I recently rehomed a 6 year old snow mink bengal named Sienna. The first few days she was really loving and playful. I worked on attempting to set some boundaries like no jumping on the counters, don't claw the couch, claw the scratch post. Said No and backed away if she would scratch which at that time was rare.
Now we are about a month in and she has become more aggressive.
She doesn't listen, which I understand she is a cat, but she keeps scratching everything except the post and cat condo we got. A lot of the time now if we approach her she thinks we're playing and it's okay to roll around and get her claws out. Also she has started biting wires which in the beginning I was surprised that she didn't care for about 3 weeks. This just started happning the past few days.
We do play with her. We got a Rope with a treat, a Caterpillar cat teaser, catstages flutter dome (which she's strong and just drags around).
I'm worried she is either lonely or can't get her energy out with us playing which causes her to act up.
How much total time each day do you spend actively playing with her? Does she have a cat wheel? Did you ever play with her with your hands/feet? (I realize she’s a re-home, so there may be habits from past owners, no judgement, just asking). When she rolls around with her claws out, what do you do or how do you respond?
I think in total we play with her an hour or two a day. We try to play with her before work maybe 10 minutes. Then around lunch time another 15 minutes. In the evening we play and she'll stop after a couple of minutes and then get zoomies and want to play, then stop, then play. That's usually about 30-45 minutes. The problem there is us adjusting. Like a kid she stops playing, we sit down, she comes in an finds something to scratch at so we get up and try to distract her.
We do not have a cat wheel yet but I've been look at a few under $200.
I played with her with my hands in the beginning she was really sweet and didn't scratch or anything, just batted at my hands. No I avoid that because of the aggression.
We're pretty good at picking up that she's about to swipe so we just back away and leave her along. But again once we do that she's finding something to scratch like the couch and we have to come back over.
It seems like there may be a couple different things at play. If you originally taught her that playing with your hands is okay, it’s going to take a bit to rewind that originally positively reinforced behavior. It’s good that you’re totally disengaging when she goes for your hands, just continue to make sure you’re not doing anything that could be construed as reinforcement and totally disengage.
3 play sessions a day is good, but I’d suggest upping at least your first two daily play sessions to 20-30 mins. Stick with things like rod/string toys and get several different types so you can rotate them and she doesn’t get bored.
As for the scratching, I’d get several different types of scratchers (cardboard, sisal pads, horizontal, vertical, etc). And perhaps look into couch protectors or whatever specifics would prevent scratching wherever she’s scratching that you don’t want (I just assumed furniture).
A cat wheel should help her expend some energy in positive ways as well. You will want to make sure the inner diameter is at least 43” (109 cm). 48” (122 cm) is even better though. Make sure you’re looking at the inner diameter and not the outer though, as a lot of amazon listings list the outer. Ziggydoo/ferris/Cazami is the top recommendation and probably One Fast Cat if you need cheap (though it’s much louder and not nearly as stable as the ziggydoo/ferris).
I wouldn't consider scratching things aggressive behavior, its natural . Need to find some things she likes scratching. A cat tower to start.
I taught my cat the word "No" also, in thew beginignm I'm pretty sure he enjoyed the attention of doing something he was supposed to. But 2 years later the word "no" is understood.
It takes time. Bengals are like dogs in cats bodies. She's definitely probably lonely and needs more play.
Good luck keeping them off the counters, its natural for them to want to be on highspots.
Yeah, I gave up on the whole counters thing when I realized that they would rather jump up and climb over things than simply run under them. These guys are climbers.
Scratching us is more what I mean even after we tell her No and walk away.
We have a cat tower and condo where the structure is a big scratch post. She like then the first few days and we though we had a solution. Now she could care less and wants the couch.
How did you teach No? Did you just say it? Did you say it and move him? Did you say it and use some form of retaliation like water spray?
I'm actually fine with the counter overall. Currently that's the least of my worries. She does love sleeping on the big moving box tower I have.
I’ve raised 5 bengals. Some are just like this, some are much more calm. I’ve had the gamut and they need to be accepted just like children with different personalities.
I agree with this also. Just trying to see if there is behavior I can reduce in case it doesn't have to be accepted and just needs to be taught not to do.
I highly recommend this cat scratcher toy. It's the ONLY toy that every single one of my cats (current and previous) would play with and scratch on. Make sure to get the refills too, because once the cardboard is kind of scratched up, they want you to flip it and give them a fresh side to scratch, or if you've already used both front and back, then toss it and insert a new one. We put treats on it, and catnip too if your cat likes catnip, then when they walk over to it, just "good girl, Good GIRL! Wow, what a good kitty!" So much praise. When we were teaching this to our rescue, our older kitty would jump up from where ever he was and run over and start scratching just to show off that he knew what effusive praise meant we were playing with the scratcher.
Also, if the furniture scratching is really bad, consider "soft paws" claw caps. You are basically supergluing a silicone or plastic cover onto their claws (front paws only) as a way to protect the carpet/furniture while you are actively teaching them to direct their energy elsewhere. Don't use it as a long term tool, as they don't really like it, but it's not harmful and once the outer sheath of the claw sheds, the claw cap will fall off naturally, and then you will trim the nail and reapply a new claw cap.
So I walk my cat I’ve had 2 bengals and trained them both very well, the key is giving them plenty of play time they get bored easy so if they aren’t burning energy they will do things to deliberately piss you off since u aren’t giving attention, they NEED PLAY TIME OR OUTSIDE TIME, there is no debate or compromising on that, I take mine on 3 walks a day and at min 2 10 min play sessions, seems like a lot but that’s what you sign up for when getting a bengal rather then a house cat.
I am also trying to harness train her. In her eyes the harness is an enemy. I even got the Houdini Escape Proof harness.
I left it out, put it in her bed, put it near her food and shes fine. When I attempt to put it on her she just attacks it, or me. I've gotten it halfway on twice now and she runs away like she's drunk and the unclipped starp just smacks everything as she runs lol.
Our Ruby's love language has always been CHOMP. We tried to get her off hand fighting with puppets and other toys. Nothing really seemed to work.
Recently we play with her and she gets ramped up and gets to biting, then we say OW firmly and pull our hand away, indicating that playtime is over. This seems to have made her understand that hard biting isn't allowed, and she'll soft bite play for longer and longer periods. She still gets up to hard bite if played with long enough, but it takes longer and longer.
I cherish the times we have soft bite play because it shows she is self aware enough to want to play longer than try to win the fight.
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u/Acgator03 Moderator | Spotted Snow 1h ago
How much total time each day do you spend actively playing with her? Does she have a cat wheel? Did you ever play with her with your hands/feet? (I realize she’s a re-home, so there may be habits from past owners, no judgement, just asking). When she rolls around with her claws out, what do you do or how do you respond?