My kitten is turning into a terror!

One and a half months ago we adopted a 4 month old, neutered, tuxedo kitten from the shelter.  We found out the hard way that he has an intense food intolerance and has to be on a raw diet or else he gets explosive diarrhea (http://www.thecatsite.com/t/305730/kitten-with-horrible-diarrhea-for-a-month).

Now that we've got the diarrhea taken cared of, he's starting to develop his personality.  Unfortunately his personality isn't exactly "good".  We have a two year old cat and two dogs between 75-90lbs.  The dogs, for the most part, ignore the kitten and leave him alone.  My other cat has made it clear that she wants her space, but otherwise she doesn't have a problem with him being around. 

Butler has started to become a pint-sized terror.  I have,on three occasions seen him stalk and attack our dogs while they slept.  And it wasn't playful, it was aggressive, complete with hissing and growling.  He also pees on their beds and if I lean them up against the wall out of the way, he'll pee on the floor around them.

My other cat can't get a moment's peace with him around.  He's now developed the habit of trying to attack her when she's in her litter box.  And he tackles and chases her incessantly when she's out of it.  I put him in a bathroom at night with a litter box and that's now the only time I really see her.  As soon as I shut him in the bathroom, she crawls out of whatever hidey hole she was in to use the bathroom, eat, and cuddle with me.  Today she was in the litter box trying to pee 4-5 times and I'm fairly certain she now has a bladder infection, either from holding it too long or from the stress of having him around.

I have tried a multitude of things.  He wears a Sentry calming collar.  I have Feliway plugins next to the dog's bed and where my other cat hides.  I've tried socializing him with our dogs and our cat -- "re-introducing him".  We've bought new dog beds.  I play with him for 20-30 minutes a few times a day until he's panting in hopes of burning off excess energy, but he still musters the energy to go after the other pets as soon as they enter the room.

He's very sweet to me and other people, it just seems that he likes to "troll" our pets into misery.  It's almost as if he "feeds" off terrorizing them.  I've never had a cat so blatantly rude to other animals and I'm not entirely sure how to handle it. 

I've tried using a water bottle to spray at him to stop him from whatever he's doing at that time.  If he's about to pee around the dogs' beds, I spray him and he runs to the litter box and pees there.  When he's too aggressive with my other cat (and he always is) I spray him and he relents for about 10 seconds then dives back into her again.  I made the mistake of trying to brake them up with my hands and though they didn't attack me on purpose, I came between nails and suffered the consequence.

I really thought wearing him out would be the answer, but it doesn't seem to make a difference.  This guy just seems hell-bent on being a jerk.

Your kitten is not being a jerk, he is being a kitten who has tons and tons of energy.  That's what kittens do.  They want to run around like crazy, get into everything they can and play play play.  By spraying him with a water bottle, you are only teaching him to fear you.  Cats do not react well to physical discipline.  A better way is to put him in a room of his own for a bit to calm down.  Sort of like a time out.

It also seems that the introduction process fell a bit short.  The introduction process between cats can take weeks to months to many many months.  How did you go about doing the introduction process.  Each step is a process and you do not want to move to the next step until there is no growling, hissing, ears going flat, tail swishing, etc...  It can take weeks at each step.  It is human nature to rush the process.  Most of us want the cats to get along and we just rush them through.  It is best to stop and redo all introductions.  The new kitty needs to be separated 24/7 from the dogs and the other cat.  Then restart intros and work very slowly.

The kitty is just full of energy and you will need to work out that energy so he doesn't take it out on your dogs or resident kitty.  Try the hunt, catch, kill, eat, groom, sleep process.  You will need  wand toy ( da birds are the best) or a laser pointer.  You really want to get the kitten moving ( just do this 1:1 with the kitten no other animals around).  Play to work on hunt, catch and kill.  Once the kitten is tired out (10-20 minutes of play) offer a special treat or small meal to satisfy the "eat".  Next he should groom himself and take a nap if he is tired out.  You also can work on this with your resident kitty as it will help boost the cats confidence and help reduce stress.

Also how many litter boxes do you have?  The golden rule is one per cat plus one extra.  So you would need 3 or two at the very least.  Your resident kitty seems to need to go to the vet.  You do not want him left with an untreated UTI.

I also would suggest some Composure liquid max.  All of the animals could benefit from this.  It is a nonsedating calming supplement.  It works very well to help the animals remain calm.  It may not do much for the kitten as he is so young and just full of life and energy.  Yet your resident cat and dogs could benefit.

Here are some articles and a great video on cat to cat introductions.  It is not uncommon for many people to have to redo introductions.  Just remember to take it slowly this time.

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/the-ultimate-yet-simplified-guide-to-introducing-cats

http://www.catbehaviorassociates.com/a-simple-little-trick-to-use-during-new-cat-introductions/

http://www.aspca.org/pet-care/virtual-pet-behaviorist/cat-behavior/introducing-your-cat-new-cat

http://jacksongalaxy.com/2010/10/01/cat-to-cat-introductions/

Perhaps I should have clarified things a bit more.

- I play with him until he is panting, 3 times day

- After each play time I put him in his own room where he eats a high protein, raw diet meal and I leave him in there for about 30 minutes to decompress, etc.

- We have 5 litter boxes.  2 covered (my other cat's) and 3 open/wide/low-walled boxes for the kitten

- We introduced him slowly to the dogs over the course of 4 weeks.  Him attacking them while vulnerable and peeing on their bed started one week ago out of the blue

- We introduced him to our other cat, Luna, over the course of 3 weeks.  The hissing and fighting started a little over a week ago and only happens when he tackles her or goes after her when she is in the litter box

If I were asked if there was any event that occurred around the time he started attacking the other cat, attacking the dogs, and peeing on their bed, it would be when we finally figured out what was wrong him having diarrhea.  Once that was under control, this all started happening.

I thought it went without saying that my other cat is going to the vet.  She has an appointment in 40 minutes, to be exact.

And yes, I have watched all of Jackson Galaxy's videos on the subjects and a good deal of his shows via Hulu.

Just got back from the vet with Luna, my other cat and she's being treated for a UTI.  I asked about Butler, the kitten's behavior and they said I should continue to use the squirt bottle.  The nurse who was helping the vet use to work for a behavior specialist and he was an advocate of the squirt bottle.

A few of their other suggestions was to hang or set a bar of Irish Spring soap where he is having accidents as it, or the smell of mint, can be a deterrent.  They also said one of the biggest problems is that none of my other pets "put him in his place".  Instead they let him push them around and if one of them doesn't let him know it's not cool anymore, then he'll only continue it and it will only get worse.

Personally the problem I have with using a squirt bottle is that it doesn't work. It doesn't teach my cat not to go on the table, it only teaches him that he shouldn't do it when I'm around or paying attention. All other times are fair game in his head.

Also, whenever I used the bottle, he would sulk afterward and wouldn't be affectionate. I stopped using the bottle after a few days.

Maybe you can try one of those devices meant to startle cats with a blast of air. It might not bother the dogs, but it might make the kitten think twice about going to pee on the dog beds. And best of all, its an inanimate object so the kitten isn't going to learn to wait until you're out of the house or in another room.

Plan said:

 
Maybe you can try one of those devices meant to startle cats with a blast of air. It might not bother the dogs, but it might make the kitten think twice about going to pee on the dog beds. And best of all, its an inanimate object so the kitten isn't going to learn to wait until you're out of the house or in another room.

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Yes!  We have a Ssscat system, but are waiting for the refill to be delivered.  We used it to train him to not jump onto the bathroom sink (which he use to poop in when he had diarrhea).  And after one spook, he never ventured up there again.

I know I mentioned in an earlier post that this didn't start happening until after we figured out his food intolerance and had to put him on the raw diet.  Well, after giving it a lot, and I mean A LOT of thought, I realized that for me to make the raw diet food, I have to add good deal of water to it because it's dehydrated.  It probably comes to about half a cup of water for each meal (3 a day), which is probably a good deal more water than he needs.  In fact, I don't think I've seen him drink from a water bowl since we put him on this food.  I also noticed that after putting him in the bathroom to eat and nap while I ran errands for an hour, there was four more spots of urine in the litter box, even though I had just cleaned it before I left.  He probably shouldn't pee more than four times a day -- four times an hour is a tremendous amount of urine for one little guy to put out.  So I've ordered some dry grain-free cat food to put him on and I try to drain out all of the excess water from his food before giving it to him.  Since doing this, he hasn't had any more accidents though I have to watch him like a hawk.  It's basically like having another puppy I have to house train again -- I keep having to call him to the litter box after meals, playtime, and naps to be sure he pees before he wonders off and voids somewhere else.

In terms of him being a "jerk", most kittens learn that when they play too rough and the other cat/kitten lets them know this, they will back off and play a bit gentler.  This guy, on the other hand, seems to get encouraged by it.  My other cat lets him know she's had enough or that he's too rough, but it only seems to encourage him and he torments her even more.

With the dogs, we've had them inside more and I've had some of the play sessions with the dogs in the room.  So he knows they won't hurt him if he let's his guard down.  He seems to be more comfortable with being around them the last couple of days.  Though he is (rightfully) worried they'll step on him and books it out of the area when they get excited.