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www.supernova-bengals.co.uk

We were worried about this. If we get a kitten and then go our to work we are worried about leaving it with a free run of the house incase it hurts itself. We thought about using a cat crate as dogs find being in these relaxing. Has anyone used them?

Blimey! That took me back to the days before my boys arrived....oh I was young and innocent of Bengal ways then

We ended up getting a puppy crate (partly because we were having some work done on the house) and it worked very well. The boys had free run of a bedroom in the daytime and were put in the crate at night. After a week or two we gradually let them have the run of the hallway as well but it was a while before we could let them into other rooms without then having to detach them from curtains, furniture etc soon after......

My two are now about 19 months old and are happy and purry guys who definitely rule the roost!

(PS...meant to sell the puppy crate when they didn't need it any more but you never know, one day I might want to expand my pack of furry monsters... )

Teresa

I got three Benglas kittens about 4 months ago and I would echo the advice about opening the house up a bit at a time. My house is over three floors and I limited them to the ground floor initially because I thought the whole building might be a bit overwhelming for them. It was quickly apparent that they were quite relaxed and confident so I opened the other two floors up over a period of about a week and they now have the run of the house except the bathroom and one bedroom.

The only mishap I've had is when one of them climbed down the back of a wardrobe and couldn't get back up again. She panicked a bit which resulted in some shredded wallpaper but no real harm done. I have had to go for a minimalist approach in terms of ornaments and gadgets but it certainly means the house is less cluttered and I love having them around wherever I am in the house. They get left all day while I'm at work and it doesn't seem to have upset them - they have each other for company.

When I brought Mikesch into the house, I was rather naive and didn't think about confining him to one room. He immediately went through the whole house and inspected every room, meowing loudly for me to accompany him and open any closed doors. After figuring out where the food was and eating his fill, then figuring out where the litter box was and using it, and then spraying in places in the basement that smelled of cat (he was a young adult and not neutered yet when I took him in), he settled down right next to me to purr and he slept in my bed that night. I never had a problem with him hiding or acting overwhelmed by anything. Before Binky became his best buddy, he would always come running when he heard me moving around the house. But I guess he's a special kind of cat. All the others took a lot longer to settle in. It took about a week of slowly opening the house room by room for Binky, and one of my two foster cats is just now starting to cautiously explore the upstairs after one month of being here.