Do you suffer from allergies? Then you might start sneezing when you even think about getting a cat. But are there any hypoallergenic cats? In particular, we will try to answer one of the most common questions about Bengal cat, is Bengal cat hypoallergenic?
What causes feline related allergies?
An allergy exists when your immune system has become hypersensitive to a substance called an allergy. In the case of cats, your system is reacting to specific proteins in cat dander which consists of tiny bits of dead skin.
The bad news is that all cats have these proteins to some degree, the good news is that some cats have much less than others.
What makes Bengal cat hypoallergenic?
The Bengal cat breed is one of those felines that look right into your soul and beyond. Everybody loves Bengal cats for their beautiful coat and their cheeky sense of humor. They are incredibly loyal and loving too.
There’s another reason to love these super awesome cats. This cat breed is one of the hypoallergenic cats that you can safely consider if somebody in your household suffers from allergies.
Bengals have a short, luxurious, soft coat which means less time grooming their coat. So they produce lower allergens than the more common cats we know.
In addition, Bengal cats shed considerably less than other cat breeds, so the dander in their fur doesn’t spread around as much. So is less likely to cause an allergic reaction (mom.com).
Bengals are called hypoallergenic because they produce lower allergens than other cats (produce less of Fel d1 protein than others).
How to have a cat when you’re allergic?
Do you or someone you know suffer from cat allergies? well, we’re gonna talk about 4 ways in which you can coexist with cats even if you have allergies.
1. Right foods to avoid Bengal cat allergy
Your cat’s diet needs to be a nutritionally balanced and healthy diet because it plays a major role in determining how much it will be causing allergies around the house.
Feeding your Bengal cat a raw diet will improve the quality of its skin and coat. Because the skin consumes 30% of the protein that your cat eats every day.
If you give your kitty optimal levels of omega-3 fatty acids, this is going to increase the health of your Kitty’s skin and coat and reduce their dander.
They’re going to have far less dander. The dander on your cat is actually where the allergens are coming from. So to decrease that dander is going to improve the allergen content in your home tremendously.
2. Bathe your cat
Choose a shampoo that is created for cats. There is a different PH balance that your cats need, so don’t use human shampoo on your cat, use something organic that is created with a PH balance of your cat. You can do this up to once a week.
This is also going to drastically help that dander content on your cat and in your house which will decrease your allergens.
3. Get a routine in place for cleaning your home
This means everything, we want to reduce the dander content in our home, dry mopping, vacuuming cleaning and washing your cat bins regularly. You can do this one day a week, especially the areas where your cats congregate and live the most. Because you want to keep all of the dander down.
So get a cleaning routine in place, clean everything: your drapes, couch, chairs, all of your furniture, clean dry mop, your hard floors vacuum and make sure you empty your vacuum in our outside not inside of your house. These things are gonna help the dander content drastically.
4. Make a person bedroom and closet a cat-free zone
If you have someone in your household or if you are the person in your household who has the allergy to your cat, make that person’s bedroom and closet a pet-free zone. So your cat will not be allowed in that one specific area of the house. Because you want to minimize the amount of dander.
Is Bengal cat hypoallergenic?
In conclusion, no cat breed is completely non-allergenic because the allergen Fel D1 is found in all cats’ saliva. We can say that Bengals are hypoallergenic if you go by the true definition of the word. They do seem to invoke less of a reaction in allergy sufferers.
However, breeders should not embrace the term, using it in advertising and to describe the Bengal cat. So be careful if you see hypoallergenic cats for sale. Some breeders claim to have created a completely hypoallergenic cat breed, but there’s little to no scientific evidence to back this up.
