Gavin,

If you decide to let your Bengals outside, chances are you won't have them for long for all of the reason that have been given. Feline diseases are at an all time high right now and a good number of these are transmitted from animal to animal. There are even a few that humans can pick up. Fleas and ticks transmit some horrible diseases. Allergies, contaminated food they could eat. Poisoned food from cat haters (also killing and abuse of cats). I would seriously talk to your vet about what can happen if you let your boys outside. Its hard to think of keeping an animal inside, but if you provide lots of toys, scratching posts and cat furniture, it is far better than having the vet bills that outside cats provide or losing your beloved pets to disease or outside sources. There is Feline AIDS that outside cats spread and die of at young ages. So sad. Bengals are so beautiful that people who find them outside forget to be honest and take them home. Free Bengals. Vets say that if you want a healthy pet and you want them to stay with you, don't let them outside at all. You and Siobhan can make up your own minds, but I'd sure hate to see you lose your babies. Please do some online research into cat diseases before making up your mind, okay? From what I've read, there is no way I will ever let a cat roam outside again for their own good and ours.

Nan

Siobhan,

Unfortunately, Squirrels and other rodents carry diseases and fleas that can be transferred to cats. Rabies and other deadly diseases can be the end to your cats. If they don't die and recover, you will have a high animal hospital bill and a weakened kitty. Its just not worth it.

We've picked up too many cats that have been run over by cars, hurt by dogs and other animals that we have transported to vet hospitals. I don't know about the UK, but vet bills are very high even for routine procedures. I spent $80 just for a blood test and follow up exam the last time I took Koby to the vet and our vet isn't as expensive as some. Another thing to think about--Koby didn't have any medical problems at all until the one time he got out of the house when he was 6 mos. old. He was only out overnight and stayed in a three yard area. His brother didn't get out and he is fine. Both boys do great in the house, but are curious about the cats who get in our yard. They want to fight them. My sister paid several hundred dollars to treat an outdoor cat they had years ago. He got bitten by an opponent cat and it got infected very quickly. From time to time until he died several years later, she had to have him back to the vet to re-clean the sites of that bite and other (infected)scratches he got later. She worried so much about that cat. Now all 8 of her cats (including her 5 Bengals) are indoor cats. She said she couldn't go throught that again.

Nan

We have been able to convert two outside rescues (one female and one male) to inside only cats over the years. It took a little patience, but not very much time at all for each. We still have one of them-the other died at age 16.

Nan

Hi Nanette,

Luckily in the UK, we have no cases of rabies, that is one of the reasons the UK is so strict on animals coming in from other countries.

If we do decide to let our Bengals out, it would be a risk, as it would with any animal, which is why we haven't decided what we are going to do yet.

My dad has a 10 year old ginger and white tabby, and she has been left to go out since she was a kitten. We have not once had to take her to the vet for anything, she is a very healthy cat.

But then some people have a cat, let them out and the very first day and they get run over by a car etc.

:blink:

I've heard things are a lot different in the UK (and other countries) than it is in the U.S., and that it is significantly more safe to allow your cat to roam outside.

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- Dawn

http://www.nutkitty.com

I have a "screened porch" on the back side of my house, and I invested the additional money to buy 1" x 2" fencing wire, which I attached to the INSIDE of the same wooden framework which held the normal "window type screen" on the outside. It isn't really visible from the street, and doesn't bother me, because I know I'm keeping my "babies" safe. This prevents cats from tearing the screen and "escaping" when they climb the screen. (Not sure why they climb it... it gets them nowhere except UP (grin)

That is the closest thing I have to "outside" which my cats are ever exposed to, and interestingly, when I open the door for Tiger to go out on the porch, my bengals will stand at the door and "sniff" but thus far, have not yet "explored". The only problem I have found, is that when Tiger spends much time on "the porch" in summer -- he brings fleas back into the house. Sasquatch (my 14 year old) is horribly allergic to flea bites... so that sometimes causes problems.

I love to have fresh air in the house, and it is nice to open the door on to that porch and let them feel the breeze and watch the birds and squirrels in my back yard -- their chittering at the doorway is sometimes more amusing than watching TV (grin) I've even had squirrels come up to the outside of the screen and chitter at the cats, and it's like they are having conversations

I live on a very busy street. And have neighbors who allow their dogs to roam the neighborhood. I would NEVER allow my cats to go outdoors without a leash or some sort of restraint and CONSTANT immediate supervision.

LaVon
"fancidots"

We still haven't decided whether we are going to let Zeus and Hestia outside yet.

They are so mischevious and unaware of what hides out there in the open world that they definately are not ready for it at the moment anyway.

We may try them on a harness and lead and see how that goes. But personally I am starting to think they are just so much better off in the safeness of their home. I love them far too much to have anything awful happen to them that I can not control.

We live on a quiet cul-de-sac and when we got our first Bengal in ?99, we decided to let him out (we did get him altered first and he was fully inoculated), It wasn?t long before our neighbours got to know him by name, he even use to go in to our next door neighbours houses and he would sleep in any car that had its window open. This was a worry, especially since our next-door neighbour is an airport taxi driver, travelling to and from Manchester on a daily basis. One day I even found him snooping around the back of an ambulance that had been called to attend to an elderly lady down our road (that was v.embarrassing).

Anyway, for nearly 5 years he was a very happy cat, free to come and go as he pleased until one day when he came in panting like a dog and finding it difficult to breath. To cut a long story short/shortish we took Reggie (our cat) to the vets but he passed away. All the vet could tell us was that his stomach had filled up with gas and when he operated to relieve the gas his lungs filled with fluid, which resulted in him passing away. The vet ruled out a road accident or a dog attack as he had no bruising or puncture wounds so we were left wondering what had happened to our healthy 5 yr old Bengal male. That was January this year and we are still absolutely devastated. Our only comfort is that we now have ?Evvie? our 5 month old Bengal girl that we brought home in May.

So, I seriously would recommend you keep your cat indoors and/or in an outdoor run. If you do decide to let your cat out think of the following:
1.Theft
2.RTA
3.Cat/Dog fights
4.Poison
5.Disease
6.Straying
Would you really want to expose your beloved kitties to this? I so wish I hadn?t, the fact that I did will haunt me forever since we?ll never know what happened to Reg.

We have built Evvie an outdoor run, she plays in the run during the day and by night she lives in the house with us and she seams to be very happy and content. However, we are currently looking for another female Bengal to keep her company!

(Appologies in advance for picture quality!)

<span style='font-size:14pt;line-height:100%'>Our Beloved Reg</span>

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Heidi

OMG, that's so sad

The only thing I worry about if we decide to keep Zeus and Hestia indoors is, if one day they accidentally get out, it's bound to happen sometime by accident, what would happen, would they run off? Also, in a few years, how could we explain to a child that they can play in the garden, except they can't open the back door freely...

Hi Gavin

Haven't got kids.........yet but I don't see it as a being to big a problem because of the outdoor run that we have. Do you have a back garden? If so, would it be possible to construct a run? My fianc? made ours, he bought a 6'x8' shed and he made a 6'x9' run (gotta admit he has done a good job) Anyway, It's still under construction ATM but it will have power within a few weeks, we intend to put heated beds in there for the winter and we have just bought a wireless network camera so we can check up on her whilst we are at work! Anyway, my point being, if the kids want to play out, make sure the cats are in the run! We fortunately still have cat flaps at the front and rear of our house so if Evvie did get out we would simply uncover them and wait for her to return.

I have 'attempted' to post a pic of our run, not sure if it will work since my last one didn't but hear goes. Please note that it is still under construction and the dodgy wire across the top is temporary! If it doesn't show, right click where the pic should be and choose properties, you can copy the URL from there and paste it into a browser?.that usually works!

Regards Heidi

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Heidi

Wow, the cat run is awesome, I'm sure they'd love something like that B) I certainly don't have the skills to do something like that, my dad could (see the cat tree), but not sure he'd be keen to put the time in doing something like that, must have took quite a while!

I've fixed your pictures, seems Geocities won't allow them to be displayed from another page, so I uploaded them to <a href='http://www.imgspot.com' target='_blank'>Imgspot</a> for you. Reggie was gorgeous, you must have been devestated.

Thanks for uploading them (and for the tip re the free hosting web site!). Yeah, it has taken a while to build; we are currently looking for an exercise wheel and a water feature/pond, as it?s a bit 'bland' and boring ATM. We found the tree branch in the canal whilst we were out on our boat :rolleyes: (v.good find.....much better than a shoppin' trolley!)

As I'm sure you know, you can buy the runs but they cost a fortune, which is why we made our own (must admit though, it has still cost us a fortune!) I'm not sure where you live, in fact I'm not even sure if you live in the UK but if you do, there is a company that sells sheds called Garage World, they are based just off J23 on the M6 (Up North). They sell cat/dog runs a lot cheaper than anything else we could find. We went there to buy one but we where looking for something a bit bigger. We ended up buying the shed from there and building the rest ourselves. Anyway garage world have a web site <a href='http://www.garageworld.co.uk' target='_blank'>Garage World</a>. Some of the links don't seem to work but you can request a free brochure. You can also get a <a href='http://www.freedom-fence.co.uk/' target='_blank'>Pet Safety Fence</a>. It's basically a wire that you burry around your garden permiter. When the cat gets to close it omits an harmless ear peircing noise (that only the animal can hear), there are apparently very good the only problem is your cats have to wear a tag on their collar for it to work which means other animals can still come into your garden (not very good if you are a breeder)

As for Reg, he was 'pet' quality (check out those ears ) but yup, we absolutely adored him!

Anyway, where?s the pic of your cat tree?

Heidi

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Heidi

Thanks for the tips - we will probably end up making our own (or rather my dad will ), since we want it to go over the back door, so we can open the back door and let them into it, or maybe have a cat flap too.

The cat tree is the third pic down on this thread....

<a href='http://www.bengalcatforums.com/forums//index.php?showtopic=57&hl=tree' target='_blank'>http://www.bengalcatforums.com/forums//ind...opic=57&hl=tree</a>

Just noticed, you can't see it very well on that pic, so here's a proper one of it :-

Love the tree and I bet the cats do too! Judging buy its quality your gonna have a pretty fine outdoor enclosure! Make sure you post a pic once it's done!

My fianc? is outside ATM fitting our network camera; I'll post the URL once it's live so you can have a peek at Evvie.

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Heidi

Oooh, that sounds great, Bengal Cam

Only just found this thread.....


The monkey says "don't do it".....No pressure!