Hi!

I am new to this breed. My previous cat keeping experiences are my family's two cats, one Siamese and one American Shorthair.

Now I live alone and have just got a sweet little Bengal boy of 10 wks old. I picked him up on Friday and have spent the weekend with him. He is playful and cuddly, just the right amount of everything. He does not meow at night and sleeps right next to me. He plays with all his toys and even when I am not playing with him, he seems to entertain himself well.

During the day when I go out to do groceries, as far as I can tell, he will keep meowing as long as I keep him busy with some toy when I open the door to go out.

But what about the weekdays? I need to leave him home for about 7 or even 9 hours depending on my schedule.
I will make sure I play with him a bit before I head out and play with him after I come home everyday, but just the idea of going out for the day, leaving him home, makes me feel bad because I am not there to accompany him.

How do people deal with it and how do bengal kittens cope with this?
Should I be keeping an eye on getting another cat (maybe not a bengal but a siamese) at the same time?

Also, just curious, what temperature do you keep your bengal in? We are entering fall right now, the temp. can jump a bit from time to time, so the AC is turned off but I am not very sensitive to temperature and can tolerate very cold temp. But I need to know as a bengal kitten how warm he should be kept in so I can adjust my home temp.

I'm in a similar situation, but it's part of why I've always had multiple cats. The one time I had just a single cat she'd see me to the door when I went to work, then run to the window to watch me drive away, the be at that same window when I came home, and run to the door to greet me. A month or so of that was all I could take, so I got a second cat. Those were shelter moggie cats though. Bengals are pretty different.

For my current cats, I can tell you that my Siamese (actually oriental shorthair) really isn't a well matched playmate for bengals. Her energy level is actually pretty close but she just wants to play-hunt, she has no interest in bengal rough-housing. Your mileage may vary, but that's how mine are.

I would say that if you were to get another cat to be a bff with your bengal kitten, ideally it would be another bengal kitten but of course there is always a risk of that backfiring too.

As far as temperature, I always keep my house above 60 and the upstairs is always warmer than the downstairs. Plus they have a heated blanket and lots of warm bedding to snuggle in when they want to be a little warmer.

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The little monsters 3

I really thing bengal owners worry a little too much about leaving their kitty alone. The kitty will sleep a good portion of the time and if you have some interactive toys, may keep themselves occupied. I would limit the area the cat has to run around in and make sure the room is completely bengal-proof! They can get into the tiniest of places, so get on your hands and knees and look around from the perspective of a cat.

If you really want to know what your kitty is up to while you are gone, invest in a surveillance camera that you can access through a mobile device or computer and you can watch and see. I think you're working for nothing. A cat has no concept of time so they won't realize you are gone for 5 minutes or 5 hours. Happy the kitty is settling in, however, the breeder let him go a couple of weeks early.

As kittens, a playmate seems pretty important, unless you want to run yourself ragged playing with a solo kitten. After about 2 years, they interact a couple times a day to chase one another around and wrassle, but for the most part my two nap and hunt in opposite areas of the house and patio. They take turns coming in the house to visit me because they know if they both come in, I might close the door thinking they are finished with outside to save the A/C. My two have taken on bully/victim roles, and I think both would be happier as a solo cat getting all the attention and food without always looking over her shoulder for the other one.