Hi,

We have had Nala 2 nights now, the first night she was extremely timid and scared of us, took her to meet her bedroom which contains a radiator bed, litter tray, food & water, climbing frame and fluffy rug, we saw many threads online which gave advice to keep new kittens in there own room overnight where they can hide and explore in a safe environment. We sat at the level of her radiator bed stroking her while she trembled with fear for a good amount of time, she seemed to relax a little so we left her, shut the door and went to bed.

We barely slept all night thinking she may need us or be crying in there alone, I got up at 6am opened her door she was on the radiator bed wide awake, I don't even know if she got any sleep.

My partner booked 2 days off work so we could stay with her (I work from home). We laid on our bed with a faux fur blanket all day pretty much letting Nala come and snuggle with us we had lots of petting and at times she seemed to be really content and calm until we moved an arm suddenly or she heard a noise which she would run for the hills and hide behind the bed before more snuggles this repeated all day and most of the evening.

She surprised us, used her litter tray twice and ate 2 small meals during the day.

Now heres where we struggled on what to do for sleeping arrangements, we read again online its cruel to shut Nala in her room for the second night and we should be giving her love and affection as much as possible during the first few days. We made the decision we would leave her and our bedroom door open so she had us there. We put the faux fur blanket down the side of the bed with a little teepee cat bed we bought for her she was having none of it, she was going wild, bouncing around the room, scratching the bed and laundry basket, trying to bite and play with every wire possible and pounding on the quilt cover before finally laying in-between us on the bed and going to sleep for the night. Again we got hardly any sleep, we are fidgeters in bed so were fearful of rolling over onto her. 5am and she's full of life again doing the same as above running wild.

What do we do for the 3rd night?, I don't think I could do another night the same, she's pretty much destructing everything in our room. I don't think we want to make a habit of her sleeping with us on our bed at night.

Thanks in advance, Daniel, Stephanie & Nala

Welcome to our great forum. Congratulations on Nala. Putting a new kitten in a safe room allows them to get familiar with a smaller area of your home while decompressing and distressing from leaving mom and siblings and the only environment she's ever known to a brand new house with new humans and new smells. Giving a new kitten free roam of a large area can be more stressful to them. However, you are free to bring Nala out of the room to be with you in another area of the house. As for her sleeping arrangements, it's up to you. You will be able to tell how comfortable she is getting being in your company. Some kitties can come out right away. Others may need more time. Most bengals love to sleep in bed with their owners.

Having your bedroom dark -- gives Nala a little more peace of mind. The bouncing off the walls thing -- well, that is a bengal thing, period! Even when she is confident and comfortable, that can be an issue. The key is to play heavy with her before bedtime. Kittens have an abundance of energy -- bengals even more so.

Just try and understand what is going on from Nala's point of view. She is scared and really doesn't know what is going on. She is now alone with no sibling or mom to socialize with. That's your job now. Be patient and give Nala the time she needs. Considering she will give you years and years of love and memories, giving her a week or two to decompress is nothing.

The big key is that you need your sleep. A new kitten is like having a new baby and you may have a few sleepless nights. If Nala will not settle down at night and let you sleep, then she should be placed in her own room for the night. But just know ... this could be a settling in issue and things should get better in the next few days.

We would love to see a picture of Nala.

Ok so several things:

1. Your schedule is not her schedule yet. Just because the humans are up during the day hours and asleep during the night hours doesn't mean that's her schedule. And the fact that it is not shouldn't really be a major concern. Your two schedules will kind of meld together over time, but it takes time. So worries like "you don't know whether she got any sleep at night" are a bit silly. She'll sleep when she feels it's the right time to sleep, and the fact that it is dark doesn't necessarily make it a better time to sleep.

2. The kitten year (or so) is tough in terms of figuring out what to do at night. I think most Bengal kitten owners go through that. They haven't yet adopted the human's schedule, and they want desperately to play (especially if they don't have another kitten playmate), and they also haven't figured out what is "acceptable" play yet. Meaning you'll get lots of scratches and puncture wounds all over your limbs for the next 6-9 months or so. Many a night I woke up with a searing pain in my leg or toes, from a Bengal sneak-attack.

It seems like it's about 50-50 whether Bengal owners "tough it out" like I did, allowing the kittens free access to the bedroom 24/7. Or to shut them in another room as part of the bedtime routine. Either way is going to present challenges and also benefits. I wouldn't consider either to be "cruel". So my advice is to pick one of the two choices and stick with it. It's the waffling back and forth that is going to cause the biggest problems.

3. You mention cuddling and petting many times in your post. That's great! But you need to understand that especially for the next year or two, one of the best things you could do for her is to actively engage her in play. It will cure so many behavioral problems and make her so happy. So you should start making that part of your daily routine now.

4. The "she's pretty much destructing everything in our room" thing... heh, ok, you need a cold dose of reality about that. 4 words: "Get used to it". And if you take her out of the bedroom, she's going to do it in the living room, and the kitchen, and everywhere else. That's what Bengal cats do, especially bored Bengal cats that aren't getting enough play, and that's what you signed up for. So you might as well embrace it. And honestly, a year from now you will look back at this time and laugh. Her ability to create havoc and destruction is almost nothing compared to what it will be in the coming months. It's on you to get into her psychy and do two things:

a. Try to determine what things might be dangerous for such a rambunctious and athletic kitten to get into, and prevent that from happening
b. Understand what types of things particularly appeal to her, and provide her safe and satisfying alternatives to the things you don't want her to do.

Examples: kittens will often climb curtains. Fortunately for us, curtains are actually not very fun things for kittens to climb. They get their paws caught, and the usually have a "crash landing" at the end. Not fun. So if you present them with a way better alternative, like a climbing pole of a tall cat tree, it's going to be an easy sell.

Another example: One of the more costly and dangerous things is for the kittens/cats to jump on top of large TV sets and knock them over. So fastening that down, or putting shelves over the top, or similar, can both provide the cat with a safe thing to jump up to, plus preserve your TV set.

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The little monsters 3

If you are afraid to hurt her when she sleeps with you in your bed, you might try to put a cat bed on top of the bed. My two 6 months old kittens always sleep with me, but now at least one of them is in the cat bed on top of the bed. Less weight on my legs and they have a safe place to sleep.
A young kitten will wake up several times a night wanting to play. As I have two kitties, they just go downstairs together to play for half an hour or so, and then return. A kitten alone will play with whatever is around (you, for instance!) so you best play with her as long as you can before bedtime. She will calm down though when she gets a bit older.

Also, like Brian said, het schedule will adjust to yours, give her a bit of time.

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Linus & Rascal

Instagram: @snow_bengal_brothers #snow_bengal_brothers

I don't close mine out of rooms. If she wants in, I'm not getting any sleep anyway ( they can cry really loud and they have far more patience for you to fix it than you have for them to be quiet ).

I always play before we go to bed, even if it doesn't exhaust her, it burns off some of the idle hands trouble. Mine is 17 weeks now and my hands look like I was trying to dig a ball out of a rose bush, so play time is very important and as they get faster, they let you know how slow your reaction time is. As Brian mentions, play is far more important to a kitten than cuddles. A simple game that is interactive you can play, take 2 pieces of paper, fold one in half lengthwise. Lay the full sheet on the ground and put the folded piece underneath just poking the corner out and move it around. Instead of the top sheet I usually use a piece of card because those claws are real. Play time is over when she decides it's easier to lift the card, go around the back or make me drop it ( claws to hands = they win ). She usually grabs the 2 pieces and brings them back to me and gives it another few minutes playing before trying to be smart again. Even interactive games will only give you about 10-15 minutes of interest, then they want to play something else.

With Bengals, you have to offer something better than they can find. They want to climb drapes, put a climbing post or a cat tree there. They want cords, get them some sections of rope tied to things like dresser drawers or a doorknob that they can dangle and swat at ( make sure it is short enough that they can't wrap it around themselves, so generally to the floor and no longer ). Lukily mine only goes after cords when you are wiggling them ( like a plugged in cell phone or a headset )

As for sleep? Every morning when I wake up she's right there laying by my feet, by my side or on my legs ( she normally follows me everywhere in the house anyway ) but some of her toys and things I left out for her have moved. I turn in my sleep as does my wife and have never had a cat get caught under me, but as long as you aren't thrashing around the cat will usually relocate pretty quick.

I agree with Brian on these things, my girl Pearl was like this when we first got her, I have never closed any doors and luckily I already had my boy Magic and I think because he was already in a good routine of going to sleep not long after we went to bed I think she eventually got the hang of it, I would say she took about 6 months.
The routine seems to be now they are lively during the day, sleep for a while in the evening then wake up and have some play, they play for a while after lights are out but then Magic jumps on our bed to sleep and I hear Pearl trot downstairs as that's where she likes to sleep, I don't usually hear a thing from them until hubby gets up for work at 5, once he has gone they have a play then come back to bed, they very rarely wake me for food.
I find I don't have to play excessively with them because they have each other to chase round and Pearl is so athletic she runs so fast and rabbit kicks the walls.

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