Lots of Strange Behavior from Kitten - Please Help!

I got a kitten last year, he is about 5-6 months old now, and lately he has been acting very strange.

First off, he has bursts of energy, he goes shooting across the apartment, with no disregard for anything in his way, he knocks over cups full of water, pushes stuff off the counters, and sometimes runs right into walls.

He also chases his tail and plays fetch, I am beginning to think he is a dog.

He brings us his mouse, ans waits for us to throw it, and when we do he brings it right back, he will do this non stop until we get sick of him, just today I played fetch with him for almost a half hour. When he chases his tail, he spins at full speed, often running into things.

He also feels he needs to wake us up every morning to get some "lovin" he gets up right in our face and starts purring and rubbing his face on ours. He will bring us toys too, I will often wake up and my bed will be covered in his toys.

He still has a biting problem too, he likes to play ALOT but sometimes he gets too into it and bites us, we pull back and either say "ow" or just make a loud noise at him, that seems to deter him but not much.

And lastly, he has a problem with climbing all over the kitchen, Is there ANY WAY to keep a cat off your kitchen counters? I was boiling water last night, and he jumped up on the stove and tried to drink the boiling water, luckily I rushed in and grabbed him just in time.

Nothing seems to phase him in terms of punishment, I tried shaking a can of pennies, using a spray bottle but he loves water now, smacking his butt on the side, smacking his nose, everything!

What would you guys suggest? I am considering getting him a friend, do you think that would solve or only add to our problems?

Any help is greatly appreciated, I would like to not be woken up at 6am every morning.

I'm sorry to have to inform you that your kitty is perfectly normal! He's going through what I call the "sensory overload" phase. Any little thing will trigger the wild side and physical pain - from smacking into things - just seems make them even more hyper!

Billy was so over-the-top that not four days had passed before I had to adopt another kitten. It was a desperate move made on a complete lack of sleep, but it turned out to be the best decision I have ever made. Instead of biting me, destroying and tearing apart the house and everything in it, he redirected his energy to his new playmate, Johnboy. They tore each other apart instead. Hallelujah! (Play fighting, of course.) In time he eventually calmed down to a more balanced level while still keeping very active and playful. I don't think he was really able to be himself with all of the extra energy he had pent up.

His midnight toy delivery and love for the game of fetch indicates to me that he is looking for a lot of interactive stimulation. Yet another upside to adopting another kitten is that they teach each other during play how to play nicely, saving us from being bit & clawed so much!

There are always possibilities of momentary conflict when new cats/kittens meet as they work things out during introductions, but those will settle. If you are willing to have another kitten and handle the introductions, I think it would greatly help to solve this issue! It won't solve everything completely of course, but it will redirect his attention and energies elsewhere. It's extremely difficult trying to train a single kitten that is constantly having to burn off pent up energy and/or with little to no attention span. Like you just mentioned it can be very dangerous too. It didn't matter what I did or said with Billy, nothing had any impact whatsoever. Either he wouldn't listen to me or he couldn't (because he was too hyper). After Johnboy entered our lives and settled in Billy became much more responsive to us and the environment. He still has momentary lapses in judgment when it comes to the counters , so when he does the most affective thing we've found to work for him is to stop him right before he commits the offense. Then he bolts.

P.S. No smacking kitties though! This can make things worse and cause a number of other negative reactions that kitty will associate with you. If kitty isn't caught immediately in the naughty act, he won't understand what the punishment is for.

My best suggestion is just wait it out, neuter him if he isn't already, and play with him as much as you can - you have to enjoy the kitten crazies, because they really don't last all that long.

Wow, I am pretty sure you are describing my cat to a T. I've never heard of another cat who plays fetch before, aside from my own! I played fetch for close to 2 hours with him last night, and he still was bringing me his toy when I got into bed, burying it in my hair, and then trying to dig it out (ouch!). Finally, I just discreetly put the toy under the pillow and ignored him.

But like the others have said, he's a pretty normal sounding kitty. Mine is almost 2, and still has the crazies about every other day (racing around the apartment, tail all puffed up, meowing at who knows what), and STILL gets me up for food/attention at either 4 AM or - if I'm lucky - 7 AM. But he has improved so much over the past year! I was the most sleep deprived person for the first few months I had him - it's much better now! So all I can say is, hang in there, he will calm down gradually as he gets older, I promise!

Oh, and edit to add this tidbit about the kitchen. I have developed a hand signal and just saying "NO" when I see that he is thinking of entering the counter space (which of course, he only feels the need to do when I am trying to do something there). I just put my hand up in his face and say "no" when I see him getting ready to jump or walk on the counter. He has a little perch that he is allowed to supervise kitchen things from, and he knows that he is supposed to be there and only there when I am in the kitchen. When I put my hand up, he usually just backs up onto his perch and stays there. It does seem to work best if you can catch them before they do it, for whatever reason.

Good luck!