Adopting Kitten/Cat
Info and Policies
Adopting a Cheetahsden kitten...
Bringing a new pet into a household is always an adventure and I want to do whatever I can to assure that it's a positive adventure for you, for me, and most particularly, for the little bundle of energy we call a Bengal kitten. In order to do that with the most likelihood of success, you'll find that I ask you a lot of questions, give you situations and ask how you will deal with it, or query you about your past relationship with pets in general and your current family status. I send a color booklet with each kitten, and in it I have suggestions and articles to help you find your way to a great relationship with your new "kit". But here are just a few things to introduce you to what being the owner of a Cheetahsden Bengal entails.
PET KITTENS/CATS
All of my kittens and cats that are sent out as pets are altered (spayed or neutered) before they leave me. This way, you don't have to worry about the negative behaviors that go along with a cat that is unaltered (when an unaltered cat reaches adulthood and the hormones start flowing, they tend to get restless, howl, fight and pee on things - yes, females too!). Altering my kittens before they leave here also relieves you of the (however slight) chance of losing your kitty during the operation.
Categories of Pet Kittens
I love placing my kittens as pets. However, as do all breeders, I get a variety of different quality kittens, from a Pet Quality to a quality we might call Breeding or Show quality to cats that we may refer to as "Cutting Edge Cats" - which are the best we are producing. If I have one available, I am willing to place kittens from any of these categories into a home as a pet. To keep from making it confusing, here are the descriptions that make up the different "pet categories".
Pet Quality: Many kittens fall into this category. These are lovely spotted or marble kittens but do not have all of the attributes that we want to breed or send to the show ring. In order to improve a breed we use only the best kittens as breeders and place the rest as pets.
However, since household pets lead nicer lives than breeding cats, I love to offer discounts on these next two categories to someone who wants an outstanding Bengal as a pet or show cat who will be altered.
Breeder Quality or, if altered, Show alter Quality: This is an extremely nice example of a Bengal, male or female, that I consider an excellent representation of the Bengal standard (written description of what the perfect Bengal should look like) and is the only category from which I will place a breeding cat. I'm pretty picky about the quality of breeder or show kitten I sell since the reputation of my cattery rests on the quality I produce. I also have a lot of restrictions on my cats that I sell for breeding.
Top Quality or "Cutting Edge" Cats: These are the best that I am producing. While I would love to tell you that most of my kittens are from this category, I'd be lying. These are the kittens that are the best I can do, and very rarely do I find more than one in a litter - and often not that! These are the quality of cats I tend to keep for myself but, since I can't keep them all, I am willing to place altered kittens out of this category as pets when I have them available. Be prepared to wait for a little while, however.
Why not declaw?
Don't automatically declaw - one needs to understand the options first. Although there are exceptions, of course, it's rarely necessary and there are a whole host of negative behaviors that can accompany a declawed cat. Training a kitten to use appropriate behavior is usually not difficult if one has a little patience and understanding. And if you don't have those things, then perhaps a goldfish would be a better choice for you. I certainly consider it part of my job to help you understand why your cat does the things it does, and what you can do to modify the behavior so that your youngster makes a happy and easy companion.
Why keep my cat indoors?
Most folks automatically realize that, when one pays what one pays for a Bengal cat, one does not let it run around outside unsupervised simply because of the danger to the cat (not to mention that my Bengals don't LOOK anything like an ordinary cat and theft is a BIG problem). Most folks simply can't afford it financially. However, there are other important reasons for keeping your kits inside or supervised besides just the well being of the cat. House cats are a tremendous threat to the native animal populations in many areas - most particularly bird species. Some of these species have even been brought to the brink of extinction by populations of free roaming cats. As a wildlife biologist, I find this incredibly sad and totally unnecessary. Keep our cat indoors or in a "cat habitat" (I have some great suggestions for outside "cat habitats". Just ask me for some ideas for inexpensive alternatives to opening the front door!).
How many cats is too many?
Don't get too many cats. If you already have 5 or 6 cats, think really good and hard before bringing in another. Cats are not a social creature by nature. When we alter them, we arrest their development at the kitten stage so they make much better pets and tolerate other cats (even love some of them). However, they still are not a species that is going to be happy with large numbers of their own kind, and problems escalate with every cat you add. Keep your numbers of cats down, and you'll find that both you and your cats will be the happier for it.
How old do my children need to be to have a pet cat?
There is no reason that you can't have a Bengal kitten no matter how young the children, as long as you are a responsible parent that teaches your children appropriate behavior at any age. Children are never too young to understand how to treat another living creature. So it is YOUR responsibility to teach your children how to play and handle your cats properly. Bengals are, for the most part, busy kitties and being carried constantly by young children is not a way to foster good relationships between the two! Also see to it that the children use toys, not hands, to play with the kittens. It's hardly fair to expect the kitten to know when it's appropriate to "play bite" a hand some of the time and not other times. (You may also have to teach this to the men in the house who have a penchant for wanting to "wrestle" with a cat. This is NOT appropriate behavior to teach a kitten, for obvious reasons!)
BREEDING KITTENS/CATS
As far as purchasing breeding cats from the Cheetahsden, I must admit, I prefer placing pets because it is so much easier to assure their quality of life. I don't want my cats to go from one home to another, or to spend their entire life in a cage or, even worse, to end up in a kitten mill situation. So I have come up with some guidelines for myself, and restrictions for folks who would like to have one of my cats for breeding. If you are interested in acquiring a Cheetahsden cat as a breeding cat, let me know and I will send you my restrictions. If you think that you can live with these, and still want something from me after reading them, then I will be happy to work with you.
The practice of breeding cats can be a lot of fun, but it is not easy, it is expensive, and it is an emotional rollercoaster not for the faint of heart. Before you decide to breed Bengals, do A LOT of research first. Cats are not an easy animal to breed correctly and will involve the entire family 365 days a year for as many years as you have unspayed females. Make sure that you, and your family, can commit the time, the money, and the energy into raising and breeding Bengals BEFORE you buy.
Another conundrum for me, is that, the more years I spend as a breeder, the more difficulty I have in determining a top quality kitten at an early age (when I was a brand new breeder, it was easy. I just figured they were all top quality!). Since I often have pet deposits on my kittens before they're 12 weeks old, but am too insecure to offer them as breeders until they're 4 months old, you can see what happens! By the time I'm fairly confident that a kitten is top quality or cutting edge, it's often already sold as a pet!
