Hello everyone!
I’m looking for advice for myself and my 1.5 year old boy. Though I’ve had cat’s all my life, I’ve never had a bengal. I have always wanted one, but never had an appropriate time in my life to devote the amount of attention they needed until now. I got him from a breeder when he was 4 months old and love him so much.
I’m having an issue with him “attacking” me and my husband. He will attack our legs, or if we are sitting and he can reach, he has resently started leaping at my neck and face.
There are two reasons/times he is doing it, one is when we are actually playing with him and his toys, I’m not sure if he’s getting too excited or why, but he suddenly want’s to attack us. When I see he’s about to do it, I try playing with another another toy, or distracting him with something else, but I can’t seem to distract him with anything. When/if he does attack I’ve been saying “No” and walking away from him/play time, but he keeps attacking me until I reach a water spray bottle to make him stop. Half the time I just have to pick up the bottle and once he notices it he stops, other times I actually have to spray him.
The second reason is the bad one and my reason for reaching out, it’s when he wants attention and I can’t at the moment (ie. if I’m on the phone with a client, or working) we are about to have a baby in 5 months and we really can’t have him attacking us when we are with/around a newborn.
Most days, I’m home all day with him and he does get a lot of playtime & attention as it’s just me and him until I leave for work at 5 and my husband gets home around 6. At first I thought the attacks were a sign that he needed more play time, but it’s actually seems to have made it a bit worse, especially for the second reason/wanting even more attention.
He has a million and one toys, a sitter I had come over when we were gone one night she made a comment of “where did you get all these toys? you have more than a pet store does” and I also do make a point of swapping them out every once in a while so he’s not getting board with the same ones.
Thanks for reading this and in advance for any advice you can give me!