My poor kitten is on our last nerve!

I am sooo hoping this website can help us, as we're not sure quite how much more we can take of our kitten! Let me start with some bio, we got our mother cat a little over a year ago. She was stuck in a tree in my sisters backyard. We then came to find she was pregnant. Sooo, we waited until after she had the kitten, when the kitten was old enough we had them both spayed. The mother cat was always a little wild, but has since calmed down a lot! She still loves to run around and play, which is GREAT. (she was VERY young when she had this kitten) The kitten, however, just seems to get worse and worse. She is CONSTANTLY up on counters, getting in to anything that is, or that she THINKS is food, knocks things over, eats holes in the garbage, (knocks it over, jumps right in to the can) We bought a garbage can with a locking lid so she can't get in to it, she went on to rip the entire bag apart, that part that stuck out over the lid. She pushes her mother out of the way from her food dish so she can finish the food in her dish (after eating all of her own) She rarely will let you pet her, she even hissed at me the other day out of the blue. She breaks things. it just goes on and on and it's not stop. We tried all kinds of things, spray bottles, locking her in a room for a little while. Nothing seems to help, it's almost like she laughs that we try to disipline her. she can be sooo cute and loveable but she's bad a good 90% of the day, that we just don't know how much more we can take of her. I hate saying that because I love cats and I have never felt so frustrated by an animal, but it's like every morning when I get up and every evening when I get home from work I wonder what I am going to walk in to. We are also planning on trying to have children soon too, and I don't want her behavior to end up hurting a child, or for her to get worse out of jealousy or anything. I know this was super long, but I hope someone can help us!

Just to be safe, have you had a vet check for possible health problems? She sounds bored, hungry or both. It could be something as simple as worms causing her to feel hungry but my guess is she's smart and looking for entertainment. If my guess is right, discipline isn't going to help solve your problem. It would sort of be like someone fussing at you for having a hobby. You're going to fill up your free time with something right? That's probably what she's doing. Start by removing the items you don't want her on/in from her environment even if that means you have to put her in a separate part of your house while you're away to keep her off your counters. The second step is to give her items that she can play with. You've probably already got cat toys but not all toys are created equal. My cats love things they can get in like boxes or paper bags, even laundry baskets are a huge hit in my house. To make it super duper kitty cat fun set up a couple of those items and hide some treats in them, then let her hunt them. Here's a link to an article on my blog called Build Your Own Cat Toy--No Skills Required. When we set this up my cats think it's Disney World come into our house.

Originally Posted by howtoholdacat

Here's a link to an article on my blog called Build Your Own Cat Toy--No Skills Required. When we set this up my cats think it's Disney World come into our house.

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I especially enjoyed step 2.

Are you sure you're feeding her enough? Kittens eat more than adult cats. They all go through this stage and respond best to positive reinforcement as opposed to discipline. (Then again, this is from the woman who recently relocated the garbage can to the garage. I can't take it being disected by my 1.5 year old cat one more time!!!)

Really the only solution to keeping a cat out of stuff or from breaking anything is to put it up or lock it away. It may sound troublesome to change your life even this little amount to cater to a cat's habits, but you'll have the same problem with a child.
Cats really are like a 2-3 year old child. They love to get into stuff they shouldn't and seem to be thrilled that their getting you riled up.

Play your cat more, tire her out completely if you can. Adding some tall cat trees so your cat has an appropriate perch may help with the counter problem some. You could even set it up in front of a window, maybe put a bird feeder outside so your cats have something that's more entertaining then your counters.
Another tip - keep your counters clean, never even for a few moments, leave unattended food or dirty dishes. This is like an instant reward to a cat, they'll always be checking to see if you've been careless.

Hopefully, once you stop trying to discipline your cat her attitude towards you will improve. Right now she may be slightly afraid of you, this could be why she hissed.

How old is the kitten?

When my kittens were about 3-4 months, they could get pretty annoying....they would attack me in bed every night and leave scratches, broke 2 lamps, spilled my food I was eating, unravel the paper towels, destroy things.......they still do some of that at 6 months (no attaching in bed anymore and haven't broken anything big lately, thank goodness), but it is getting much better. I think it sounds like normal playful kitten behavior....they get bored when there is no one to play with them!

The "kitten" is just over a year old now. She has never been a peoples cat, she has never really wanted to be pet or anything. We have a tall cat tree that she uses, my husband had built them a "house" out of boxes that they loved for about a day, then it just sat there. They always have food. I give them dry food once a day so they always have something to eat, and then feed them soft food twice a day, once first thing in the morning and once in the evening, so it shouldn't be that she's hungry. I think one of our problems is that when the kitten started to be able to eat regular food, my husband made the terrible mistake of feeding her from his plate. This cat will eat just about anything, vegetables, meats, anything. So I think she may feel that ALL food is hers to eat.
Thanks howtoholdacat, I will check out your blog and see if I find anything I can use.

Originally Posted by CatLover@Heart

my husband had built them a "house" out of boxes that they loved for about a day, then it just sat there.

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Mine will do that too if I leave the "cool" toys out all the time. I try to keep a rotation of some of those things and add cat nip to spice it up.