Welcome to the Bengal Life. Some tips and information to help make life a little easier.
COSMIC BENGAL
Kitten Care Instructions
Michelle and Josh Farnsworth
Phone: (916) 521-3582
Email:CosmicBengals@gmail.com
Below is the same information we give to our Bengal owners. However it is not limited to just those who purchase a Bengal from Cosmic Bengal. I hope you find something here that can help you with your Bengal/cat.
Thank you for purchasing a Cosmic Bengal and WELCOME to the Family! The following are important guidelines/suggestions on taking care of your Cosmic Bengal kitten/cat. Of course, every kitten and cat is different, and care depends on your kitten’s specific needs.
Introduction to the home and Bonding Time. Once you bring your Bengal home, we recommend that you keep him/her calm and comfortable until he/she becomes accustomed to the new surroundings. We recommend that you first place your kitten in a small area, such as a bathroom or a bedroom, with his/her food, water and litterbox, prior to taking him/her on short excursions throughout the house, until he/she becomes familiar with his/her new surroundings. He/she may cry for the first 48 hours or hide under the bed or other small, dark spaces (make sure you ‘kitty-proof’ the room before bringing your kitten home!). Remember, it is scary for a 12-week old kitten to leave his familiar surroundings! Lure him/her out with teasers and just give him / her time to come out on his/her own and explore. They need to feel secure in their new home. If your Cosmic Bengal was shipped, please show him/her extra love and attention, hold him/her close and comfort him/her, and he/she will love you for "rescuing" him from the airport. When they arrive at your home, try giving them wet kitten food and see if they will eat it – if they do not, that is normal, as some kittens want to explore the sights and smells of their new house. If you have small children, please caution them against chasing and yelling the kitten. Please show them the proper way to hold the kitten. Bengals are wonderful with small children, and the make great companions. Be relaxed around your new kitten because they will pick up on your nervous energy and anxiety (trust us, we’ve had this happen before – the more relaxed the client, the less issues with the cat!)
Click HERE for an in-depth article about safe rooms and introductions to your home
Litterboxes. Our Cosmic Bengals are used to using a covered litter box or a tall sided litter box. Place the litterbox in the kitten’s bedroom and in the living room (if that is where the family normally gathers).
Do not place the litterbox in the laundry room or another floor of the house hidden and out of sight– the kitten will not find it! The more litterboxes, the better, at least for the first month while the kitten adjusts to its new home. We also use pine pellet litter, so please use the same, at least for the first week or two – if you want to change out to a different type of litter, place one litterbox with the pine pellet litter and another litterbox with the new litter side by side, while your kitten adjusts. To ease in your little one’s transition, we recommend that you buy a similar type of litter box. Do not use an automated litter box for your Cosmic Bengal until they are at least 6 months old! We also suggest that you put litter attractant in the litter to help the kitten find the box. ** ONLY IF THEY ARE HAVING A PROBLEM. The use of this product from the start can actually cause problems. We place our litterboxes within eyeshot of the kitty’s food and drink bowl. So, when you first bring your Bengal home, try and do the same, so the little one does not get lost trying to get to the litterbox. We also suggest that you show them their litter box first thing upon their arrival, and watch them carefully after they have just eaten or drunk water, to make sure they know where to go. Our kittens are litter trained when they leave us, but we have found that, in some very rare cases, some kittens find it harder to adjust to their new homes, become confused and have accidents when they arrive at their new home. Please be patient with your kitten. It is more traumatic for some kittens to leave the familiarity of our cattery their littermates than others.
Introduction to Pets. (ONLY DO THIS AFTER YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY FINISHED THE INTRODUCTION/BONDING PHASE)
If you have other pets in the house, one way to introduce your Cosmic Bengal to them is to place the kitten in the pet taxi (or a crate), and place the pet taxi/crate in the middle of a room with the other pets. Let everyone sniff each other, and get acquainted. There may be hissing and spitting at first, but this is normal, and shouldn’t last for more than a few days. Supervised play times are also suggested, until everyone is familiar with each other. If you have other felines in the house, you must isolate your kitten for 2 weeks, otherwise you will void our health warranty.
Veterinarian visit. Our contract requires that you take your new kitten to the vet within 3-business days, unless you notify us, in writing – the longest time we will allow is 5 business days. This is a strict requirement and you will void our health warranty if you do not follow this condition in the contract.
***(DON’T FORGET to add us to the authorized list for communicating with your vet if ever we need to in regards to your Cosmic Bengal). Included with you health certificate paperwork is a “Proof of Alter” form. Please give this to your vet for your file and have them fill it out and return to us at the time of the spay/neuter.
Kittens’ immune systems are still developing, and sometimes, the stress of the move will lower their immunity and make them more susceptible to infections. Your kitten has been checked by our vet prior to leaving a cattery (evidenced by a FL Health Certificate) and cleared as healthy to leave our cattery. If your kitten has not been exposed to any other animals for 2 weeks, and your kitten starts showing signs of an infection (e.g. upper respiratory, conjunctivitis) or diarrhea, please notify us right away. Our warranty is void if your kitten has been exposed to other animals during this 2-week period, because there is no way to tell how the kitten caught the infection. If your kitten develops diarrhea most likely it’s due to the stress of a new environment. We recommend using this probiotic “ NutraMax Proviable” and can be found on Amazon
Litter. Cosmic Bengal kittens use Tractor Supply Co. Equine Pellitized Pine Bedding, a wood-pellet litter product.. An alternative that is available at most pet stores and supermarkets is Feline Pine. You are free to use another type of litter (e.g. clay), if you wish, but again, you should change the litter out gradually, so that your kitten will become used to the new litter. Any sudden changes in the litter may lead to ‘accidents.’ (IF THERE'S AN ACCIDENT) We recommend getting Kitten Attract and sprinkling this on top of the litter. This helps them find the box. If your kitten is still having problems contact us and we can help with suggestions for your specific circumstances.
Toys. Our Cosmic Bengals love toys! They love to chase balls, feathers, lures - pretty much anything that moves! They also like the sisal rope scratching posts and cat trees.
Socialization, Training and Discipline. Bengals are very smart, but they are also very active, so you need to train them early on, to prevent destructive behavior. Do not encourage your kitten to play rough or to "play bite" and this will carry on to adulthood. If you have children, teach them not to play rough with the kitten, because when your kitten is grown up, he will play too rough. Be firm with your kitten from the very beginning, so they know what behavior is acceptable, and what behavior is not. Reward them with treats for good behavior.
Our Guarantee. Our guarantee only covers your CosmicBengal kitten. If you have a multi-cat household, and your other feline(s) comes down with health issues after your kitten arrives, we are not responsible for any veterinary expenses for your other feline(s), as we are not responsible for their health. Similarly, if your CosmicBengal kitten comes down with health issue(s) after exposure to your existing feline(s), we will be responsible only if the issues are congenital issues. You need to make sure that your existing felines are up to date on all vaccinations and have been regularly checked by your veterinarian prior to introducing them to your new kitten. This also applies to any other pets you may have in your household.
Please make allowances. Although our kittens are socialized, it is still upsetting for them to be in strange surroundings. Please give him/her time to adjust. Adjustment could take as much as two to four weeks, before he/she is comfortable. We cannot predict how our kittens will act when he/she leaves the familiar environment of our cattery. Also, your kitten may also have some minor upsets from the stress of moving (particularly if they flew by air or have been in a car for several hours). Some kittens may not eat and/or have a bowel movement for the first two days. At a minimum, be sure that your kitten is drinking and try and encourage your kitten to eat when she/she first arrives. But, if your kitten starts vomiting, has diarrhea (or blood in his/her stool), sneezes, has a runny nose, acts lethargic or has no appetite, please take your kitten to the vet immediately. Please contact us immediately if you have concerns. We cannot help you if we do not know about the issue. We want to be kept up to date on our kittens’ health and well-being. By letting us know about the issue, you can also help us improve our health protocols and our breeding program. We may not be able to help you if you wait a week, two weeks, etc. before telling us that your kitten has had health or behavior issues. It’s better to tell us right away so that we can help figure out a solution.
Food. Our kittens are weaned on Stella and Chewy’s Freeze Dried Raw Turkey and Chicken. You can also alternate proteins with Duck and Rabbit. Our local pet store offers free shipping on orders of $50 or more through their website. Click on each ‘type’ of food to order. If you prefer to shop on Amazon, please check out their store <here> Kittens eat approximately 1 cup a day. If you are planning to change you need to SLOWLY change to the new food (over the course of at minimum 2 weeks) to avoid upsetting the kittens’ digestive system. If you would like to feed a homemade balanced RAW diet, we have included a recipe below. If you are planning on feeding a dry food, we recommend Taste of the Wild.
If you choose to RAW FEED here is a great recipe
It is important that you make the same food when your kittens come home. If you want to switch that is fine but do it slowly.
UNTIL THE KITTENS GET OLDER PLEASE STICK TO CHICKEN THIGHS NOT BEEF.
This is the recipe :
6.5 lb Batch Chicken and Beef
5 lbs of Beef Meat/chicken thighs
5.25 oz Chicken Liver
5.25 oz of other secreting organ( we use beef kidneys)
11.5 ounces of chicken hearts or beef hearts
3.5 tsp of eggshell powder
1 cup water
If you don’t want to grind your own egg shells you can buy a powder
This is one I found on Amazon Click here> Amazon Eggshell replacement
Litter. Feline pine (or any other type of pine pellet litter). We recommend getting Precious Cat Dr. Elsey's Ultra Litter Attractant to sprinkle on top of the litter if the kitten is having litter problems while the kitten is adjusting to its new home.
Litterbox. For kittens, the box needs within eye shot of their food. Please do not put the box in the laundry room or on another floor of the house – the kitten will most likely find it while it is adjusting to your house! Kittens use the front entry box until they get older. We recommend the top entry boxes for cats that are 6 months or older.
Treats. We suggest Halo Liv-a-Little freeze dried treats.
Cat Trees. We usually buy our trees from WWW.CHEWY.COM Bengals LOVE cat trees, and they are a must for any home with a Bengal. Click here for more Tower, Trees and scratch posts
If you are looking for a unique cat tree, go to www.furwoodforest.com. Their cat trees are pricey but they are great conversation pieces and they are built to last!
Toys. Our kittens like the cat teasers on www.catteasersandmore.com. Our kitties like anything with foil on them!. Click here for a list of fun toys
Water Fountains: Using a water fountain is a great way to encourage your bengal to drink more water. Click here for a list of good fountains.
Scratching Post. We use the Smartcat Ultimate Scratching Post. We’ve found them to be very stable and sturdy! We buy ours from www.Chewy.com.
Walking your Bengal outside: MANY bengals LOVE to be outside, going on walks, climbing trees and just being one with the beautiful outdoors. Bengals and other felines are very good at getting out of harnesses and so it’s very important to get one that has been reliable, strong, well made and do not forget comfortable. We HIGHLY recommend using a jacket made from Niema Bengals. You can get them through their facebook page Click here -> @Niema Cat Jackets or contact Stacey Conway AMSTAFLUV@YAHOO.COM or (413)-592-4194
Cat Wheels. We have the cat wheel by “ZIGGYDOO”. This wheel is very solid, sturdy and quieter than its competition. Our feline friends LOVE running on and even taking a light stroll on their wheel which gives them a safe alternate way to keep in great physical, muscular shape and to release a lot of their energy rather than taking it out on your furniture or household items.
Unlike the “One fast cat” brand which has had issues with falling over due to excessive speed and wobbliness., we have found that the ZIGGY DOO is built with care and the safety of your animal in mind. Please visit this link if you are contemplating getting this amazing gift for your CosmicBengal. After all, they do deserve the VERY BEST:
RAW FOOD SUBSTITUTION
Freeze Dried is a great option for Raw feeding or introducing different proteins. This is also an option for feeding a balanced RAW diet without the fuss of dealing with raw meat. Stella and Chewy’s, Primal Pet
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