*************IMPORTANT**************
"Bringing Home Baby"
KITTEN and CAT CARE
DIET: Currently our kittens/cats are eating Royal Canin Kitten dry. Leave dry out and available all the time or feed kittens 3-4 times daily according to age. In addition I serve supplemented raw, bone-in, ground chicken, or I boil /saute chicken, turkey, fish, or hamburger, but not overly cooked. It should be bright pink in the center to be useful and tasty. Mothers and kittens get a side of raw or cooked meat twice a day until kittens are 3 months, then 2-3 times a week or better. They also get a tablespoon of canned holistic diets for kittens/cats if they don't get meat or are holding out. Cooked meat or canned food has a lot of moisture for mothers and is great for mixing supplements. DO NOT offer cow's milk or anything else not specified for kittens/cats. These things can start diarrhea, irritating their stomach and bowel and can lead to dehydration or secondary bacterial infections and a weakening of the immune system. Dehydration due to vomiting and/or diarrhea can quickly lead to death (sometimes in a 1-2 day period if they are small or weakened). ALWAYS have "fresh" bottled/filtered water readily available and free of food or other debree. Bengals often wash their feet in their waterbowls so it should be washed frequently.
I "HIGHLY" reccomend supplementing with lysine and the best possible diet to support the immune system. Keeping their immune system up is essential to being successful in rearing a baby bengal. Their immune systems do not mature until 1 year or so. Proper nutrition and absorbtion of neccessary nutrients is vital to organs. In turn, this affects and is reflected by the immune system and over-all health of your bengal. Without the ability to absorb, transfer, and release needed amino acids and hormones throughout the body, the system begins to fail; and once it starts, it can move very quickly. I will initially try to provide lysine for purchase and connect you with a supplier for lysine and other supplements. SEE links to purchasing STRESS fighting supplements at the bottom of this page.
If you decide to change diets, it is extremely important to do so v-e-r-y slowly. Bengals do not typically change diets easily or quickly, so watch stools daily. Mix 1/4 or less of the new food with the old and give 1 week or more, then add up to, but no more than 1/3 new food for 1 week or more. Then 1/2 for 1 week +, 3/4 for 1 week +. The best way to have the least amount of stomach upset, gas, pain, diarrhea, or vomiting, is to do it this way, taking about 1 to 2 months or more to change completely. It takes 6-8 weeks or more to see if a new diet is accomplishing what you want, so don't quit early unless your kitty is having allergies to it's ingredients or diarrhea. If you do the above and still have severe reactions, this is probably the case and you will have to go back to the other diet until you have more information.
***** If the kitty ever goes off it's food, is lethargic for more than 12 hours, or becomes listless to any degree please contact me and/or a veterinarian immediately!***
STRESS: Stress for a feline leads to illness right away, or down the road. It can lead to upper-respiritory infections, diarrhea, in-appetite, and/or vomiting, which will lead to dehydration very quickly for a kitten. If this is a kitten, PLEASE CALL ME ASAP!
Stress" is one of the top causes of immune system suppression/ weakening, and a kitten's transition into a new home and family is stressful whether they show the signs or not; the stress is there. Cats do NOT like change, and changing environments and family, per their nature, places them in a very vulnerable position. Many will attempt to bond immediately and follow their person around like a puppy. They feel very dependant and vulnerable, creating much anxiety, and miss what they remember as familiar and safe. Others may express more fear and feel frozen and stay in hiding for awhile. These poor babies are in fight or flight mode and extra patience should be administered. Children are not so different.
NEVER FORCE a kitty out of hiding unless it is possibly sick or in danger. Always try to entice them with feathers, or open a carrier or box and place it as close as possible so they may change hiding places and be removed calmly. These kind moves express respect and kindness, and play a large role in how your kitten/cat will respond to you in the future.
NEW HOME: "DO NOT" just let them "run FREE" in the home ESPECIALLY when there are OTHER PETS or CHILDREN!! Changing environments is stressful for all felines, as it is a very scary process and needs to be handled with the utmost care and understanding. Owners often state that their kittens/cats are doing/ have done 'just fine', and are getting around great. This all looks/sounds good but it is in an animal's nature to hide stress and illness to the best of it's ability. This is because they will be picked on or attacked by cats and other predators if they show weakness. It is an innate instinct in all creatures for survival (of the fittest).
If you WANT a sick/emotionally and physically stressed kitten/cat, then ignore the above warning. 70-80% of kittens WILL get sick within 1-2 weeks of entering a new home where stress and compromise are not taken into consideration; sometimes they will hang in there for 5-6 weeks before an onset of upper-respiritory or diahrea. This is also the quickest way to insure lack of litterbox use. (see litterbox placement and numbers) It is impossible to monitor a new kitten or cat's intake of food and water, litterbox use, and consistency of stool, when it is loose in a home. It is however a great way to start everything off on the wrong foot, and set yourself up for failure.
It is recommended by all professionals to quarrantine any new pet from other pets for 4 weeks. Whether there are other pets or not, it is IMPORTANT to start a new feline in a single room, ie; bathroom, bedroom, etc., where it is warm (not hot) and quiet. Their senses are much stronger than ours so they must get used to, new: noises and voices, odors of their environment and family (especially other pets), and friends of the family and their pets. Eventually they will go over all of the new environment to discern where they can go quickly to safety if need be. We don't notice but there are many energy vibrations in a household from miscellaneous electricity, people and pets. This is why it is so important not to overwhelm your new kitten/cat by starting them out in a smaller area, and introducing them slowly, over several days or 2-3 weeks or more if possible. Children don't know what's best for them, and either do your pets.
Set their litter box, food and water, near their hard (towel covered) carrier or an overturned box with an entry and bed inside. This is their place of safety (HOME-FREE) and no one should ever force them out unless they are ill. In that case you would scruff them gently and/or use two hands to remove them slowly.
What you can do is coax them out with offering smelly food, toys (feathers and string are usually their weakness) and a soft, gentle, inviting tone of voice. Be patient, always. Animals are highly sensitive to anger and frustration, and whether it's directed at them or not, they will become anxious and fearful.
Introduce them to new family members/friends a couple of people/children at a time and remember it's important not to overwhelm them. Over-handling of a new kitten/cat is not recommended. Use your parental instincts to decide when the new baby has been handed back and forth enough. Offer children to sit with them only, until the kitten/cat adjusts to all the new family members and environment. This will prevent events of sudden panic, which can lead to attempting to leap or claw their way to safety. This will inevitably happen when carrying a brand new feline around while walking in a strange environment. A sudden noise and r-r-r-i-i-i-p and jump goes the kitty. A small kitten can be injured terribly when leaping half-hazardly from someone's arms or shoulder, and the person involved will probably not be left unscathed.
If they are really frightened and held against their will, they may resort to biting if they feel their life is in danger. None of these things feel good to the person who held the kitten/cat, or the animal itself. Cat scratches or puncture wounds should be cleansed thoroughly and monitored. Remember, to them it's an innate fight or flight response. They cannot control their survival instincts, and they don't want to hurt anyone.
When they are ready to explore outside of the room, leave the door open each time so they may dart back in if something spooks them. Assume that you will have your new feline in this situation for at least a couple of weeks if at all possible. By that time they have found safe places to sleep in the house or another room, where you may place some cozy baby blankets, etc., or beds of some type. Remember they are creatures of habit and don't like change. Be as consistent as possible, they will be much more relaxed if they can count on you for this.
If you start them out sleeping with a person, eventually they may go into "toe/leg biting" mode when legs/hands move under the blanket. This is normal behavior especially during teething. To avoid that situation, or having an unhappy, crying kitty, scratching at the bedroom door after being cast out, train them to sleep elsewhere during the initial adjustment period of 2-4 weeks, or avoid having them free in the bedroom right off the bat.
If they are kittens, they are used to snuggling with their mom and litter mates and getting the warmth and security from them. So figure on a couple of small places that are safe for him/her to cuddle and hide, and place something cuddly there so you can almost always know where they are in their small environment. Heated water bottles or plastic bottles with warm water placed next to their bed, are extremely comforting, but remember, eventually they get cold. Again, if they are new, try not to have anyone force them out of a hiding place, entice them instead.
Litter boxes: should never be too far away for new kitties. If there is something they feel is scary between them and the litter box, or they just woke up or are stressed/ill, they may not get to the one at the back/front of the house. Make them fairly convenient, at least until they settle in which is anywhere from 3-4 weeks to 3 months if there are no continuous major changes or family member issues (including pets). Always keep Nature's Miracle or some other product specifically for biologically removing urine/stool from carpets, or other fabrics. If it's not treated properly, it will become a potty location for any pet at any time in the future. Also, if you have multiple cats, you need multiple litterboxes. Some cats do not like to share and someone may start going elsewhere. Remember this:
a feline has only minimal abilities to express a complaint whether it be a health or emotional discomfort. Any "mis" behavior should be looked at as an attempt to communicate. This is the same strategy used by small children who cannot express their needs verbally. Before getting angry or frustrated, check it out, and look closely for a pattern.
"SCHEDULE": means the same for a kitty as it does for a child. They both crave it; it brings them comfort/ feelings of safety knowing certain things will happen about a certain time. Major upsets in schedules will be felt by any pet, but cats are the most sensitive. This goes for new people/pets staying in the home.
WORMING: This litter was dewormed with a veterinary product called "PANACUR" for 3 days. It is customary for a professional breeder to treat kittens for several types of internal parasites preventitively, prior to homing. Kittens should have a follow-up deworming in 2 weeks, and cats
yearly.
VACCINES: I give vaccines according to the recommendations of CORNELL UNIVERSITY which is the authority on cat health in the U.S.. They do not recommend over vaccinating as this does most commonly have negative side effects on the "overall" health of the cat in the long term and sometimes sooner. We used to give kittens a 3 in 1 killed vaccines at 12 weeks or when they leave, and 1 more at 16 weeks or 3-4 weeks later. At this time we are vaccinating once with the ultranasal vaccine and doing antibody titers to determine efficacy. I will share this information with anyone who asks, as we go through these trials.
Kittens nursing are given antibodies which interfere with vaccines given prior to 1 week of weaning. We don't recommend other vaccines for different reasons (including leukemia, ask us why), unless absolutely needed for specific reasons. ***See vaccination record on contract for dates of this individual's vaccines. The latest studies now recommend vaccinating only once every 3 years and or having a vaccine titer done so as not to over-vaccinate. Over-vaccinating can lead to health issues and may be behind many, veterinarians in the past, have been unaware of.
INTERNAL PARASITES: It is customary for professional breeders to do initial kitten deworming prior to adoption. I use Panacur and or strongid which are veterinary products stated to treat roundworms, hookworms, and pin worms, and 1 type of tapeworm. A follow-up treatment is required 2 weeks following initial treatment. If this has not been done prior to adoption due to time constraints, it should be sent home with adoptee, or followed up with a veterinarian.
There are several types of internal parasites, (of which we all would prefer not to talk about), and we should educate ourselves about them for the sake of our pets' well-being and the fact that a couple of which are zoonotic (which means they are transmissible to and by humans).
Because the majority are expelled through fecal material, and multiple cats share a litter box and groom themselves (and their feet), this typically invisible part of nature is readily passed and extremely common. Many cats are born with or develop a high tolerance for certain micro-organisms and their adult forms, and it is only under stress that indications may become apparent to an owner or medical professional. Most commonly it takes diarrhea and or vomiting to get our attention, and those symptoms may indicate something even more serious and calls for an early veterinarian's diagnosis.
Most internal parasites don't make it easy for us to find them, even under the microscope through fecals. They don't constantly shed their eggs and it may take several fecals over time to find one or more types. There is NO PERFECT lab test for these organisms. Most Veterinarians and professionals will treat to the best of their ability with what information is given them via the owner and the examination of the pet. I highly recommend when having a fecal done, request a fecal done by centrifuge or "spun down" prior to analysis to locate the much smaller, protozoan parasites which are much more difficult to find. Much of the time this will need to be sent out to the lab which is fine and only slightly more in cost, but WELL worth it. This offers the opportunity for a larger quantity of these tiny single-celled organisms to be located in a specific area in which they were "forced" to accumulate. Regular "in-house" fecals are mostly like looking for a needle in a haystack when it comes to these tiny organisms which can cause diahrea.
Ronidazole (by prescription only)is being used with much success in the treatment of tritrichomonas which is even more challenging to observe (find/diagnose) under a microscope partially due to the shedded form's small size. It looks very much like the feline version of giardia, but does not respond well to metronidazole or other medications. There is now a specified RNA test for tritrichomoniasis said to be 100% accurate if all procedures are followed.
It has been found to be more and more common in multi-cat environments such as breeding facilities, rescues, and multi-cat households, or cats using outside facilities where their are other cats. Much like feline giardia or coccidia, it may not show symptoms of diarrhea in a mature cat for some time unless said cat is under stress. Kittens under 1 year and older cats have a much higher incidence, with diarrhea accompanied by a small amount of blood and or muccous caused by the stress in the intestinal tract, depending on it's cause and severity. But diarrhea, blood, and mucus is a very general symptom and not a guideline for this diagnosis.
Typically "Tritrich" symptomatically shows "soft-serve" stools, and large or frequent stools. Other signs such as are typical with internal parasites but not limited to; dry, dull coat, (including flaky skin), continuous shedding, looking/ feeling underweight, bloated belly, gassy, (looking overweight), lethargy, lack of luster, over-eating to "ravenous" behaviors including eating objects and materials unsuitable for ingestion and constant begging and attempts to get at your food, lack of proper grooming, scooting on the carpet (itchy butt), vomiting, diarrhea, (accidents), and irritability.
These may also be indicative of other or additional issues, but internal parasites should be investigated and or treated as they can be a cause or additional cause of lowering your cat's immune system and leaving them open to other health issues.
ALTERING: I suggest spaying at 5-6 months of age, and neutering at 4-5 months. This is to avoid negative and irritating behaviors such as desperate yowling 24/7, for 2 weeks at a time or longer, spraying in the house, mood swings, aggression, and more. This goes for BOTH males and females (including spraying), that are not altered. This is why people throw them outside and they get pregnant with unwanted and possibly leukemia or FIP positive kittens who may die weeks after birth or spread it to other cats. This includes other diseases and parasites, brutal beatings and nasty abscesses from other outside cats, dogs and sometimes cruel people, hit by a car, stolen, or used as python or monitor lizard food. Can you tell we want our babies to stay inside?
VETERINARIANS: Dr. Betsy King, at Power Rd. Animal Hospital in Mesa, provides Western and Holistic medicine as well as being certified in Veterinary Chiropractics and Acupuncture. I have used her successfully for all the above, and am very, very grateful to have found her. Power Rd. Animal Clinic is located off of Power Rd. and Guadalupe. (480) 641-4141
If you have any questions, health, nutrition or behavioral, big or small, please feel free to contact me via email for non-emergencies, or phone any time. I am here to support you and your bengal or serengeti in any way I can. If I don't have the answer, I will tell you I don't, and I will point you in a direction or help you find it.
We hope your bengal will be with you for life, but if for any reason, (there is no judgement), you can't keep your adopted kitten/cat in the future, please contact me before doing an urgent or immediate re-homing. I will do whatever I can to help re-home them. If I don't have adequate room I will get in touch with bengal cat groups and post information. I do not do refunds or buy them back. I have to have them tested and updated as needed, and advertise. I can not, however, take them in if they are ill and untreated or have contracted a communicable disease. I can not put my other kittens and cats at risk. However, I may still be able to point you in a direction or give aid in some way.
Thank you for adopting an exotic kitten or cat from me, and taking the time to read this. I hope you will print this and keep it in a safe place with your other kitty records for future reference, and bring it with you to the veterinarian. There are "no" dumb questions when it comes to caring for a child or a pet. Better to error on the side of caution.
I wish you and your new bengal all the best, and hope your chosen kitten or cat will bring you years and years of joy and wonderful experiences, and many, many smiles. Please think of me in the future for additional kittens, and I hope you will feel comfortable in referring animal loving friends to our family as well.
Sincerely,
Michelle Bryant
(copyrights 2007 and on)
480-306-7428
925 N. Starling Dr.
Gilbert, AZ. 85234
Money Saving Referrals
Ryans Pet Supplies
approx. 18th St. and McDowell Rd. Phx.
Revival Animal and Human Health Products at
revivalanimal.com
Spay/Neuter Clinics
4 locations 480-633-1734
feline spay: $48, neuter: $28
caution: some push ear mite treatment with no microscope (just say "no" to drugs! 
, unless they can show them to you with the microscope.)
cat furniture, free shipping
100s to choose from **sisal posts are best**
Call me for a cat book recommendation
or feline holistic, and find tons of new and used books cheap and sometimes, free delivery. You can order the most recent addition of the best bengal book by going to gogees.com and ordering it. It is by the highly reputable, world reknown, professional bengal breeder, Gene Ducote of Gogees Bengals. Other books on breeds of cats normally contain very little useful info. (but are fun to look at).
Remember: nutrition, low stress, and supporting the feline immune system the are keys to a healthier cat.
Do the research, use the internet, learn what you can about vaccines, nutrition, and supporting their immune system. It's up to you; most veterinarians don't know ANYTHING about diet and nutrition, and can't/ won't take the time to educate you; and they can't tell you everything you need to know in 10 minutes. "Your cat's life is in your hands."There are all kinds of groups you can join on-line to get free information and support for whatever breed or domestic cat you may have. BUT be DISCERNING. I'm happy to send any links I have to sources I have discovered.
Stress Fighting Supplements: These supplements can all be mixed in canned or cooked foods. **helpful hint: Pick up dry food before you go to bed. In the morning put supplements in just a tablespoon of soft food. Watch them eat it, or separate pets if there is more than 1 kitty. When all gone, put down dry food. If it is needed twice a day, try to pick up dry food for a while before giving them their evening dose. This way, they are more likely to be extra hungry and eat it faster. How much do you give? If you don't know and don't have a holistic book to tell you, use your best judgment according to the recommended dosage for humans minus the weight difference...ie; if a human takes 1 tablet of 500 mg. ester-c, and a cat weighs 5 pounds and an adult human weighs 140-180, crush the pill and give a tiny pinch. (too much vit.-c can upset the stomach and cause diarrhea.) ****My recommendation is to discuss it with a holistic vet or buy a holistic book. Try amazon.com for a huge selection on new and used books cheap or go to gogees.com and purchase the best new bengal book by Gene Ducote of Gogees Bengals.
ester-C: (crush tablets or open capsules)
olive leaf extract: for viral exposure or infections, stimulates immune response; (open capsules or comes in drops).
acidophillus: (multi-strain, refrigerated is best, powder or open capsules) and the above supplements can be purchased at SPROUTS or other similar health food / nutrition stores or centers. "JARODOPHILLUS" (I recommend) can be found in the refrigerated section of the health isle at SPROUTS.
lysine or l-lysine: (comes in tube, a pump, or powder) to boost immune system
can be purchased at revivalanimal.com
nutri-cal or hi-cal: high calorie palatable supplement in a tube, can be given on finger, or mixed in can or soft meat foods for kitties low in weight, sick or off regular food for any reason. It can also be mixed with some medications or supplements as it easier to give orally with a Synge, (it's sticky).
