Looking for 2 purebred kittens: Help with breed selection, please

bahger

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I'm so glad to have found this board; thanks in anticipation for your help.

We live in Los Angeles, we own one elderly Persian whose litter-mate and companion died earlier this year, and we are serious about acquiring two new purebred kittens.

A family conference has produced a shortlist of breeds but I'd be grateful for any advice members here may be prepared to share about the suitability of these breeds to our circumstances (also listed below). Finally, if we have overlooked any particular breed that strikes you as appropriate for us, I'd love to know, as we are not "locked in".

Circumstances:

- Indoor cats only.

- We have two children, eight and six years old who are gentle with pets, respectful and deserving of a relationship with cats that actually like interacting with children.

- Decent furniture not suitable for over-zealous kneading/scratching: Is this characteristic breed-associated in any way?

- We need to do what we can to ease the transition for our cherished old Persian and this consideration should influence our choice of a companion breed if it's relevant.

- Short hair preferred this time around.

- The house is decent-sized but not huge and therefore not ideal for a stir-crazy cat. However we don't want a feline throw-pillow either!

- Nocturnal howling is also unwelcome and we'd prefer to avoid breeds known for this trait.

The breed shortlist, so far:

Abyssinian
Egyptian Mau
Ocicat
Bengal
Burmese

Edit: Added via effective advocacy in this thread:

Ragdoll
Tonkinese

We are dedicated cat-people and will provide a wonderful home and much social and tactile stimulation for the right pair of kittens. We love the exotic nature of purebred cats and we're inclining towards the more lithe, shorthaired breeds, having owned Persians in the past. However, we do have two children and do not want cats that tend towards excess nervousness around children, aggression or greater than usual aloofness. We'd love to find cats that are social, playful, affectionate and only use their claws and teeth as a last resort. And we welcome the larger breeds, too.

Thank you again for your hospitality and I look forward to some very well-informed responses!
 

liza24

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i would say, to start is do research on EACH of the breeds you have listed, and talk to breeders, they are the best to answer certain questions regarding each breed, and can point you in the direction of a good quality cat/kitten. Good Luck!!!
 

kluchetta

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In my opinion, you could add Ragdoll to that list. They are a large breed, and, while possessing medium length hair, it is such that it does not mat. Many ragdolls love to be carried around by children, although that seems to be a personal preference. Ragdolls also have very quiet voices, and are not overly talkative. I would say that mine makes a little meow once a week or so! Of course I'm not biased at all (see my signature, LOL.) Best of luck!
 

beandip

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I'm not an expert, but...To my knowledge, Bengals are very high energy cats. Without lots of attention and playtime - or a playmate of the same age/energy level, I think a Bengal would be easily bored and restless. Not sure but Ocicats and Maus may be a little like that too. They're all great cats, but not suitable companions for an elderly cat IMO. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

Any breed can be trained not to scratch on the furniture. Given scratching posts, toys, and a little encouragement they'll leave the furniture alone.

I think Klutchetta has a good idea w/the Ragdoll.
 

catsarebetter

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I have two Bengals. They are not quiet house cats. Now, that being said, one is most excellent with *all* people that come in, including children ranging from quiet and mellow at 13, one more rambunctious at 12 who just won't leave her along, two toddlers, and one infant who finds kitty fascinating. She's *excellent* with them. The other one, if you have anyone come in the house that he doesn't know you don't see him for four days or until they're gone. He isn't cuddly with anyone and doesn't tolerate being picked up well. They're both crazy energetic.

I'd suggest looking into Tonkinese.. they're a cross from the Burmese and the Siamese, and so far, mine is a doll. Now.. he's still young, so I have no idea how he'll turn out, but his energy level is lower, he's not quite as crazy, but is still a kitten in all sense of the word.

I have an Egyptian Mau.. she's a rescue, though, of a nature, so.. I can't really say what normal Mau personality is.
 
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bahger

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What great responses. Thank you and please keep them coming.
 

beandip

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I'm sorry...I realized later that you said you were looking for 2 cats. I had an image of a lone Bengal kitten and your senior Persian and the mix didn't sound good. Perhaps 2 Bengals together would work.
 
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bahger

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Originally Posted by beandip

I'm sorry...I realized later that you said you were looking for 2 cats. I had an image of a lone Bengal kitten and your senior Persian and the mix didn't sound good. Perhaps 2 Bengals together would work.
A lot of people advise steering clear of Bengals but we have always been struck by them. Not that I'm afraid of a challenge but I want to keep my children happy, my furniture (relatively) unscathed and my old Persian alive!
 

kluchetta

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Originally Posted by Bahger

A lot of people advise steering clear of Bengals but we have always been struck by them. Not that I'm afraid of a challenge but I want to keep my children happy, my furniture (relatively) unscathed and my old Persian alive!
Well any kitten is pretty active. I imagine Bengal kittens would be awfully active for your household. But I don't know that for sure.
 

godiva

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I vote Burmese! Super-easy to care for coat, laid back and affectionate yet they can sure play like mad too. Great with kids (but most cats will be if socialized well). Temperament wise, I think the Burmese is closest to what you're looking for. The others you mentioned are more active breeds (or just plain hard to come by).

I have a Burmese and she is the household diva... if you have any questions about the breed, feel free to ask me!
 
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bahger

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Originally Posted by Godiva

I vote Burmese! Super-easy to care for coat, laid back and affectionate yet they can sure play like mad too. Great with kids (but most cats will be if socialized well). Temperament wise, I think the Burmese is closest to what you're looking for. The others you mentioned are more active breeds (or just plain hard to come by).

I have a Burmese and she is the household diva... if you have any questions about the breed, feel free to ask me!
Yes, I'm very drawn to Burmese, in fact I added them when I found they's been left off my wife's shortlist. I just finished reading the breed description on the CFA site and was entranced. I'd definitely be interested enough to seek breeders in SoCal.
 
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bahger

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Originally Posted by kluchetta

In my opinion, you could add Ragdoll to that list. They are a large breed, and, while possessing medium length hair, it is such that it does not mat. Many ragdolls love to be carried around by children, although that seems to be a personal preference. Ragdolls also have very quiet voices, and are not overly talkative. I would say that mine makes a little meow once a week or so! Of course I'm not biased at all (see my signature, LOL.) Best of luck!
Ragdolls and Burmese added to the list above thanks to the passionate advocacy of the experts here! I really appreciate such great input.

It might take some persuading to get my wife to accept more long-haired (albeit medium-length) felines but they sound wonderful.
 

renovia

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Hi there, I have an egyptian mau and i would say he's medium active all the time. when he gets riled up he tears all around the house - that's about once a day. He does meow and meow... I know Bengals are talkers too. And of what I've seen from people here who have bengals they are a handful. I'd add Ragdoll to the list and Tonkinese.
 
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bahger

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Originally Posted by Renovia

Hi there, I have an egyptian mau and i would say he's medium active all the time. when he gets riled up he tears all around the house - that's about once a day. He does meow and meow... I know Bengals are talkers too. And of what I've seen from people here who have bengals they are a handful. I'd add Ragdoll to the list and Tonkinese.
Tonks added, many thanks. What lovely felines. How is your furniture faring?
 

hopehacker

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I have 2 Bengals. One of them would be perfect for your family, because she's laid back and very mellow. She is a talker though. The other Bengal is a little wild man. He's a talker too, and in to everything. From what your describing, I don't think a Bengal would be good for your family, just because of their talkativeness and their activity level. I love naughty cats, and find them loads of fun, but if you don't like naughty cats, you are not going to like a Bengal. Maybe you could look into an Exotic, they're just like Persians, except they have short hair.
 
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bahger

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Originally Posted by HopeHacker

I have 2 Bengals. One of them would be perfect for your family, because she's laid back and very mellow. She is a talker though. The other Bengal is a little wild man. He's a talker too, and in to everything. From what your describing, I don't think a Bengal would be good for your family, just because of their talkativeness and their activity level. I love naughty cats, and find them loads of fun, but if you don't like naughty cats, you are not going to like a Bengal. Maybe you could look into an Exotic, they're just like Persians, except they have short hair.
Ah, another Angeleno! Well, I hate to think I'd exclude a breed on account of its "naughtiness". I'd have had a lot less fun in my life if (a long time ago) I'd applied the same rule to my taste in female (as opposed to feline) companionship.

I appreciate your advice, though, because it's no joke, making the wrong decision in these circumstances and whereas we'd be very happy to have high-spirited cats, our lives are a little too well-ordered to be totally disrupted by a pair of gangsters.
 

hopehacker

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Well, let me tell you about having an order life with a Bengal. Now, let me say that I adore my Bengal boy Simba, to pieces. He's the light of my life, and truthfully my number one cat. But he will not let me keep my house nice and tidy. He likes to pull out all of my DVD's, and literally throw them all ove the floor. I'm picking up his messes three to four times a day. I also collect My Little Pony figurines, and he knocks them down every time I put them up. I always know when he's about to start knocking things down all over the floor, because he has a certain very loud meow just before he does it. I will then, turn around and say, "Simba, Get down NOW!", and he'll just look at me for a second, then quickly as fast as he can, knock down and pull out as many DVD's as fast as he can. I then stand up, he looks at me to see if I am going to walk over to where he is, and he'll still try to get some more DVD's pulled out. Then I start to move towards him, and he jumps down. Then the little stinker runs up to me for love, and I just can't help it, I have to love him for being a good boy and getting down, and because he's just so darn cute. But, Bengals LOVE to get into things, and they love to test you to see just are far they can go. They're very smart cats.
 

catsarebetter

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My Mau, other than her obvious issues, lives a pretty orderly life in my household. She's not a lunatic, but sh'es very capable of play play play play play... but mostly she sits back and waits for the world to go by.

The Bengals are highly active... they jump on things, they're particularly naughty.. I adore them, and it's a good thing cause.. if I hadn't adored cats in the first place before I got *one* Bengal, I'd have had to murder him. We had to get a second Bengal to keep him company because no one could keep up with him. Phew!

That being said, in a household with five kittes; one domestic, one Mau, one Tonk and two Bengals... we don't have clawed furniture. We give them scratch pads and we have no problems. They're not well behaved kitties, but they don't *generally* do things like climb the curtains, potty inappropriately, destroy furniture, attack you, claw you, bite, or other things that are on the list of "bad kitty behavior"... they do things like steal your jewelry, hide it in a "stash". Steal toys, knock toys down from high places... track the toys and get them unless you actually lock them up where they can't, flush toilets, drop toys in their water..splash and dig in their water fountains..race from one end of the house to the other nonstop for two hours..push all the books off of a shelf because they just *had* to get behind the row and see what was there... you have to keep your toilet seats down...they will learn to flush, they love to watch the water go round..

Oh, and the Bengals are *very* particular about their litter box. It has to be clean and there has to be several of them. At least mine are that way.
 

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Count me as another bengals probably not right for you vote. They are gorgeous cats but their activity level makes them quite a handful and I'd worry a bit about two bengal kittens around your persian.

This doesn't mean that you need to get a lazy lapcat, far from it and many of the other breeds you've listed are wonderful and very active and naughty in their own way, just not quite as nuts as the bengals can be.

Alot of my friends have been a bit dismissive when I tell them about my bengal, Nikita and go all oh yeah my cat's active too, I know active cats and then they come visit and see her and think she's completely insane.

She'll do big rounds of the entire place leaping between pieces of furniture, knock stuff of counters to get attention, unplug my laptop if I'm on the computer too much (where the power cable connects to the laptop, she's not tried pulling it out of the wallsocket). Find the paw sized hole in the back of the fishtank lid that's ment for wires and go fishing. Jump on top of doors, counters, wardrobes, tables and the tv. Walk around meowing with very varied and usually quite loud meows when she's bored. Attack my feet if she's not got enough play time, run over my bed playing "stampeding wildebeest across the Serengeti plains" at night if she's not gotten enough play time in during the day. Then she'll hammer on the door of the closet next to my wardrobe to make banging noises if she's not getting my attention when she thinks she really needs it, she'll tease open the door to my wardrobe, jump to the shelves in it and dig out the clothes to have them land on the floor.

I love her dearly and most of her worst behaviour doesn't show unless she's bored so I've solved it by making sure I spend enough time playing with her but still it's the sort of behaviour you can expect from bengals.

I'm not saying it can't be done but if you're set on a bengal do lots more research and be prepared for what you'll be getting yourself into.

Since there are so many other gorgeous and excellent breeds out there as well that would probably suit you better I think that would probably be a better choice.

If you want spotted cats Egyptian Maus are more easy going while still being plenty active. From what I've gathered Ocicats and Abysinnians are close to the Bengal activity level but probably not quite as nuts.

The Ragdoll is a breed I've heard nothing but good things about as a general fun family cat but they're not shorthaired cats.

Of course the difference in individuals can be bigger than between breeds so it's more of a general trend rather than a known quality.

I'm really looking forward to following on and seeing what breed you end up deciding on and then pics of the kittens
 

kai bengals

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Just to put my 2 cents worth in..........


Everyone has given you the scoop on bengals, and most of it is right on the money, so I won't go into all that again, but I would like to mention.........

I would never knowingly sell a bengal kitten to anyone who already owned a persian, unless the persian was one of group of other more active breeds in the houshold.
It just wouldn't be fair to the persian or the bengal, they have nothing in common and the bengal would constantly be harrassing the persian out of a desire to play play play.

Bengals LOVE dogs. The bigger the better. There is a reason for this.
 
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