To shout or not to shout

Hello everyone!!

The absolutely GORGEOUS Tiger Lily, a 9 week old Tabby, recently joined my family!!! Although we had a few cats while I was growing up (my family lived abroad and moved around a lot so we never had a cat for longer than about 4 years) and Lily is my first kitten. I did a lot of reading up on kittens before I got her - mostly to do with their health and things that they need.

She has been brilliant since getting here (we'll have had her for two weeks next saturday). The only thing to say is that she keeps going behind out TV and playing with the cables there. There are umpteen wires there - TV, DVD, several of my other half's video consoles, router etc etc etc. I'm scared she'll hurt herself back there (or that the other half will hurt me when he can't use his consoles!!!!!) so I've been clapping my hands loudly or stamping my foot, shouting NO at her and then taking her to her scratching post (which, by the way, I had no problems getting her to use!) and playing with her round there. When this didn't work I started to pick her up and put her in the kitchen with the door shut for a while. But this doesn't seem to be working either and it upsets me to hear her cry - especially when you consider that she is in that room from 7am till 4:30pm while we're at work and also at night times. Tonight I read on the whiskas.co.uk website that you shouldn't shout at them and should just ignore bad behaviour ... is this right? Or should I carry on with what I'm doing?

Does anyone have any advice?

Yelling, IMO, is a bad idea. They associate you with scary noise & learn to fear you.

You can buy cable protectors. Try applying Bitter Apple spray to the wires to make them taste bad.

As you are in another country, I'm no help in assisting you to find those products.

Go to a local electronics store and find plastic wire cover - it looks like horizontally corrugated pipe with a slit on one side that you feed all your wires into - neatens up your mess and if the cat chews on the plastic, it just rolls around over the wires. As far as her interest in non-wire stuff, wait her out - as soon as she finds you no longer give her attention (may take a while, of course) she'll be bored (it's not intrinsically cat friendly stuff after all :-) and look elsewhere for fun. Cats are CURIOUS! And if you yell and scream at her, she will only 'get' that you are antagonistic, NOT that you want her to stop. She'll end up hiding, etc. but not learn anything but to be afraid.

Thanks for the help guys! It's probably about time we tidied up all the cables back there anyway- it won't be easy I tell ya! She's gone in and come out twice now - fingers crossed people!!!

I find yelling at cats to be a funny thing. I'm not a shouter in general, but a few times when my cat was doing something dangerous I yelled at her. She continued doing her dangerous thing and gave me that annoyed 'screw-you' look

If yelling worked , I'd say keep at it, but I don't think its effective. Best to follow your plan and prevent her from getting at the cables.

ETA: My cat crawled inside the entertainment center once and totally screwed up all the cables. It was a total mess back there and was a nightmare to reattach everything. After we fixed it all up, we made a barrier that prevents her from getting back there. Hasn't been a problem since. Good luck.

Originally Posted by Rotobay

If yelling worked , I'd say keep at it, but I don't think its effective

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It works with Ocicats, not really yelling but a raised voice, they will go and sulk in a corner while glaring at you until you speak sweetly to them again

Go to the £ store because you can buy the covers that go on the cables there But your right in saying that shouting won't work because it'll make the cat scared

Jack was forever going behind the t.v. amongst the wires, then someone told me where to get the cable covers and he stopped

Originally Posted by missymotus

It works with Ocicats, not really yelling but a raised voice, they will go and sulk in a corner while glaring at you until you speak sweetly to them again

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That is exactly what my cat does (she's DSH). Now I just point my finger at her ans she crouches down and meows softly, lol!

I don't yell but I do raise my voice a few octaves and clap when they are doing something dangerous to themselves or to get their attention. But never as a discipline. I try to keep my wires hidden.