Anyone own Bengals?

[TheDoctor]

Hi,

Anyone own Bengal cats here? I think they`re really great looking.
Just curious to learn from people with experience with them on how their general temperaments and personalities are.
Any feedback is much appreciated.

Thanks.

[slartibartfast]

I've never owned one, but I've met around half a dozen as patients at the various vets I work for, and they are uniformly all attitude. Some are friendly initially but freak out when handled, and some are just bad-tempered from the get-go. Coworkers of mine have similar experiences.

They seem to be smart, independant, full of personality, and very strong-willed, meaning that where an average cat may grumble and hiss a little when you trim its nails, the Bengals I've met will go into full-blown explosive rage. Welding gloves and cat-nabbers are a big help in getting them out of the cage...

They are absolutely gorgeous, and if they ever develop some that are truly tame, I'd think about one...they seem to have neat personality quirks. As they are right now, you couldn't pay me to keep one...I like cats I can handle without shedding blood. :-P

Also, I'm sure there are some friendly ones...they seem to inspire a rabidly devoted following among those that own them. They're just not good in a professional environment where I meet them. :-P

Oh, and lastly...there seems to be some mythos of them as giant wildcat types...I had one client tell me that his 2lb kitten would be a 30lb adult (as he'd been informed by the breeder)...it maxed out around 9lbs fully grown (and every last ounce was seething fighting muscle).

[fishmommy]

we have two, and have had 8 wonderful years with them so far

we selected the breed more for personality than looks, belive it or not. We had read that they were very 'dog-like' in personality. That has been very true for our male. He is constantly by our sides, involved in everything. He's a lap cat and seeks approval constantly. Our female has always been slightly skittish, probably because she is TINY. Our male is 15 pounds while our female is only 5 pounds! They were litter-mates.
They WILL jump (they can jump from the floor onto the top of a door (about 6.5 feet!) and love to get on top of high places. They are both great mousers.

so far we have had no health problems with them at all (not that I expected any but with any 'breed' it's a good question to ask)

I would say that my experience has been that like all cats, individual personality varies alot.

[fishmommy]

oh, I wanted to add

with ANY purebred cat, the most important thing to do is find a breeder you trust and who raises the kittens IN THE HOME.
Bengals especially I found were often being mass-produced and held in pens. These animals I can't imagine get properly socialized to humans.
We found a small breeder who's kittens were born and raised in her home with human contact. We met her adult cats and checked for termperament. We also confirmed that she was active in an outbreeding program where she would travel with her dams or host visiting males from all over the country. This ensured inbreeding was minimized.

[JimiSnakes]

They sound NEAT! I love cats. I have a siamese 4 point that is absolutely awesome. He is my little bodyguard. I'd love to see pictures of one.

EDIT: Never mind, I googled it

[fishmommy]

I absolutely love them both, but then again I would probably feel the same about any kitties I had

These two were the first cats my husband and I had together, and I'd like to think that they grew to compliment our personalities.

every cat is special

[Entropy]

I've never owned one but I've known four. They were definately different in personality. All four I knew were males, neutered and huge, largest was 19lbs and he was lean. They loved attention and if you were busy? Oh, okay, we'll take care of that for you. Needless to say they HAD to be the center of attention. They were harder on their cat toys, their owner went through a new cat tree every seven months or so.
My husband wanted one, we considered it but didn't find any breeders we felt comfortable with so then we decided to do rescue and got Shiloh, Hudson and Cooper. Temperment wise Hudson is similar. He's always in your face, he's very mouthy (don't you know people are ALWAYS dirty?) and you can't leave ANYTHING down with him. He'll either carry it off or eat it.

[fishmommy]

oh yeah, definitely mouthy!
similar to Siamese in that way...always 'talking' and man do they have pipes on 'em!

it works well for me, since I talk to my animals all the time. With these cats I feel like I am having a conversation

not so funny at 3am though....

[Ginevive]

This is kind of related; but my sister in law told mark about something called "Toygers" that actually have tiger genetics in them?? I am going to research this.

[TheDoctor]

Thanks so much for all the input. Sounds great and I love cats that are active or above average. Think I`ll probably get a pair in future when my daughters are a bit older. But by the sound of things, I`d probably need to store more bandaid in the first aid kit as well.