I jus wanted you to meet King Cairo my new baby Bengal

He's really amazing & I'm so excited to meet everyone and hear all your great experiences with your Bengals

I would love any advise or tips on food for my Bengal kitten. I'm getting a lot of mixed feedback on what to give him.

He's 3 1/2 mos old now and jus had his first vet visit with me yesterday weighing in at 4pds.

The breeder told me he would be a big cat, so I'm wondering how big he will get and if he is at the right weight for his age.

Does anyone knows when he will complete the fuzzies process?

Thank you so much and it's nice to meet you all.

P.S I tried to add photos but it didn't work : (

Hi and welcome

If you check out the nutrition section of the forum I'm sure someone can help you with food I personally raw feed my two these days due to my boy's allergies. 4lbs at 13 weeks is a large boy so don't worry he's a good weight I think my boy was around 3.7lbs at that age and he's a pretty bigish muscular guy now he's 7.7lbs at just over 5 months ( but he has a blip with tummy issues so he may not be as big as he could be) Bengal boys can get very big some over 20lbs also they keep growing until 2 years old.

Hope you enjoy your time here. You can attach photos in the upload attachment section when you post a response or you can use a website like imageshack, imgur or any other site and post the photo using the BB board code. Looks like this [img]

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- Sarah
Arya 24/04/16 - Seal Lynx Point Rosetted Bengal
Griffith 16/04/16 - Silver Seal Lynx Point Rosetted Bengal
Mina (in my avatar)- 1999-2016 - Seal Mink Spotted Bengal (Snow) - run free at rainbow bridge

thank you so much for your reply I really appreciate it : ) It's crazy because the breeder told me to give him a grain free diet & raw, but when I took him to the vet yesterday she disagreed with both menus. She said he should be on kitten food and it didn't need to be grain free. So right now I'm trying the science diet for kittens. I'm all confused at this point. I trust the breeder she has gorgeous cats & I also trust the vet she's been in the field for many years so..it's tough. I wanna give him the healthiest diet possible cuz he is growing. He has a real good appetite and very active. I love how he snuggles and lets me hug him and kiss him without wiggling out of my arms. I hope he doesn't change too much after his neutering.

Veterinarians receive minimal education re: cat diet. The instruction they do receive is commonly provided by pet food manufacturers. Vets are often resistant to raw diets out of ignorance. My vet didn't recommend any particular diet. He examined my kitten, then told me to keep feeding him whatever I had been feeding him - so I did.

Cats are obligate carnivores. Their system is not set up to handle anything but animal product, certainly not grain, which can be quite disruptive to their digestion.

A complete raw diet is good if your cat will eat it. My boy has been fed strictly raw since I got him at 13 weeks old. His breeder fed a homemade raw chicken diet but also free fed a kibble (I forget which one). When I picked up Quasar, he came with some raw food and some kibble. I left the kibble out for him for about the first week but he didn't touch it. I ended up giving it to our dog.

You need to find a food your cat will eat and the one that he eats that contains the most meat is the best.

Good luck! (more pictures please, he's a beaut!)

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~ Kyenta

He's a beautiful boy.

My personal opinion trust your breeder when it comes to feeding over your vet, bengals aren't normal domestic cats they do have some special dietary needs sometimes and your breeder has been caring for them and raising them a long time, they have probably seen everything that can go wrong and should always be your first port of call if you need help or advice about caring for your kitten.

As said above vets receive very minimal training in nutrition and usually it's from the pet food companies teaching them to Go sell a product, also they receive bonus' and kick backs depending on how much food they push some vet surgeries actually figure that sum into their profit margins. If your vet sells animal food they are the same as any other company trying to sell you a product to make money, it's a real issue with the veterinary world how pet food companies (often huge pharmaceutical companies or food companies like mars have a look up as to who makes Royal Canin or Hills Science diet) have infiltrated the surgeries it's similar to what's happened with pharmaceutical companies and doctors surgeries. Veterinary surgeries are businesses after all. Also many vets seem to have an issue with raw feeding I have no idea why unless cos it's harder to push their food on you after and probably because many who feed raw don't feed it properly (it's not just muscle meat it's a mix of muscle,organs and bone kinda like if they ate a whole animal so they have all the nutrients they need, you can buy premade raw food which has the 80/10/10 mix already done also the Facebook group Cat CRAP completely raw and proud are very useful if you want to feed raw) when I took my boy to the vet the other day the commented on how great he looked and that he's finally putting on weight again, when they asked how his tummy was I said solid since I switched him to raw feeding after that they kinda went quiet probably because they had been trying to push a prescription diet on me previously.

Bengals are renowned for what we nickname "Bengal tummy" a lot are very sensitive to grains and additives in foods and very prone to IBD (irritable bowl disease) which is why so many swear by raw feeding or at least grain free commercial feeding, my boy has allergies like crazy and my previous Bengal had IBD the only thing the vet would recommend was steroids and antibiotics to deal with it which isn't healthy in the long run I switched to raw feeding and then had solid tummies for the first time in months, putting on weight and healthier coats and generally just happier cats. If your cat will eat raw and you are ok feeding it it's the best thing for them,otherwise a good quality grain free food is a must, it will save you a lot of money in vets bills in the long run.

Have a look online there are literally 100's of studies proving that cats need a grain free diet and grains actually make them sick and cause issues with their gut as they can't digest them very well. Cats need protein it's what they eat in the wild and if you look at the protein content for much of the food vets sell it's minimal. I would love to see a vet argue that feeding corn to a lion or a tiger is beneficial over actual meat protein, cats may be domesticated but their guts haven't changed from wild cats and bengals especially who are a hybrid breed benefit from a high protein diet.

Sadly when it comes to vets unless it's surgery or a necessary procedure you have to think if they are trying to sell you something to make money over the benefits to your pet.

Btw about neutering usually 9/10 times it actually makes males soppier and more cuddly once they are done, it should also help prevent spraying and bad habits. Make sure you get him done prior to 6 months and I would say any time from 4 1/2 months as he's a big boy should be fine.

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- Sarah
Arya 24/04/16 - Seal Lynx Point Rosetted Bengal
Griffith 16/04/16 - Silver Seal Lynx Point Rosetted Bengal
Mina (in my avatar)- 1999-2016 - Seal Mink Spotted Bengal (Snow) - run free at rainbow bridge

Yeah, my vet tells me the grain-free movement is a gimmick and not a good diet for cats. She also said to feed only dry food and occasionally give a little wet food as a treat. This goes against what I believe is in the cat's best interest.I feed mostly grain free wet food and give small amounts of high quality dry food.

I made the mistake during the hurricane of giving my cats some of my chicken when I ate. Now they are turning their noses up at their wet food! I am hoping they will forget but now they surround me when I have my dinner and practically attack me for my food! They barely touched their wet food this morning :(

Kyenta & Seraph

Thank you both for the information & the sweet compliments. I will be looking into a raw diet for him. I welcome & appreciate any suggestions

There goes two full bags of kitty food in 2 weeks : )

The vet was saying all the those "boutique" style grain free cat foods try to do good, but they are not. She also told me there is no such thing as "grain free" I think a lot of times they wanna disagree with what you tell them. It's kind of insulting, but she is the professional so I took what she said into consideration.

I hate messing with his tummy again but i want to get him settled.

CMYKjill oh no! Hope you can get them back on track & I'm glad I'm not the only who's vet has said that about the grain free diet.

My plan was to give him the dry food...with a little wet & then as a treat give him the raw diet. This was before I took him to the vet.

She pretty much said you give them whatever they like and what works best. So we will see : )

I agree that vets do not get much education on nutrition and they tend to go with what the food manufacturers tell them and give them discounts on! Many cats do very well on raw and a grain-free diet. I would continue to feed what the breeder has fed them. I'm sure her bengals are very healthy. Kittens do need to eat multiple times a day (just like infants), so do not hold back on the food supply.

No one can predict the size your kitty will get -- but appears he is off to a good start. As for the fuzzies, your breeder should be able to answer your question on that. I've never had a bengal kitten, so I don't know.

Your King is gorgeous!!!! There is a lot of great information on this forum and we are always happy to answer any questions you may have.

Congratulations on your baby.

Your boy is lovely, In my opinion I think you should feed whatever you are happy with and what your boy likes.

My 2 don't like raw food, I have tried several times and decided to give up on that, I feed mostly wet food as I think the moisture is good for them and I leave down dry for them to nibble on, they have some cooked turkey and a little cat tuna fish.

Mine are lively happy and have no health issues so I stick with what they will eat.

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Clare
Magic (brown spotted boy born 31 March 2012)
Pearl (seal Lynx Point girl born 1 October 2015)
Bristol, UK

Clare & Magic, Sherry

Thanks for the complements.
I feel the same way about what works with him best & sticking as closely as possible to what she was giving him.

Oh Sherry, you must get one : )

Oh about fuzzies i believe it depends a lot on the cat, how heavily rosetted they are, how heavily glittered, size and possibly even genetics can come into play as to when it starts and how long they stay in fuzzies.

With my current two my boy was out of his fuzzies when I got him at 15 weeks my girl still has some of her fuzzies and she's almost 6 months, her adult coat only started coming through properly about a month ago before that she looked like a white kitten.

Both of mine are still clearing and darkening though rosette wise and you will find the coat keeps changing quite dramatically until they turn two. If they have larger rosettes or are heavily rosetted the coat will take longer to clear (the contrast between the rosettes and the base coat colour, basically how much the rosettes stand out ) and the rosettes to open up properly (two tone colours to rosettes), also bengals are asymmetrical so one side can develop faster than the other and the pattern on each side are slightly different.

You will also find over this time that the glitter (clear hairs that cause the gold flecks/fairy dusting to the coat), ticking (agouti stripped hairs which can blur the rosettes, you tend to find if there is ticking it's towards the tail and down the spine) and other aspects will also start appearing so it's quite hard to predict how a cats coat will turn out or even how dark or rufoused (warm brown tones) they will be, even eye colour can change and develop.

When they come out of fuzzies you will find the texture of the coat changes as the adult coat comes in, Bengal coats are very plush and often feel like velvet to the touch also from what I've found with my two the more glitter they have the softer and silkier their coat is to the touch (not all bengals have glitter a lot of breeders prefer without so they have a wilder ALC like coat and its not actually part of the breed standard) oh and to add to all that temperature can also change their coat with colder temperatures making it thicker but also darker in some colours. Your little boy will look very different at two to what he does now.

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- Sarah
Arya 24/04/16 - Seal Lynx Point Rosetted Bengal
Griffith 16/04/16 - Silver Seal Lynx Point Rosetted Bengal
Mina (in my avatar)- 1999-2016 - Seal Mink Spotted Bengal (Snow) - run free at rainbow bridge

Thank you Sarah! I look forward to seeing how his coat turns out : )

I got my bengal when he was six years old and that's been an adventure enough for me! LOL. I couldn't handle a kitten at my age. They are super cute and adorable, but Raiden is now 9-1/2 years old and he is a handful most of the time.