An Update

Hi everyone..just came to give an update and new picture for those of you who are interested...Azriel is completely off the bottle and liter trained since around 71/2 weeks. He will be 3 months old the 10th of July...Hes a ton of fun but has a very agressive side...youd understand if you saw my boyfriends hands..its not pretty.....he dpesnt understanmd no or hissing or loud noises either...i would like some more info on shots and having him fixed he hasnt had either....does he absouletly need shots? also any info on pros and cons of declawing? Thanks all for everything...you have helped me through a critical time when my baby was sick and the joy I have now if speechless.....Thanks again!

Originally Posted by Azreal McCray

Hi everyone..just came to give an update and new picture for those of you who are interested...Azriel is completely off the bottle and liter trained since around 71/2 weeks. He will be 3 months old the 10th of July...Hes a ton of fun but has a very agressive side...youd understand if you saw my boyfriends hands..its not pretty.....he dpesnt understanmd no or hissing or loud noises either...i would like some more info on shots and having him fixed he hasnt had either....does he absouletly need shots? also any info on pros and cons of declawing? Thanks all for everything...you have helped me through a critical time when my baby was sick and the joy I have now if speechless.....Thanks again!

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It is wonderful to hear that you had such a positive experience with your "bottle baby", Azrial. Not everyone who tries to bring a kitten up in this way has such a good outcome so it is nice to hear that your little ones continues to thrive.

For the aggression and to give your BF's hands a welcome break, make it a rule to never play with the kitten with your hands -- always use a toy. Never allow him to become so worked up that he attacks hands or feet. If he does, loudly yell OUCH! and stop playing immediately. Give him a toy you don't mind that he tears up and then simply get up and walk away. You have to be consistant about it.

With regard to vaccines, he should have been receiving the "kitten series" of shots starting when he was around 6 weeks old. They are very important in that they help develop immunity from Rhintraceitis, Calici Virus and Panleukopenia, all very common feline viruses. Since he hasn't received ANY shots at this point, get him started now. Even if he is to be kept strictly indoors, some of these viruses can walk in to the house with you on your shoes.

TCS (and the better part of the membership here) is anti-declawing. The best advice I can give you is ... please don't. Here are a couple of helpful articles for you:

http://www.thecatsite.com/Care/34/De...-Manicure.html

http://www.thecatsite.com/Care/33/De...ernatives.html

Your baby can be neutered as early as 12 weeks, but there are some vets who won't perform the procedure until a kitten is at least 6 months old. Check around in your area for low- or no-cost spay/neuter clinics here:

http://www.lovethatcat.com/spayneuter.html#nv

Again, I am glad to hear your little one has done so very well.

~g~

I agree with having Azreal vet checked and getting his basic vaccinations.

My feeling is, whether he realized it or not, your bf taught Azreal to play rough with hands (by allowing the play to continue when Azreal starts scratching), and now he needs to teach him to stop. He must not allow that play at all. Use a stuffed animal for Azreal to beat up.

A kitten with a Momma and siblings would be severely disciplined for playing too rough. Of course we can't be as harsh as Momma kitty might be, but we can be very firm! If you continue to have difficulty, post in the behavior forum.

He certainly turned out to be an adorable little kitten!

I've only met two declawed cats. One was a cat I petsit as a teen. The other one is one that got out and I found in my apt complex last year. She generally a nice cat, but when she got mad she bit and she was a hisser. Very pretty and she looked like my zakk.. the neighbors all thought she was mine. Anyway, I posted an ad and the owners replied and picked her up. They wanted to give me money and I told them to use it to buy her a collar. She apparently thought they were dangerous.. anyway, I'm getting off topic.

Buy your kittie lots of scratching stuff.. Cardboard scratchers, cat trees, scratching posts etc. If it becomes a problem I would try those nail caps.

What a cutie. I'm glad most everything is going well.

My kitten is about a week older than yours. Our vet offers a kitten package which includes three exams, deworming and the initial three kitten vaccines at a reduced price of $50 if you pay up front. He also advocates early neutering (beginning at 8 weeks). I was going to wait a little longer but my kitten came in the extra feisty male variety so I decided it probably would be good to move on it. I took him in Thursday morning and picked him up that afternoon. He's bounced back very quickly--yesterday he was still tender but today you can't even tell.

I just figured our hand raised kitten would naturally be gentler but we've had problems with pouncing and biting. Since we've been back from vacation we've worked hard on this using the advice we got here and in one week we've seen lots of improvement. When he's very determined and won't be distracted we put him away in time out for a few minutes and he hates it. We don't offer our body parts for play (and it takes effort to get all five of us on the same page) but keep a bucket of toys in the living room so they're always handy. Most importantly I think is that when he's having a really aggressive play period, we don't interrupt him and just let him burn off steam. When he's sleepy or just waking up, then we pick him up and he likes petting--rarely will he bite then.

As for declawing, I've been surprised by this because we had a zillion cats growing up and I'd never even heard of it. Now it seems everyone I know automatically has their cats declawed. I'm going to really work with ours.

Awww!!!! He's so adorable! Love his fuzzy coat and ears! Azreal is definitely a success story...you should be proud of your accomplishments with him - it is NOT easy to hand-raise an orphaned kitten.

I'm going through my own aggressive ordeal with my 14 week old kitten, Steuben. He's absolutely the MOST aggressive and wild kitten I've ever had the pleasure (or displeasure? lol) of raising...he LOVES attacking everything, and he's actually quite vicious. Fortunately today, he is getting neutered, and I'm hoping that relieves a lot of his aggression...EVERYTHING and EVERYONE is his prey...he stalks, attacks, bites, leaps on you from heights, and is all but swinging from the light fixtures. I love him to pieces (my other 2 adult cats have developed a clear distaste for him, understandably), and we'll continue to work on it. I know he'll come around.

He is absolutely adoable!! You've done a great job!

My Winston was a bottle fed baby too, from about ten days old, just before his eyes opened.

He's now almost 7 years old and weighs about 25 lbs