“Hi, happened upon these reviews by accident-was looking for PJ’s pet centres where we got our bengal kittens…
I noticed many people slamming the entire chain, so I thought maybe to respond…
We got B’elanna from PJ’s pet centre at Sherway Gardens-this store seems to be gone…
We got Jadzia, from PJ’s pet centre at Yorkdale-this store seems to be gone too…
Our lady bengals were about 18 years old when they passed-Jadzia in 2022, & B’elanna this year, 2023…Both at home…They were from different litters, not sisters, which was on purpose-B’elanna had a male sibling, & I was worried of an accidental mating, even as kittens, I did not want an accident…
Both were spotless, well adjusted, & had 2 of their vaccinations before adoption…This is standard TICA recommendation…(The International Cat Society)…(Note: domestics are usually 2 months 3 months and 4 months for vaccinations-rabies is required by law in Canada by the way)
(bengal kittens may need a delayed vaccination schedule as they tend to have better immunity to Feline Leukemia due to their mother’s line genetically, Asian Leopard Cat-the male line though is domestic shorthair male black feral cat which may have some susceptibility – *the lineage also includes Abyssinian/Ocicat/Egyptian Mau depending on current breeding practices for the spotted look & temperament and shape)Note: possibly 4 months, 5 months, and 6 months, might be a more relaxed schedule for a kitten who has natural immunities beyond regular domestic kittens? (just a thought, not a suggestion)!
B’elanna was a silver, & Jadzia gold(the old nomenclature for colouring)…
This was my/our(my husband too) first time adopting a bengal kitten(18 years ago), & I felt, at the time, it was similar to adopting a rescue, insofar, as I always feel sorry for animals in cages regardless of care-I get sad at Zoos, MarineLand type videos, & even seeing animals in cages as part of crate training-very bleeding heart type-so even though they were very well taken care of by staff at PJ’s, I felt bad…
I think the prices were absolutely fair for the calibre of kitten-I checked breeders sites for prices at the time, and everything was the exact same-though for half price you could get a bengal kitten but had to sign a spay/neuter contract(with the breeder) which was pretty absolutist…
My husband & I were married, not too long prior, &, at the time, I identified with these female kittens-and was told that I absolutely had to spay them(by a secretary at veterinarian nearby/Davenport) (ie: remove their ovaries/render their ovaries sterile), because cats with ovaries got more cancers-I was irritated by this mythological statement & wondered if they were going to tell me to sterilize myself too to avoid cancers…
Deciding to try to keep them intact, as I thought for the future of myself and all women, that ovaries were important for other things besides breeding, and that I wanted to prove a point, that female cats can remain intact and that cancers were not caused by ovaries being intact…”
(the problem with telling people mythological statements as if they were absolutely true, with no proof, is that it often leads to studious people rebelling the other way-because science and study and art have a way of wanting to prove points that are merely folklore hearsay or anecdotal evidence or worse falsehoods designed to make human life easier but animal life a life of iatrogenic effect(iatrogenic means caused by medicine or doctors or nurses or surgery or drugs type of thing), caused by early spay neuter(they now are sterilizing animals as early as 3 months old!!!) or even any spay neuter surgery(today as I write this they now have an implant called Suprelorin which is an alternative to scalpel surgery on kittens/or puppies-it is an implant-also available for humans of both sexes impossibly?)-our ladies were going to be fully indoor in a condominium, there was no need for spay, & were not going to breed them, and they were both female so they would not accidentally breed, and we were not going to show them or sell them either, so except for this myth that they would get sick due to having normal ovaries there was no compelling reason to force them to endure a massive sterilization surgery at 8 months???
Note: megestrol acetate was used in the UK as birth control for kittens/cats, but we chose an herbal also from the UK called Phytopet Balance, as our option to keep them out of heat seasons…(works for both sexes)…(we also learned the thermometer method for female kittens/cats in heat, as an insurance policy if they had not had their Phytopet Balance)…
**Note: Ryan Reynolds famously in his comedy film Van Wilder(university level movie), has a scene where they pull a dog out of male “heat” which is not really the terminology for males-but you get it-they pull a male dog out of ‘horny behaviours’ by inserting a rectal device that vibrates & the dog ejaculates profusely in the videotaped scenario(not sure if this is faked or real) but it implies this pulls the male bulldog out of testosterone driven behaviours-they do this with male Lions in zoos apparently as well-not sure if this is still a common zoologist practice?
More about: we get our Phytopet Balance now from either Amazon.ca, Swallow healthy Diet US or UK, & our first time purchases were from a UK online retailer called K9 something or other pets(they stopped shipping to Canada after a short time because Phytopet balance used to be in glass bottles-and I think they were worried they would break in transit)-
Phytopet from Wales soon made Balance in plastic bottles, and also offered the 100ml size ( we were getting the 30ml size at first)-we used 12 x 100ml Phytopet Balance per year for 2 bengal cats…Cost was about $12.00 Canadian currency per month per bottle at the time(3 weeks to ship to Canada)…
Drops by weight of cat into fishy wet food daily-so a 15 lb. (pound) cat would get 15 drops in wet fishy food like tuna fish…(boil water, let it cool slightly, get a tablespoon, and drop drops in hot water-alcohol burns off and then cat will eat it more readily than if you just put in food without burning off alcohol)…Note: if you order from the UK use the search engine for that area, so , like, google.co.uk gives you UK online retailers who maybe ship to Canada, and carry Phytopet products! (amazon.ca has phytopet balance right now but only the 30ml plastic bottles so far-slight delay in shipping times still)!
Note: wilder type rosetted bengals are beautiful but can be very difficult to deal with personality wise…Our females were F5 bengals…
Male bengals can be easier to deal with because the line has a domestic male as the first crossing-our kittens are F4 bengals…
The lower the F number, the wilder type the cat may be…
Be very careful to visit your prospective kittens in person-looks are not the same as personality-you do not want to have to rehome your cat when it becomes too much for you to handle!!!
The less glamorous bengals can be much much easier to handle! Do not discriminate against a purebred bengal kitten that may be marbled or even have a muddy or mottled or foggy coat pattern-these may have much easier to deal with personalities than the more showy high rosetted high contrast ones…Also you often can purchase a purebred bengal with a mottled appearance for significantly less-even if it is exactly the same lineage as its sibling! (think of Giselle Bundchen-gorgeous Victoria Secret model-but what is her upkeep and temperament like?)
Prices: 18 years ago, bengal kittens female were around $2,000.00 Canadian intact with no spay/neuter contract (we got cattery licenses and breeding licenses from various organizations just so we could keep them intact and not get lectured by vet secretaries)…(Note: we did not need these certifications, but just got them so we could have back-up in case it ever happened again)…
These days due to Covid economics you can find purebred bengal kittens F4 on Kijiji.ca for example, from anywhere starting at a low of $1,500 Canadian, to a ridiculously low $300.00 Canadian for a purebred but marbled/muddled/foggy patterned kitten with TICA papers…
I was scared to get a F4 bengal female 18 years ago from a breeder cattery-because I had heard F4 females could be difficult…beautiful to look at, but difficult to live with…So I was thrilled and happy to have F5 bengal ladies-who were just my speed! (and my husband’s, the resident cat expert!)The rosettes & patterns were not as high contrast all the time-especially in my mediocre photos when I could catch them sitting still for a second-but they were definitely manageable!
I hear PJ’s no longer has puppies or dogs, but still has cats and kittens available…No idea if they ever have bengals anymore, but I just wanted to comment that we had a very good experience with PJ’s pet centres in Sherway Gardens and Yorkdale Mall, over 18 years ago now, & I think that they are not the terrible villains perhaps some reviewers have made them out to be…
It is difficult to know provenance of kittens-and if they came from a registered cattery with TICA or not? If our kittens came from a valid cattery, and then went to PJ’s, then that is not a puppy or kitten mill, is it?
I did find the most likely bengal cattery that our ladies came from, back then, doing a simple online search…I am grateful to have been introduced to the breed…Without PJ’s, we never wold have learned about the bengal breed, which was initially created to try to understand why the Asian leopard cat appeared to have greater immunity to feline leukemia than domestic cats…
(to be continued in Part 2)
