My Bengal (Simba) is four months old, goes crazy at night. He will not settle, it's as if as soon as we go to bed he just comes to life and won't calm down until past 2-3am. He is a house cat, he's at home during the day with my dog, they play together well. We've tried wearing him out in the evening, however he still charges around, bites, scratches, attacks us and just generally goes mental at night time. We feed him a.m and p.m wet meat (before bed10pm) he has biscuits in the day. He's recently been nutered. If we shut him out he just meows. It's driving my partner mad, he needs to sleep for work as do I. I don't want to let him out because of the area in the city and just generally want to keep him in for many reasons. Any help or advice would be really good.
Thank you
Amy

Welcome to the forum.

You've got a bengal kitten and they have a whole bunch of energy, but you can teach them to behave as you desire.

For a start - you will need a room apart from your bedroom - his room.

Biting and scratching - all kittens do this, your job is to teach him that this behaviour is not acceptable. He is easily capable of learning this. Any biting or scratching means that play stops IMMEDIATELY. You turn your back on him and give him NO attention. You can alternatively carry him away to his room - silently, put him in there and close the door. He needs to learn that unwanted behaviour = end of fun and attention.

Sleeping - put him in his own room each night. Ensure that he has food and water/litter tray in there and that the room is kitten-proofed. Once he goes to bed, he is not let out again until morning. He will try and wake you, he'll zoom around, he'll make noise and try and get attention - you have to completely ignore it. Generally, it'll take 2 weeks to train him. If you start giving in, it'll take another 2 weeks to train him.

Finally, letting a 4 month old kitten roam around a city will likely be a death sentence for him - simply don't do it.

Welcome to the life of owning a cat! A lot of cats are more nocturnal than not, meaning more active at night then during the day. You are assuming your kitty gets a lot of play time while you are gone, which may not be the case. A bengal is full of energy and he may be sleeping while you're gone and ready to rumble when you get home.

According to Jackson Galaxy, the best thing to do is to ignore the cat. As Cranberry stated, it takes a couple of weeks to alter a cat's behavior. As long as your cat isn't hungry and you've tried to wear him out with playing before you go to bed, then this is what you have to do. Not much sleep for two weeks.

When we took our bengal (he was six years old), he was allowed to roam free and he was let in and out of the house at will. If he cried during the night, his owner let him outside. Well, we decided that was not an option. He cried all night for about two weeks. We lived on no sleep, but we did not give in. He finally relented (after getting two walks during the day and having an outdoor enclosure he could access 24/7). Was that what did it? I don't know. Now, it's almost four years later and he sleeps at my feet all night long.

Simba is just a kitten and was probably used to rumbling with his siblings at all hours of the day and night. You simply have to get him on a schedule -- just like a human BABY! You may need earplugs, you may need to lock him away -- far away -- so you don't hear him yowling. If you are consistent and persistent, he can be trained -- but know he's still just a baby and it will take some time.

I agree with Sherry, I had the same problem with my 1 year old girl Pearl.

I agree with the ignoring bad behaviour, I have found this can work very well with some things.

I don't agree with shutting them in a room to so say calm down, I don't think this works and often they end up with more pent up energy where they are shut in a small room, this can then lead to worse behavior.

I try to make my cats surrounding more stimulating and keep most of play time until the evening so it tires them out, I don't put down their wet food until bedtime after play then they play, eat and sleep.

Pearl was waking us up every night in the early hours for no reason, it took a few weeks of sleepless nights,but I would ignore her and pretend to be asleep in the end she stopped doing it, she still does it very occasionally but nothing we can't handle.

Hope you sort it out, it takes time.

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

Hunt - Catch - Kill - Eat - Groom - Sleep

So wear him out with some hard play before you go to bed. Then feed him a snack, then lights out. If he's still racing around like crazy after his snack, then you didn't wear him out enough. Want to wear a cat out? Have the dabird go up and down his cat tree, up and down the bed, up and down the stairs (if you have stairs), up and down any perches he has, etc. He'll be down for the count in no time. Like Jackson Galaxy says... bengals are built for speed, not stamina

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The little monsters 3

Wear Simba out and wear yourself out -- and then maybe you won't hear him. LOL. Let us know if things get better.

Simba probably needs to be involved in more activities than what he is involved in. Bengals often super active and often require more play time to let off the extra energy.