New Kitten joining the family, bunch of questions

Hi All,

New Kitten joining the family this weekend, a 4 month old Bengal (male) will Join Cody (male) our 7 year old cat. Cody is very loving and playful and i'm hoping he will enjoy his companion during the day when we are not home. That is our ultimate goal. I did have a few questions.

Cody currently eats dry only Science Diet C/D Dry for being blocked in the past and issues with Struvite crystals. He has been eating this for over a year now with no problems. I'm not crazy about the nutritional content but if it saves his life I plan on keeping him on it.

I need a recommendation for a kitten litter and kitten food, cody will not eat wet food at all. My main goal is to have cody not eat the kittens food, could I combine wet and dry or should I get go all wet with the new kitten? Currrently I feed Cody one cup a day and he eats it throughout the day. I'm worried the new kitten will eat his food and his own. Any suggestions are appreciated.

How long should the kitten not use clumping litter? Also are two boxes a must or should I eventually switch to one after the break-in period?

How long should I wait to introduce the new kitten to cody?

Thanks,

Greg

Please read my reply to your thread in the Breeders forum section. I would recommend that if you have already gone ahead and adopted the bengal kitten that you start reading as much information on the breed as you can.

I wish you the best with introductions.

As far as food goes, your very best bet is to find out what the breeder is feeding the bengal and continue to feed that kitten ONLY the food the breeder has raised him on, as bengals have delicate tummies and a food switch can cause months of very loose, runny and stinky bowel movements, which can cause a problem for a growing kitten not getting the nutrients he needs from the food.

Because Cody (used to be Tortis?) has to eat the special food, you'll need to feed them seperately, as the bengal will have different food needs.

Two litter boxes are a must, three would be better. My bengals prefer to use one for pee and one for pooing in, and they like it to be kept pretty clean.

As far as clumping litter goes, I used clumping from the start with my cats, and adopted two of them at about 8 weeks of age. A 4 month old kitten should have NO problems with a clumping litter whatsoever.

Please do a search on TCS for "introductions" and read up on them - in most cases, a one to two week separation is preferable in the beginning, and introductions need to be handled pretty carefully.

Very best of luck to you!

Hi hi,

First of all I second everything Gingersmom has said.

Please read up on the Bengal breed. They are fantastic cats but they need a special kind of owner that's ready to put up with the routine disruption that comes with caring for a very high energy cat. The kittens especially are basically balls of spotted fluffy energy and will need to play for hours and hours every single day for the first year or two.

Your current cat will not provide that amount of play. In fact it's quite likely that he'll get annoyed at the kitten that just wants to playplayplay. Which means that you need to step in and play exercise the kitten. It's pretty much like having a dog that needs to be walked.

Also definately don't change the kittens food at all yet. Find out from the breeder what he's eating now and stick with that to begin with. If you do change the food do it very slowly so you don't upset the digestive system of the cat.

Basically one of the main 'problems' most bengals have to deal with is a very sensitive digestive system. They usually need very high quality (which is usually expensive) cat food high in protein and low in carbs. If their food is changed to much or not high quality enough they can get loose stools and really smelly diarreah and that can take ages to be sorted out even once you're back to feeding foods you know the cat can handle.

Believe me, even it's only once, getting completely liquid cat diarreah all over your bed, because there was no way a sleeping kitten would get to the litterbox in time, even though she tried. Is one time too many (speaking unfortunately from personal experience)