I'm not entirely sure what part of the forum I would make this post, so please move it if it is in the wrong place.

My girlfriends neighbor lives in the country and she adopts cats and them gives them away to those who want to adopt them. She has about 40 cats. She has two cats that she claims are Bengals. She is extremely nice and loves cats. One of the "bengal" cats have been hanging out at my girlfriends house and I absolutely love animals. I have two cats and a dog. I didn't know anything about the bengal cat so I called her asking if I could adopt it. She told me it was a bengal so I decided to do some research on it. She is going to give it to me for free. It meows like a normal cat (I read that bengals have a more "barking" meow) It love to crawl on your lap and be held. It is very friendly.

I can not distinguish it between a Bengal, Cheetoh, or Toyger. The links are a couple pictures of the cat I took awhile ago. If you need a better picture of its face, body, ears, etc.. just let me know and I will re-post another picture.

Thank you very much for your help!!!!

http://s280.photobucket.com/albums/kk18 ... 1530_o.jpg

http://s280.photobucket.com/albums/kk18 ... 5736_n.jpg



Picture -

You guys are also probably wondering how the heck I'm getting the cat for free, it's basically a rescue situation. It is actually officially mine right now, I just want to know what type of cat it is so I can better take care of it.

Ack! 50s of spam just to see one picture

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The little monsters 3

Oh yeah, I forgot that site had a lot of spam. I will find a better website to upload it to and change the links. Sorry about that, I will do it right now

http://s280.photobucket.com/albums/kk18 ... 1530_o.jpg

http://s280.photobucket.com/albums/kk18 ... 5736_n.jpg

Hmm, in the second picture he/she seems to have stripes... if that is the case then definitely not a bengal. It's good that you are adopting though!

Thanks for the reply! It does have stripes. It has a whole bunch of spots, and then like 3 stripes is all. I know its not a toyger because it says a toyger can not have any spots, and Simba (the cat) has a lot of spots. Do you think it could be a Cheetoh? It looks like one of those as well, but I can't distinguish between a cheetoh and a Bengal. They look the same to me

EDIT: The lady adopted the cat from habitat for humanity and they said it was a Bengal. But it does have stripes, could they have been mistaken?

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http://www.bengalcat-ziggianshowcats.co.uk

I am absolutely no expert but he looks like a real Bengal to me, and Simba is a great name!

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Selina, Simba, Jinx and Rufus

Thanks for the help! I'm glad to hear it is a Bengal, now I can fit in with you guys! I'll be officially bringing him to my house in a couple days, until then I'll be researching A LOT about them.

I read that you can't find them normal cat food, I live in a small town of 5,000 so there is no special pet store. Is there any mainstream cat food that I could possible find or am I going to have to drive to a bigger city to get some? (it's only an hour drive so it's not bad)

You can give them regular cat food, just try and get the best quality you can find and afford. To start with though, keep him on whatever he's currently eating (see if the shelter will give you some to bring home) and then, if you decide to switch to a different one, do it slowly. Same with litter, use the same stuff he's using now. Presumably you don't know much about his background so keeping familiar things like food and litter to begin with will help him settle.

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The shelter I adopted him from was just somebody's home. She has 40 cats, she told me that they all picked on Simba since Simba is smaller and de-clawed. They also wouldn't let her eat. When I found her a couple months ago she was extremely scrawny so I started feeding her, I don't think she has a litter box yet. Like I said before, the other cats picked on her so for the past couple months she has been living outside of my girlfriend's house.

I will continue the food I'm feeding her right now though, thanks for the help!

Do you have any advice on getting a Bengal cat use to other cats who aren't bengal? The lady I adopted Simba from said that she doesn't get along with other cats. I am also moving her from living in the country to living in my house at town, will that be a significant problem? I read that I can't let it out by itself because people will steal it, so I'll have to walk it.

Oops, sorry, didn't realise she was a female

It's difficult to predict how she'll react - a household with 40 other cats is very unusual so I don't think you can judge Simba's behaviour by what's happened there. However, if she's had a bit of a traumatic time there because of the other cats, it may take some time for her to settle in and you'll need to be very patient. First thing will be to get her registered with a vet and make sure she's healthy and up to date with all her shots. Then we generally advise keeping any new arrival in a single room to start with until they're confident of their surroundings and you. Once they're settled, then you can gradually introduce her to the rest of the house and any other pets you've got. Again, you'll need to be patient and it may take some time. Adult cats often take longer than kittens to settle in and your girl is coming from quite an unusual set up.

If she's used to going out then you may find she cries to go out. Ultimately it's your choice whether you let her out or not. It's fair to say that the majority of people probably don't, although some of us do. The fact that she's de-clawed though makes it more dangerous to be out because she won't be able to defend herself properly and probably can't climb very efficiently. First thing is to get her settled in and bonded with you and then you can think about outdoors/indoors, walking on a leash etc.

She's probably not very used to interacting with humans closely if she's been living outdoors and may not know how to play. Simple toys like cardboard boxes, drinking straws etc are good and DaBird is a great wand-type toy which involves you so helps form a bond. Until she's confident around you, try and get down to her level when you interact with her - a strange human looming down from above can be very scary for any cat.

The key word here is going to be "patience" - she'll need you to show plenty of it but eventually you should be rewarded with a wonderful companion.

How many other cats do you have?

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