Welcome to our forum and congratulations on your baby. I see you are in Nevada. Generally, the price for a pet quality bengal is $800 to $1,500. A show quality bengal is $1,800 to $3,000. Breeding queens can go for as much as $5,000. $1,000 for a pet quality, registered and pedigreed bengal is considered good.

Many times, the price depends on the quality of the pelt and the pedigree lines of the cat. For example, if the parents were Supreme Grand Champion cats, then the cost would probably be for a show quality bengal. There are some breeders who will not even give you the price of a kitten until they get a better idea if the quality of the cat.

The pictures of your kitty are gorgeous! It appears she has the typical fuzzies, but will grow out of them and have a beautiful pelt. Many breeders take care of spaying the cats or they hold on to the registration papers until proof of spaying is provided. Since the little gal is already four months old, I would consider having her spayed almost immediately before she goes into her first heat.

Other things you need to know about a bengal? They are highly vocal, have more energy than you will ever have, are curious and will need to inspect every single corner of your home, want to be around you at all times (they are very social).

You'll need to have a tall cat tree as bengals love to climb. Make sure you also have other scratching posts around to save your furniture. Get on your hands and knees and look around from your cat's angle and bengal-proof your house. Like I said, they want to get into everything. Make sure any tiny openings are closed. One kitten got behind the kitchen cabinets -- the owner thought the cat got outside, but eventually, heard the crying behind the cabinet.

Know, too, that many bengals do not like being picked up and held and are not overly affectionate cats. They are beautiful babies, that's for sure. All bengals have some wild blood in them from the ALC. They are adventurous and will have you laughing out loud. Lots of toys are required as well and wand toys are especially good, with you on the other end of the wand. Bengals are not like your ordinary cat. They do not sleep 20 hours a day. They are active and take short naps. You will have a two-year-old toddler on your hands for many, many years.

While bengals are challenging, they have very sweet dispositions and show their love in many other ways.

Other suggestions -- keep the kitten on the same type of food and litter the breeder has been using. It will make it easier when you bring her home. Putting her in a "safe" room in the beginning will allow her to de-stress and acclimate to her new environment. She may feed the need to hide. Of course you can bring her out to hold and play with her but she needs a smaller space -- bathroom or bedroom -- where she can regain her confidence as she will just have left her mom and siblings. She should have a litter box, food and water and cat bed in there.

Know, too, that some kittens acclimate immediately and are ready to be part of the family. It just depends on the kitty. Just make sure you let her acclimate at her pace -- not yours. Don't rush her. You want a happy, confident kitten.

Keep us updated.

Personally, I think paying $1,000 to a first-time breeder is steep. Much of what you are paying for when buying a Bengal is the breeder's expertise, and it sounds like this breeder is a noob. Another thing is that 4 months old is considered quite old for a kitten to be leaving a breeder. It's usually 12-13 weeks or so for most kittens, and the really good breeders will often have a waiting list. Generally you pay less for older kittens (which may indicate they have had trouble finding a home for him). I think a first-time buyer dealing with a first-time breeder might not be the ideal situation tbh.

Things that you should expect from your breeder:

1. complete health records for your kitten, given to you so you can give them to your new vet
2. Health guarantee, in writing.
3. Either you should get your kittens TICA registration papers up-front, or something that says when and under what circumstances you will get them (some want to wait until you've gotten your kitten spayed until presenting you with the papers).
4. Ideally you'd get a small supply of the food the kitten was eating at the cattery. You'll want to use that food for the first few weeks when you bring your kitten home. Sometimes they will also give you a supply of the litter too, which is nice.
5. Diligent breeders (imo) will also draw up a contract and put some stipulations on you, like that you won't declaw, that you won't let your kitty be an "outdoor kitty", and that if you ever decide to re-home him, the breeder will take him back.
6. It's also a really good thing if the breeder has her queens/toms scanned for heart problems (which are somewhat common in bengals).'
7. If you are able to visit the kitten and get some indication of their socialization (both towards humans and other cats) is valuable.

Other things that really good breeders offer:
1. Spaying/Neutering prior to you taking possession of your kitty. Believe me, this saves you a pretty big ordeal, from your perspective, and from the breeder's perspective it takes care of the worry that you might try to breed one of her "pet quality" kittens.
2. Pet Insurance. A really nice perk for a breeder to offer is some initial period of pet insurance (which you would then continue if you want).

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The little monsters 3

Wow, you two never stop to amaze Nova, you got some really amazing advice so far from Sherry and Brian.

From what they've said, I would stress these following things:

1) Read this thoroughly: viewtopic.php?f=5&t=11816 (Mostly what Brian summarized for you but there's some other good tidbits in there)

2) Make sure you know that you will need a variety of interactive toys to play with your new bengal. I have clocked at least 2 hours per day of playtime since I got Miko- and often, he will get bored of the toy that I have chosen. So having a variety of different toys and different kinds of toys to choose from is really important. Bengals are more clever than most cats that I have played with and will get bored if you try and play the same game over and over. That being said, it's pretty rewarding when you've "cracked the code" and found the game of the day :)

3) Make sure your breeder is checking for major things like HCM, Pkdef and PRA if possible- also for giardia and TF are big ones. (TF is tritrichomonas foetus) Lots of info stickied in the Health Care subforum here if you want to take a look)

4) Cat trees- have at least one or two.

And yeah, personally, I agree with Brian. I went with the most experienced breeder I could find, even though it meant the price was higher- because it gave me the peace of mind knowing that the kitten I was buying was 100% healthy- and also knowing that it wasn't their "first rodeo" per say. Getting a pedigree is nice too so you can have an idea of who your kitten is getting his/her good looks from ;) Aside from that, good luck and hope everything goes well!

Some reading material:
TF: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=3876
HCM: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=2540
HCM #2: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=17820
PkDef: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11963

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Matt

Thank you all for your replies, I appreciate it! We ended up waiting and did not get the kitten pictured. She was adorable and was raised with the breeders children, so her temperament was very good..but we decided to go with someone with more experience. My fiance has a coworker with a Bengal so we got in touch with this local breeder he bought his from- apparently, this guy has been breeding Bengals and Savannahs for like 15 years. We went to his house last week and were able to see all of his cats (he even had a Serval, which was awesome to see!), the kittens he had available, and the parents. I felt way more comfortable with this breeder because he guarantees the kittens health, which is one of the main things I was worried about from the other breeder. He was also charging the same price and is going to spay the kitten for us before we get her, big load off our shoulders! The kittens are only 8 weeks now, so he said we have to wait till April to get her. He wants to keep her for a while after the spaying to make sure there are no complications before we get her, which really shows he cares. He keeps in touch and texts me pictures of the kitties every few days, which I go gaga for I also found out that the first breeder we almost bought the other Bengal from, went to him and used one of his Bengals as a "stud" to get her first litter, I found that pretty interesting.

We already have the guest room set up for her when she comes, bought her a new scratch post, and a few toys. We have another cat, he's a 2 year old Siamese/DMH mix, that we adopted when he was a kitten, so we're gonna keep her in there and slowly introduce them to each other. We actually just took our kitty to the vet today for a check up and get him updated on his shots. When we told the staff we were going to be getting another kitten pretty soon, they were all so excited when they found out it was going to be a Bengal lol. The vet asked who we were buying from and she knew who he was, so that made us feel confident in our breeder as well. Here are some pics of our cat, Nova, and the kittens we saw. (I believe our kitten is the one that has her face smashed against the other kitten's butt -_- haha).

Well done. This sounds like a much much better arrangement. Getting the kitten spayed is huge! Not only is it a huge ordeal out of the way, but I think my vet charged me like $400 for each of my bengals (also females) to do the operation.

Definitely let us know how it goes. I'll be watching this with interest.

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The little monsters 3

Obviously this change was a good move! Know that many bengal breeders are going to savannahs as well. You are purchasing a pet that may live 15 to 18 years, so you want to make sure it is the right one. Feeling comfortable with a breeder is the #1 thing next to the cat having a sweet disposition and being well socialized.

Do keep us posted on your journey.