I have 2 bengals. My girl is about 5yo and is grandma to my boy about 2yo. The girl does not bathe herself very well and was starting to smell pretty bad. Her fur was kinda stickly like - not sleek anymore. Long story short we took her in to be bathed and groomed. Upon her return the boy not longer reconizes her smell and does not want her around. He hisses and is very stressed out. Keeping them seperate is an issue as we would have to change litter box locations as well as food and water. As both are really stressed I cringe at the thought of creating a problem with the use of the boxes. They are both used to roaming the house freely and if I locked one in a room they would scream until let then out. They both sleep in my room at night but we leave the door open so they can come and go as they please. What do I do to get them to love each other again? As I forsee her needing grooming sessions in the future I need to figure out how to avoid this again!

Thank you for any advice!

Try wiping them both with a chamois leather, it can help with removing alien scent and distributing "normal" smell.


Heather

On a side note, you may want to take her to the vets to be checked out....a cat by nature is very clean and often a greasy unkept coat is the sign of an underlying problem.

If your girl was grooming herself before and then stopped, then something is probably wrong. I'm guessing you mentioned this to the vet. I've never had a cat that didn't groom itself throughout the day and Raiden is the best smelling cat I've ever had. I could just sniff on him all day long.

As for her grandson not recognizing her scent -- whatever shampoo scent may have been used on your girl should go away in time as the oils return to the skin. I think the main issues are whether there is something wrong with your girl because cats are fastidious when it comes to being clean -- and once you get that under control, then your other kitty may come around. It could be stress. What might have changed in her environment about the time she stopped cleaning herself?

^
What she said!

_________________
Lollo