Bengals and Tonks...anyone familiar with both breeds?

Hi all,

I'm wondering if anyone is familiar with both breeds. I currently have two Bengals (and one Mau, and one domestic), and I would like to get a Tonkinese. I need a kitty that's somewhere in the middle of the personalities extremes that I have here. The Bengals, of course, are wide open, rambunctious, highly energetic, determined that they will change the minds of those who disagree with them.. and the Mau is laid back, quiet, observes everything, and the victim of many a Bengal coup. Bless her little heart.. I wasn't going to get the Tonk for her, I admit it.. I was being selfish and want one for myself.. BUT.. I'm hoping that someone can tell me if Tonks have enough attitude to

a.) put up with a Bengal by either smacking them down and giving them the evil "back off Bengal, I'm unimpressed by you" stare..or can give as good as they get..

b.) are mild enough and social enough to potentially be a buddy to the Mau, who is just very sweet natured.


Any opinions on this? I'm about to start putting money down on a kitten...

oh, and one last question.. The male Bengal is an F3. He's a bit territorial, although he's not vicious. One Tonk breeder said they suspected a female would work better because of Khan being territorial.. and another said they thought a male would work better due to the males being a bit more rough and tumble, dishing out what they take, etc. Opinions on this one?

I am very familiar with Bengals, I have 9 ! My domestic cats lives have been changed for ever. I wouldnt advise you to have another male with your F3 as it will end in death. I have two males here a 2 yr old snow and an 8 month old brown spotted, the younger boy is fine but the older boy would kill him if I allowed them to mix - Its the way it is and I have to juggle my time with them. (mine are f4s and f5s) I would advise a softer breed as Bengals always win, they are fearless as you know . I have no experience of Tonks. Enjoy your new kitten.

How is the attitude of the F3 with the current cats? How do they all get along? I think you might go for the female too. Tonks would be a bit of the saucy siamese and some mellow from the burmese.

Well, while he does exhibit quite a number of the ALC traits... I'm assuming that's what they are, anyway, given that in all the cats I've had, or known, or people I've known have had.. no one has seen their kitties do the things that he does.

Now, that being said... he does engage a bit in hunting behavior... when he's hungry. He was bad about it, before we started him on a raw diet. He's an exceptionally picky eater and we spent a year and a half trying to find *anything* that he would eat... and then we'd find something, and the very next day, he'd turn his nose up at it. The raw diet is the very first thing he's consumed that he actually eats a lot of, and he's finally filling out...

Ummm. the point there was that he's calmed down now, and we are fairly certain that it's in great part due to the fact that he's not hungry 24/7. He does occasionally still engage in hunting behavior. He's also got the kitten to zip around with now too.. and zip... zip.... zip .. they do. All the time. I'm fairly certain if we didn't seperate them at bedtime...they'd still be zipping.

Khan, the F3, thinks of himself as King. He projects kingliness...but he has yet to convince any one but the Mau, Bagheera..that indeed, that is the case. The kitten, all four pounds, keeps up with all of his 12 pounds, with every ounce of vigor and perhaps even more attitude than Khan has. The domestic, Noel... just simply whaps him across the head when he tries to tackle her, occasionally, when he's zipping around here and gets out of line (like if he pounces Bagheera) Noel will engage in moderator behavior and put his elevated attitude back in its place. Noel is mom.

He will do his little nunnungnung growl.. this is an ongoing growl that sounds like a demon has possessed our boy .. sometimes this ends in 20 seconds, or as soon as someone moves away from his food dish... or in the case of Tavi.. the Bengal I used to have, he did it solidly for about four days, gave up when she simply looked at him, completely unimpressed, and shrugged her shoulders and rolled her eyes.. and went back to washing herself. Then they got a long great and I think if she had stayed alive, she would have established herself as the monarch, next to Noel, of course.

With this kitten, it took one day, and suprisingly... usually being the last one to get along with new babies, thus far, he was the first to adopt this kitten, and got along with her long before the girls accepted her. He was washing her, and he'd effectively adopted her.. taught her how to play, amongst other things...he's really much closer to her than he has been to any of the cats. Maybe he thanks her for bringing the raw.. I don't know. Their relationship is incomprehensible, given his personality.

He's usually a loner. He gets PO'd at my sister when she leaves...she shares "his" room at night.. when she gets home, he pulls a snit. He won't even look at her, and pointedly ignores her by sitting next to me and just pretending he neither hears nor sees her.

With Bagheera, he thinks it's great fun to chase her. She will run, if he pins her, she'll scream like she's being murdered... but with that being said.. 10 minutes later she's sitting next to him somewhere, doing something with him. When he pounces Noel like that, she whaps him in the head. When he pounces the kitten like that, she promptly rolls him over and beats him up, or fights back..

We did have one male her, who we brought in as an adult from the same breeder. He had some potty issues that we were trying to work with and rehabilitate.. but ended up being marking behavior.. he never did accept Pepper.. that being said...Pepper was often separated from the rest of the household (Noel doesn't really take well to adults either), and wasn't really ever incorporated into the household, full blown, due to pottying issues. So, I really don't know if he would have ever actually accepted him. They never got into anything more than a slapping battle. However, I would say that Pepper definitely had the best of Khan.. and Khan very well knew it. That may well be why they never got into it.

As BengalBabe said.. he's definitely fearless. I think most of his F3 qualities manifest in other ways. He's not really...well, I wouldn't call his aggression deadly or lethal. I actually think that overall, the two girl Bengals have been more so than he is, but he's pretty territorial in that he has very defined lines and boundaries. Not so much with the other cats, but..like, his room is his room. That's where he sleeps, that's his bed, he's got his routine, and *any* deviation from that routine and he's a complete poophead.He gets his food in exactly the same place, every day, on the cat tree.. away from the other cats. He won't use the litter box in his room unless he absolutely has to.. he will, indeed, hold it all night and come bursting out of the room in the morning to potty in one of the other litter boxes. If by some unfortunate force of nature, he has to use *his* litter box... he won't speak to my sister for a good five or six hours. To take a quote from Caeser... he's got rules, boundaries and limitations.. but for instance, he won't chase another cat out of his room. He does get peeved when another cat spends time with my sister.

Now, when we had the Great Dane, he terrorized her. He would stalk her, and beat the heck out of her. Dogs are not, under any circumstance, permitted in his home.

So... I guess when I say territorial, I'm talking about his rules, his boundaries, but not necessarily, this is my litter box, dare to use it, or this is my room, dare to enter. He's just a very very odd duck. But ultimately, he does defer to the domestic's rule.

I just don't know...he's just so unusual he's an enigma.

Originally Posted by Bengal Babe

I wouldnt advise you to have another male with your F3 as it will end in death.

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Hi,

Sorry, I don't get this statement, unless you are embelishing for effect. A neutered F3 won't be any more aggressive than any other neutered bengal male of any generation.
Usually the EG bengals (properly altered) F1 thru F3 are more shy and less aggressive around other cats and consequently blossom more and are less reclusive in one cat households.

Is your experience different? If so, please elaborate.

Originally Posted by Kai Bengals

Hi,

Sorry, I don't get this statement, unless you are embelishing for effect. A neutered F3 won't be any more aggressive than any other neutered bengal male of any generation.
Usually the EG bengals (properly altered) F1 thru F3 are more shy and less aggressive around other cats and consequently blossom more and are less reclusive in one cat households.

Is your experience different? If so, please elaborate.

Click to expand...

I thought perhaps we had a special one, hehe. I'd heard from one Tonk breeder that I was talking to in the area that she wouldn't give her Tonks to anyone who had Bengals because Bengals were such an unpredictable and vicious breed. I'd written back and told her.. well, I've never seen evidence of that but I don't have a lot of experience. She'd told me a tale of how she knew a Bengal breeder that had to ultimately stop breeding Bengals because the man's wife ended up hospitalized twice from Bengal attacks.. I just couldn't imagine that unless perhaps he was working with an ALC, or perhaps an F1? I mean, my Bengals are little lunatics... but in a good way. I occasionally have visions of Khan having pleasant daydreams of ways to end my meager and insignificant existence, except *his* mommy is a vegetarian and *really* hates dealing with the raw. I know he only allows me leeway due to the fact that I prepare his food. But I do see the little wheels turning every time I grumble at him..hehe.

We all have our little bengal stories, but they are all told with a twinkle in our eyes.
I've been breeding bengals for 10 years and not one of them has even thought of attacking me, my wife or any visitor and we have had visitors of ages 2 through 80. Some of those young toddlers have even tormented my cats, as toddlers unknowingly do, and there has never been more than a hiss of protest from the cats. They tolerate more from kids than they would an adult. To me, this shows intelligence above and beyond what would be expected. Our visitors always leave with the knowledge that our cats welcomed them, wanted to interact with them and enjoyed the affection and playtime.
Bengals have a bad rep with breeders of other cats. Virtually all of it is undeserved. I have my opinions as to why that is, but I'm going to keep that to myself.

I would leave any one of my bengals (male or female) with a kitten of any breed and be 100% sure that no harm would come to that kitten.
I have bengal cats from many different and diverse lines, so it can't just be my cats that are this docile. It is the breed in general.

When she told me that, and it seemed to me that it was quite snotty.. although, given that it was an email, sometimes you just misread something..I just couldn't fathom that. I've met other F3s and while I've only met the cats at either of the breeders that I know.. they've always been lovely and interactive and great cats.

My worry with Khan was more that he was neutered at about 7 months, and right before he was neutered he started to display that slightly more "male" personality trait. Now he is "spraying" but only in the litter box.. I think he just sort of accidentally did it one day and doesn't really even know what he's doing. He's not standing up to spray... he's still squatting like he's just peeing. I just worry that he might start spraying habits. That's really more the issue than the aggression factor.

Joyeux is a goofball, but puts up with children. Khan.. he just takes off any time people he doesn't know visit.