We adopted Stumpy a little over a month ago, and I'd been fostering her while she had her broken pelvis. At this time she was so quiet and sweet, and loved snuggles in your lap, but as she's gotten better she's gotten naughtier and naughtier.
Don't get me wrong I absolutely adore her - she follows me everywhere, she's my little shadow while I'm at home, but I find I'm getting a bit frustrated every now and again.
She's about 10-11 months old now, and she is constantly attacking our feet while we're in bed unless they're under the doona (and only because the feet are harder to get to). And it's too hot of course for that, so we only have a sheet on. We go to bed and she's pouncing on our feet and biting them, and digging her claws in. She sees lumps through the sheets and thinks it's a great game. I kept saying no and lifting her off the bed and onto the ground. So she does this when we're going to bed, when we wake up and for the last few weeks at 5am when she decides she wants to play, so I keep being woken up to her biting my feet.
She's also currently attacking my bare feet which are on top of the sheet which is what made me write this post.
She loves dangly toys, but she can't have them as she constantly eats them (and swallows) - she's a chewer. So I have interactive toys for her (Bizzy-Kitty play centre, crazy circle type toy), a bunch of toys she can chase and carry around which she loves, a laser pointer, and I take her out for a walk every day (she's a fully inside cat). I spend a fair bit of time interacting with her, and because she follows me everywhere (literally), she doesn't sleep much - she's too busy following me
So she's chewed through the hand strap for the camera which we had to replace, then found the hand strap for my husbands new pedometer which she also chewed (mmm dangly!). Anything like that we can't leave lying around because she'll try and eat it, which is really frustrating - we never know what she'll try and chew.
This morning at 5am, I heard her under the bed batting something against the wall. I should have checked, but didn't. I checked just before, and she's had a good chew at the telephone cable which she was batting against the wall and playing with. She likes sleeping under the bed, and there's a few cables under there, and if she chews through any of them, it's dangerous for her and annoying for us! I covered the one she started chewing in double sided tape, so hopefully she'll leave it alone.
So I need some ideas on how to stop the destructive chewing behaviour, and how to stop her attacking our feet. I don't want to lock her out of the bedroom at night, because that was a good part of our bonding time before she decided to attack our feet.
She was snuggly and cuddly when we first got her, and now she's getting less cuddly and more destructive. She used to sit on our laps every night - she would have half her body on my husbands lap, and half her body on my lap - she would share us! She hasn't sat on our laps for weeks now. I know it's hot, but we have the A/C going downstairs so it's not too bad.
I can't get another kitty for her, it was a struggle to convince my husband to get one cat, I'm pretty sure he would prefer to give her up rather then adopt another one. I don't want to give her up, because I am in love with her, and I do think she's happy, she just doesn't understand what she shouldn't do. As well as that, she'll probably behave the same in a new home, and the new people may not be as understanding of her behaviour.
Also, I start full time work on Tuesday, so she'll be left on her own all day. I don't know if this will help her calm down a bit since she'll have less stimulation, or if she'll just get bored!
Sorry this is so long, I just don't know what to do. I hope it's just a "settling in" thing...
Don't get me wrong I absolutely adore her - she follows me everywhere, she's my little shadow while I'm at home, but I find I'm getting a bit frustrated every now and again.
She's about 10-11 months old now, and she is constantly attacking our feet while we're in bed unless they're under the doona (and only because the feet are harder to get to). And it's too hot of course for that, so we only have a sheet on. We go to bed and she's pouncing on our feet and biting them, and digging her claws in. She sees lumps through the sheets and thinks it's a great game. I kept saying no and lifting her off the bed and onto the ground. So she does this when we're going to bed, when we wake up and for the last few weeks at 5am when she decides she wants to play, so I keep being woken up to her biting my feet.
She's also currently attacking my bare feet which are on top of the sheet which is what made me write this post.
She loves dangly toys, but she can't have them as she constantly eats them (and swallows) - she's a chewer. So I have interactive toys for her (Bizzy-Kitty play centre, crazy circle type toy), a bunch of toys she can chase and carry around which she loves, a laser pointer, and I take her out for a walk every day (she's a fully inside cat). I spend a fair bit of time interacting with her, and because she follows me everywhere (literally), she doesn't sleep much - she's too busy following me
So she's chewed through the hand strap for the camera which we had to replace, then found the hand strap for my husbands new pedometer which she also chewed (mmm dangly!). Anything like that we can't leave lying around because she'll try and eat it, which is really frustrating - we never know what she'll try and chew.
This morning at 5am, I heard her under the bed batting something against the wall. I should have checked, but didn't. I checked just before, and she's had a good chew at the telephone cable which she was batting against the wall and playing with. She likes sleeping under the bed, and there's a few cables under there, and if she chews through any of them, it's dangerous for her and annoying for us! I covered the one she started chewing in double sided tape, so hopefully she'll leave it alone.
So I need some ideas on how to stop the destructive chewing behaviour, and how to stop her attacking our feet. I don't want to lock her out of the bedroom at night, because that was a good part of our bonding time before she decided to attack our feet.
She was snuggly and cuddly when we first got her, and now she's getting less cuddly and more destructive. She used to sit on our laps every night - she would have half her body on my husbands lap, and half her body on my lap - she would share us! She hasn't sat on our laps for weeks now. I know it's hot, but we have the A/C going downstairs so it's not too bad.
I can't get another kitty for her, it was a struggle to convince my husband to get one cat, I'm pretty sure he would prefer to give her up rather then adopt another one. I don't want to give her up, because I am in love with her, and I do think she's happy, she just doesn't understand what she shouldn't do. As well as that, she'll probably behave the same in a new home, and the new people may not be as understanding of her behaviour.
Also, I start full time work on Tuesday, so she'll be left on her own all day. I don't know if this will help her calm down a bit since she'll have less stimulation, or if she'll just get bored!
Sorry this is so long, I just don't know what to do. I hope it's just a "settling in" thing...
