Hi, as everyone here is wise in the way of the Bengal, my wife and I would like to pick your brains. We would like to get a Bengal playmate for our boy Pi, who is almost 11 months. We are considering a female. I think it would be better if the newcomer is younger than him, what's your opinion on this?
Thanks, Lee and Lane.

The websites say Bengals get along with dogs and other cats -- but I'm sure that's not always the case. The easiest solution seems to be to get two bengals from the same litter at the same time! Your Pi is only 11 months old, so that's not too bad. I'd probably try to get a bengal more that age than a new kitten. Regardless, it will be interesting for you introducing new member of the family. There are topics on here on that and you may want to Google "introducing a new cat." What is required is time and patience. Introducing them properly takes time. Hopefully they will get along famously.

In general, getting a kitten is always going to be an easier transition for the older cat, than another adult. And the older your resident cat is the harder it is likely to be. Getting a bengal kitten now gives you the best chance at a relatively smooth acceptance. I don't think there really is much data on whether a male or a female would be better. Good luck.

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The little monsters 3

Thank you for your advice, we are looking at one tomorrow that is 5months old. Hopefully that isn't too much of an age issue or energy issue :)

Firstly I'd like to wish you good luck with adding to your feline family.

Personally, I believe that the key to success is in the personalities of the animals themselves, not all cats are going to get along, as indeed not all people do.

Age can help to make a transition smoother, in the respect that a younger kitty can usually get away with more initially. But even then, it's not a guarantee and if your baby's used to being the only cat in the house then any addition could prove stressful at first, until they've had time to get used to each other, gradually and at their own pace.

I'll give you an example.

We have 3 bengals. We adopted Sasha (mum) first and she settled down quickly. WE then adopted one of her babies a couple of months later (Storm) and things went smoothly, they instantly recognised each other and took immediately. At the end of that year which was several months after getting Sasha and Storm we agreed to adopt the last of her litter (Cookie). Sasha was hissing at him at first but not aggressive. That in itself was enough to show us that she knew who he was and after a couple weeks of slow introductions she was fine with him. The problem was more Storm. She was terrified of him! We kept Cookie in a separate room for the first few weeks to allow him to settle down in a calm environment and everytime we took Storm in for introductions she went mad! He was so desperate to go and play with her as he's friendly to everything he meets but Storm is a big ball of nerves and wasn't having any of it. It took several weeks for her to come round to him but eventually she did and now they're all settled and you'd think they'd never been separated the way they all get along so well.

Obviously as they were all part of the same family we had an advantage but the timing between the girls and cookie was several months and he was also pretty much a year old by the time we took him in, so it was pretty much like starting a fresh. Relationships had to be re-established and the best way to do that with cats of any age is gradually.

Good luck, hope it all goes well for you. xxx