Oh my gosh, the bengals are so funny in their play. Pakhette is all about the hunt - especially the thinking part. She gets bored if it's just chase-chase-chase. She wants the interactive wands to go under stuff, to hide where she can seek it out. Ghost, on the other hand, just wants to jump and catch things, no thinking required.

Pakhette has learned where I keep the interactive wands. I've noticed her pawing at the area, but didn't think much of it. This morning, I came out to find one of her favorite wands out and her playing with it.

Ghost likes interactive wands, but if one of his crinkly-paper balls is out, he sometimes actually ignores them. I think he'll be one who learns to play fetch, because he loves to run after it when I toss the ball.

Even better... Keegan, my 10-year-old lap cat, is starting to play! That's been a struggle, play was almost a chore before. He adores Ghost. They wrestle together; this worried me at first, because Keegan is so much bigger. I went in to rescue Ghost once, pushing Keegan off him - and Ghost bounced up, looked around like, "Where'd you go, bro??" and then trotted off to find Keegan.

Thing is, I am discovering the quickly-bored aspect of Bengals. I rotate five different interactive wands out, because I noticed that they start to get bored quicker if it's the same one. I have lots of little balls and mice out for them to smack around. But I am noticing that, for the most part, they get bored quickly.

Any tips on combatting the boredom? Other games or toys that I could get for them? I have made puzzle boxes, which Pakhette loves - for a short period of time. Then she gets bored.

Unfortunately, this is a common trait among bengals. Boredom. They do make puzzles that force a cat to figure them out. There are track toys that can amuse them for a while. I guess the key is to have a million different toys for them. They have come out with toys (requiring batteries) that work their own magic for the cats, but I really believe that all cats will just walk away after a while -- and it's on to something else. I've seen cats riding Roombas, so you might want to see about investing in one of those. LOL. You can clean your floors at the same time.

You've got two very energetic bengal kittens -- so they are going to wear you and each other out. It's great that your older baby is starting to enjoy playing again. Looks like everyone gets along swimmingly. Congratulations.

Re: bengals getting bored.

One thing I've learned is that there is a difference between doing a "power walk" versus sprinting a 100 yard dash. Bengals can play, sort of half-heartedly, at doing the stalking, pouncing, waiting, watching, pouncing again etc. And they can do that indefinitely, and sometimes seem pretty bored by it. And there is nothing wrong with that, I suspect that they enjoy it more than we think they do. But another alternative is to *really* get their engine revved up, and get them to spend all their energy in one relatively short spurt of activity.

How? Use that third dimension: height. Make the prey go up and down some stairs. Or up and down a cat tree, or their cat shelving, or a climbing pole. When I do that with Serafina, she is spent in 5 min or less. Laying happily on her side, breathing heavily, extremely pleased with herself having caught her prey. Give it a try!

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The little monsters 3

Quasar loves the wand toy. He gets very excited when I bring it out. His version of play mostly involves stalking the bird. He seems to use a lot of mental energy plotting his attack.
He will watch the bird for a long time, while I move it about, or when I keep it in one place, occasionally moving it just a little bit. Every 5 or 10 minutes he will pounce at the bird, then chase it. This is the most fun for me. I move the bird up and down and over furniture etc, while he chases. Sometimes, I let him catch the bird but he will quickly drop it and wait for it to move again.

Once in a while, his chasing will become so energetic that he will stop and lie down on the tile floor to pant for a minute or so and cool off, then he's right back at it. He always seems disappointed when I put it away.

I sometimes wish we had taken 2 kittens at the same time for my own amusement, as much as his. We have a 14 year old Samoyed, who has been Quasar's buddy for the past 6 years but she is now at the end of her life and can no longer play with him due to her infirmity. I don't think getting another kitten after our dog passes would be fair to Quasar, however. He is territorial when other cats come around the outside of our house. I think he would beat a kitten up now.

Enjoy your beebs. I think you made a wise choice in getting 2 of them together.

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~ Kyenta

Your Quasar sounds a bit like Pakhette! It's good to know that just watching and stalking is normal. Pakhette will actually try to figure out where the 'prey' will come from and position herself at that spot, rather than chase. The chasing is much more fun for me too, though!

I'mv very glad I got two of them. I was worried about if I got one, it'd terrorize my older cat (I wasn't expecting him to ENJOY playing). However, it's definitely worth it just for the amusement value.