Hello all,
In a few weeks time we will be bringing home our f1 baby. He will be around 12 weeks by the time we get him (we could have got him at around 9-10 weeks but have to wait for some lovely permits to go through first).
We have decided to name him Luca
and are very ecstatic that we have the opportunity to be getting him. I have always been fascinated with the bengal breed and it was about a year and a half ago that I really got serious about it and decided to do the research and i have arrived at the conclusion that an f1 will be perfect for us and our lifestyle!
I have spoken with many many many breeders who breed f1s and feel that i am well informed on how to take care of ours but what I would like to hear form any of you guys is your experiences with bringing home an f1 to an adult male cat that is not a bengal.
I would really love to hear first hand what you experiences have been with this.
Here are our housing dynamics:
-It's just me and my boyfriend living together though my family is over a lot as are our friends (we are hoping to socialize our kitten a lot early on)
-large apartment but he will have tonnes of opportunities to go out on a harness (once a day at least) as we liv in a residential area of downtown vancouver with lots of parks and paths and trees.
-4 year old non bengal male cat, Avi. Avi is our little baby! He is the most cuddly, playful, loving cat! He was a rescue...sort of. About 2 and a half years ago the neighbours by where my boyfriends parents live i guess had moved away and left this poor kitty to fend for himself. How they can sleep with themselves at night ,i have no idea. Anyways we was outside for days meowing, starved so my boyfriend caught on that he had probably been abandon so took him in at his parent house and fed him and put up posters. no one ever contacted him and my boyfriend didn't want him to end up in a shelter so thats how we got Avi!
What we were most worried about was introducing another animal onto his turf though. We are scared that Avi will become aggressive towards Luca. So we did an experiment. My sister happens to live one floor above us and she recently just rescued to kittens who are not only just a little older than Luca will be when we bring him home. My sister was kind enough to bring one of her little guys down to see how Avi reacts to him. We were expecting the worse assuming Avi would be territorial and hissing. surprisingly enough, that was not the case at all. At first his tale went all bushy which we expected but then after that, Avi just seemed very cautious but did not hiss. in fact, he meowed a little bit and seemed a little shy himself;it was actually pretty cute
both the cats sort of hear heartedly approached each other to sniff around but within minutes my sisters cat was exploring our apartment. Avi did not go after him but he was cautious and kept him in eye site form across the room.
This experience was reassuring for us but i am worried it will be different with an f1 bengal. I have heard that they have a different scent to them and that domestic cats don't always like that.
I am also wondering what will happen when Luca grows up and will likely be bigger than Avi-who will be the dominant one and will that cause problems? I have talked to me breeder about this and she told me it should not be an issue, that Avi will assure his dominance up front and that will be that.
I plan and introducing them slowly; bringing Luca home and having him stay in the bathroom a couple nights so that he can get comfortable and so Avi can get used to the scent of another cat. Then i was planning on moving Luca to a bedroom for a day so that he can explore another room without being overwhelmed by the entire apartment. then when he is ready to have full range of the house i was planning on moving Avi to the bedroom for an hour or so and letting the kitten explore the rest of the place before letting Avi our of the bedroom. then was just going to see how it goes.
Am I taking this too seriously!?? Will it be way more anticlimactic than i am thinking?lol!
thank you for any insight!