EVERY drink ends up spilled on the floor

Think of kittens as  young children?. They don't know right from wrong, and like children you have to remove things from sight such as ornaments, cups, glasses, anything that can be knocked over really.

 

My youngest cat is 4 years old, but l never leave things that he can knock over. No kitten/cat are the same, they all have different personalities.

 

What concerns me is when you said "I'm going to lose control".....In what way?.

 

And is it really that bad that you can't drink from a closed bottle if it makes sure nothing gets spilled?!. 

 

If you can't pet them or love them like you say, maybe find someone that does 

Hello and welcome to TCS!

Cats like gravity experiments. You are not going to change that. It is inherent in what a cat is.

Don't leave glasses of liquid out where they can knock them over. It's as simple as that.

Kittens need a ton of interaction from you. They need you to play with them many times a day, for at least a half hour at a time.

I agree with Susan, if you are not willing to make the concessions and changes needed, if you can't adjust your lifestyle to accommodate living with cats, cats are not the right pet for you.

I agree with Susan and Otto!

 

Kittens will try and test your Patience, they have boundless amounts energy so any time is playtime, and tbh if you cant switch to a bottle with a lid for a drink of water for a while and you think your going to loose it with them then again i agree cats are not the right animal for you.

 

Or to stop them waking you by knocking water onto you on a night time its a simple fix don't allow them to be in your room on a night time and any other glasses that are out dont leave them out once your finished with a drink put it away they less they see glasses out the more they will become uninterested

I had a very calm cat who liked to drink out of my water glass. He spilled one over on top of my head in the middle of the night, waking me from a sound sleep. The next day I went out and bought a cup with a lid and started to drink out of that. That was about 15 years ago and I still drink out of lidded cups. Doesn't matter if they are rowdy kittens or calm adult cats. They will test your patience in one form or another and that is just who they are.

The good news is that as kittens age, they do calm down. Enjoy their antics while they are young and very playful.

I'm sorry, but I disagree. As the others have pointed out, it's like having a two-year old child sticking their finger in an electric socket. At that age, there's isn't much to do but put the child-proof plugs in the socket so the child cannot stick their finger in it. Sometimes you have to be a responsible parent, not a "teacher."

There are many behaviors you can work with in kittens and cats. Unfortunately, if you do not want your drinks dumped, access denial is the only method that will work.

One of our cats likes to chew paper. The solution is not to try to train her not to chew paper. This will result in endless frustration for all. The solution is not leaving paper out.

She also likes to knock things off of tables and shelves. We have seven other cats - no one else enjoys this form of play. She does. This is not behavior you can teach "no." Cats live in a 3D world. I've been able to teach them the kitchen counters are off limits, but it's simply not practical to "ban" them from every surface in the home. If I do not want valuables broken, I do not leave them out on shelves or tables.

If you have a child, and your child suffers from ADHD.... do you discipline them for bad behavior? Or do you make accommodations that account for their needs?

Wow, the water thing would get old. My girlfriend likes to have a glass of water next to the bed too. An easy solution is bottled water or a bottle and cap (I don't buy water). Thankfully, our cat doesn't knock over glasses (yet) but he'll knock over anything to get to a window (and has). 

Since you're sleeping when this happens, I don't know how you'd train the cat other than just securing the water better. You're in charge, but if you like your cats in the bedroom they'll probably keep doing this until you train them (which seems difficult at best) or find a way to outsmart them. Do they have their own toys in the bedroom? 

The bottled water idea with a secured holder seems a good compromise to me. :) Besides, you won't have kitties tempted to try to drink out of the glass. My cat used to try and sniff around my drinks but I work at home, so I could spend time to discourage this behavior. He no longer messes with my drinks, though I don't know what he does when I am not near them. I've purposely left them unattended to see if he would mess with them but he doesn't.

Cats will always find ways to annoy you just by being cats or playing...the trick is to cat-proof your home. Unfortunately, no way around this, even though we shouldn't have to do this in our homes...that's life with cats. :)

Cats can be trained tho...my Max definitely is learning which behaviors I find objectionable, though lately he learned a new trick...climbing at top speed up to the top of my 8 foot vocal booth! It never ends LOL. 

How often do you play with them?

Cats are creatures of habit. They love routine. They thrive on it. Play with them at the same times every day, and soon they will come to know when those times are. At other times, they will play by themselves, with one another, or relax.

Pay close attention when you play with them, they will tell you what kind of Games they like to play. Cats invent new Games all the time. It's a lot of fun, playing with the cats. It's just as good for the human as it is for the cats, really!

Size of home doesn't really matter. What matters is that they get enough interactive stimulation, mental and physical, from you.

Do you have a cat tree? If there is no room for a cat tree, install shelves on the wall for them, to jump and climb and perch on. And/or set up book cases against a wall, in a stair step pattern. They need elevated space more than they need wide expanse of running room.

I have a tiny apartment. My furniture is arranged so the cats can fly around the room without ever touching the floor. Couch to chair to book case to desk to TV, and so on. In the bedroom I have the bookcases arranged in stair steps I mentioned above. They run up and down them all the time.

My kitten is 18 months old now. She has other cats to play with, always has. But she still requires a lot of attention from me. Before I leave the house in the morning I throw a few toys for her, as I am getting ready to leave, and she chases them down. I keep a box of them handy, then leave them scattered when I leave.

I get out her string on a stick and swing it around for her to leap and chase for a couple of minutes too. I put the string on a stick away before I leave the house (that kind of toy should never be left out).

When I get home at night I'm tired. Sometimes really really tired. But if I don't play with the kitten, she'll get into mischief. So I spend my first 30 to 45 minutes after I walk into the apartment playing with her and the other cats.

Later, after they and I have eaten, and I've washed up, had my computer time and done any chores, I read on the couch before I go to bed. I keep a box of toys next to the couch to throw. I toss them across the room and she chases them down. I toss them so they go up on things, and she leaps after them. I do this while I am reading. After a while she starts playing with one of the other cats or by herself with one of her favorite by-herself toys.

You can't remove behaviors that are natural and instinctive. You risk destroying their spirit. Cats are cats, it's just their nature to want to get into things, knock things down, jump on things. Give them the outlets they need to satisfy those natural behaviors, so they won't get into trouble.

The more you play with them, the more they will play by themselves. When you play with them, you help stimulate their imaginations, and then they are able to entertain themselves, when you aren't there, or are busy, or sleeping.

Speaking of sleeping, the more you play with them, the more they play by themselves, and that means, they will sleep at night, when you do.

The more time and effort you put into them now, the nicer they will be, when they are all grown up. But, now matter how old they are, they are always going to want and need your attention, and interactive play, every day.

PS Travel and strange places can be very stressful and rough on cats. Some cats adapt immediately, but many don't. So don't expect too much from them, on the visit to your family. Hope it's fun.

Another thing to consider, in addition to all of otto's excellent advice, is spending a weekend switching them to your schedule. They're certainly old enough. A member of the site (well, several members have successfully done this now) successfully switches their schedule by dedicating an entire day to them. Cats naturally nap - well - at that age - maybe 12-16 hours a day. More as they get older. So when you get up in the morning, what you do is play with them basically all day. Do NOT let them nap, period. Come YOUR bed time, they'll be so tired, they'll sleep through the night. If you want to make SURE it takes, do it again the next day. But it seems just the one day is all that's needed to get them playing during the day and sleeping at night.

Of course... it helps to play with them as much as possible whenever you're home days/evenings, to help tire them out for the night.

Welcome to our world!

 

The size of the apartment isn't the problem really,  because these are tiny people in fur, much tinier than a couple of two year old toddlers who l would say the apartment was the problem if it was with them.

 

My Jack is a chewer,  and as a kitten he chewed through two laptop powerpacks. You have to remind yourself their still babies, and like human babies they teeth.

 

Kitten proof your home, such as tying up blind cords,  because there's been some tragic stories with kittens getting caught up in blinds.

 

As for sleep. Give them a good play session about an hour before bed with toys, followed by a bowl of wet food because that will help them sleep, but personally l couldn't keep them out the room because like yours they want to be with me and l want them there with me as well

 

As l said earlier, they all have different personalities so no two cats are the same, and cats don't do dicipline btw. 

 

Bottomline is, you have to work with them such as playing with them and kitten proofing as much as possible, do that and they will calm down eventually

 

 

 

They are being cats...that is what they do.  I would never leave an open glass of water around.  They are into everything when they are that age.  If they weren't ...I would hae them vet checked, it is that normal.

 

They grow out of it and become quiet and content and borderline lazy.

 

Now, I look back at those times and wish they still had some of that kitten energy.

And how right you are because they don't stay kittens for long, and although they had us all up at stupid o clock in the morning wanting to play it was worth it