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I am curious about a co-workers kittens aggression

post #1 of 4
2/16/11 at 12:05am
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There is this girl I work with who adopted a 5 week old kitten that had been abandoned by its mother. Aparently it was terrible aggressive it would bite and scratch to draw blood. She couldn't take proper care of it so her sister took it in. I think it is about 10 months now and my co-workers sister and Fiance are still haveing problems with its aggression. When it was 6 months old it got into a huge fight with a full grown cat and got pretty badly injured and had to wear a cone while its wounds healed. Their vet told them their cat has abandoned kitten syndrom. I'm curious as to what abandoned kitten syndrom is and how it can be treated. I've been trying to look it up but nothing I can find matches with its behavioral issues. Apparently their kitten hates everything and takes it out on its owners. At least it's still a part of their family and hasn't been given up on.
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post #2 of 4
2/16/11 at 1:33am
Fancy word for feral cat
Has the kitten been fixed?
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post #3 of 4
2/16/11 at 1:46am
Until the age of six weeks a kitten is very busy just developing essential skills like eating, using the litterbox on its own and walking.
From 7-8 weeks onwards kittens really get started on social skills, they have huge playfights with their littermates that teach them it is not ok to bite and scratch because that hurts.
Also their mother will start the weaning process by adopting body postures that make her nipples inaccessible to the kittens. If a kitten insist on suckling she will sometimes react harshly. This gradual weaning learns the kittens to deal with frustration.

A five week old orphan has not had the benefit of that second socialisation phase and will be less inhibited about biting and scratching. Also, the kitten will often be less able to accept not getting its way, for example when it demands attention it expects to get it. If the kitten learns that biting and scratching gets it a reaction (=attention) it will use that, of course.

The owners of the kitten you speak of should learn to interact differently with their cat to counter the behaviours this cat hasd learned by now. The best way to learn how to do this is by consulting with a cat behaviourist.
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post #4 of 4
2/16/11 at 7:42am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mimosa View Post
Until the age of six weeks a kitten is very busy just developing essential skills like eating, using the litterbox on its own and walking.
From 7-8 weeks onwards kittens really get started on social skills, they have huge playfights with their littermates that teach them it is not ok to bite and scratch because that hurts.
Also their mother will start the weaning process by adopting body postures that make her nipples inaccessible to the kittens. If a kitten insist on suckling she will sometimes react harshly. This gradual weaning learns the kittens to deal with frustration.

A five week old orphan has not had the benefit of that second socialisation phase and will be less inhibited about biting and scratching. Also, the kitten will often be less able to accept not getting its way, for example when it demands attention it expects to get it. If the kitten learns that biting and scratching gets it a reaction (=attention) it will use that, of course.

The owners of the kitten you speak of should learn to interact differently with their cat to counter the behaviours this cat hasd learned by now. The best way to learn how to do this is by consulting with a cat behaviourist.


And also, I think it could have been prevented if the littermates had been kept together. Growing up with at least one more kitten is more likely to teach the kitten that aggression is not ok (because the other kitten has sharp claws that hurt, too; we humans simply cannot punish kittens in an acceptable way without it being animal abuse. I could never ever do to my kittens what their mother does to them )
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