bengal cat previously but he was entirely different, pretty much vegetarian (i am not kidding) and only preferred dry food.
It is such a change for us, i just worry about his health.

Thank you.

Renata (Alaska's mum)

He's still growing, so he will probably eat a huge amount up until about 7-9 months old, then settle down a bit. The seasons have an effect as well. It's probably not fat he's got on his tummy, just a natural primordial pouch. Speculation is these pouches just aid long stride running rather than stretch the skin. 4.3 kg isn't a bad weight for his age either.

I'd recommend you get him onto set meal times, at least, if not already. Cat's don't need to graze. What's your rotti eating that your bengal steals?

I worried like you with my two. I could never seem to satisfy their appetites but they do slow down, it is just simply they are growing and need the extra calories. Once mine got to a year old I worried they weren't eating enough as they ate so much less!

Hendrix has a prominent primordial pouch which seemed to appear from nowhere, Jagger's isn't quite so obvious. But again, nothing to worry about, it is very normal.

He looks very healthy to me from your picture!

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

Thank you for your comments, I feel relieved :) I have already started introducing routine feeding, but when he's hungry he simply shouts his head off
Dog is fed dry food, Barking heads or Arden Grange Large breed. When Alaska started stealing Barking heads, I thought i'd try Mewing heads for him - He hates it
As he prefers wed food i Usually feed Animonda Carny, Grau thise are foods with no grain and artificial additives. Also I cook him chicken every now and again. He loves raw meet, and I know it's good for his teeth etc, but at the moment this just occasional treat, as his poops are getting runny from it and he farts a lot

From the pictures, he looks like he has a little extra weight on him, but considering he's still growing, I wouldn't be too concerned until he becomes an adult and then you can control better the quantity of food. Many bengals have a prominent primordial pouch. Mine has a huge one! This is a carry over from the Asian Leopard cat and wild cats in general to allow for additional gorging when there is a kill in the wild. It stores the extra food because they don't know when the next kill will happen. Some bengals do not have this -- others have sagging bellies (I thought Raiden was a female when I first saw him).

Alaska should not be eating dog food -- as you know, so it's important to keep him away from that. As long as your vet isn't concerned right now, I wouldn't be. Hopefully, as he grows out of his kitty stage and into adulthood, his appetite will dwindle down. Know that appetite is also dependent on how active the kitty is. A more active cat will need more calories than a cat that sleeps 20 hours a day!

Your kitty is gorgeous, I love his coloring. He looks perfectly normal for a growing kitten. My kittens were ravenous at that age and would look chubby and then grow suddenly. They only just now walk away from their food bowl without finishing every morsel and they are about 15 months old. Kittens eat a lot.