Hi again,
I have been lurking but now I need a bit of advice / thoughts /
input - again
We have tried twice to get our bengal served by a stud and despite
every sensible precaution taken re intros she hated the whole thing
and was really terrified, despite leaving her there for a whole week
on the last occasion in order to settle her.
I think she disliked the experience of being in a (very comfortable
and house-like) pen and being taken away from her own home. As soon
as she arrived she went from strong on call to completely off call
straight away. The journey was only an hour long.
I am tempted to write off the whole thing and just have her
neutered. I am unsure whether the anxiety she suffers is worth it.
It does not seem to abate with "settling in time." For now, we are
planning to try again one more time in the spring when she goes into
call again.
However, I also wondered if it might be sensible to really "go for
it" and get a stud of my own plus two further queens in order to
keep him happy enough and then cease operations after all the queens
have had a few litters - or perhaps continue in the longer term the
way that you guys do . . I dont know . . . I might get bitten by
the bug for life . . .
My question is this - if he is the only stud is it possible to keep
him in the house with the family. I would ideally prefer this as I
would like to keep him as a pet as well as a "husband" for Lyra.
What are the barriers to this? Is the spraying unbearable or is it
not too excessive if he is the only male? I know that we had entire
males as pets when I was a child (back in the dark ages before
anyone knew about cat overpopulation etc) but they were free
ranging, not confined to be indoor cats the way mine would be.
Also, is it possible that he might be able to do with less than
three queens if it was only for a couple of years before he was
nuetered and kept as a pet.
These are not plans, just ideas and queries that I am kicking around.
Any thoughts would be appreciated.