Energetic cat

I've had Rodney for almost a year now and he's about 15 months old. However, he hasn't slowed down a bit. My family got a couple cats back when I was in middle school, but neither was (or is) as energetic as Rodney. I could use some advice on how to handle some of his more irritating behaviors.

1) When I'm watching TV, he will inevitably jump up onto the TV stand and start pawing at/scratching the TV. This started a month or so after I got a LCD TV to replace my older one. I'm a bit worried that he'll damage it, but nothing I've tried stops him from doing it.

2) At times, he scratches at the carpet in corners of the room. This wouldn't be too bad, but he's actually managed to pull a couple corners up off the floor, which can't be good. He has scratching posts both upstairs and downstairs, so it's not like he lacks places I'm OK with him scratching.

3) He pulls books off my bookshelf onto the floor. He doesn't lay in the area the books were, which was my first instinct on why he'd do it. He just pulls them down and leaves them on the floor. At the moment, I have half my shelves empty because I got sick of having to sort the books and put them back up.

4) I'm sure this is a pretty common problem, but when I leave my door open when I go to bed, he jumps up. That's not a problem in and of itself, but when I'm using a sheet or thin blanket, he inevitably starts attacking and biting my toes, which makes it difficult for me to fall asleep.

Any advice on how to handle any of these situations would be most appreciated.

Mackerel used to scratch at one spot in the carpet in my bedroom, so what I did was to put her scratching post right on top of that spot. XD Not subtle at all, but she got the idea, and gradually I moved the scratching post out the door and back to where I want it to be kept permanently.

Does his scratching post have a horizontal part? My sisal post has a sisal base and my kitten will scratch at the corners of that for an hour. Some cats like different surfaces and angles for scratching.

For the tv issue, have you tried puttingsomething else on the stand so he can't jump on it and paw at the tv? Or maybe a screen protector, or try to put some orange peels on the stand because cats generally hate citrus smells.

I can't help with the book or sleep problem as my kitten does the same things. I can tell you that cats act like kittens usually until they are two years old, then they start to settle down.

Originally Posted by rad65

Does his scratching post have a horizontal part? My sisal post has a sisal base and my kitten will scratch at the corners of that for an hour. Some cats like different surfaces and angles for scratching.

For the tv issue, have you tried puttingsomething else on the stand so he can't jump on it and paw at the tv? Or maybe a screen protector, or try to put some orange peels on the stand because cats generally hate citrus smells.

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Yeah, both his upstairs scratching post and his tower downstairs have flat bases he can (and does) scratch on.

The TV stand is low enough that if I move the TV to the very front, he can still paw at it from the ground. I will try the orange peels though. Thanks for that idea.

Hi my cat Buster is also high energy and very persistent so I know exactly what you mean. It is tough to change their behavior but with patience

and or treats it can be done. For my cat I also had the same problem of him attacking the blankets and bed covers whether I was underneath or not.

So I leave my bedroom door closed and he's not allowed in there anymore. Although as for blankets on the couch I discovered I can curl up in the blanket

and be comfortable he just wanted to lay underneath so now I'll lift up a corner for him to go under and than then he will usually calm down and lay in my lap

underneath. Although if he doesn't calm down then it's his signal that he needs more playtime to redirect his energy. 

Hope this helps your cat.