Biting and discipline help

[brina]

I have a 11 and half month old kitten and I need some help with two areas.

the first, biting. Now, I know it is normal for a kitten of his age to bit because he is teething but sometimes after playing with him with his feather toy, he will just attack me with all paws and bit my arm.  I am able to stop him from biting when I play with him with a ball, I tell him to be nice, and he goes to a lick and stops, but this attacking my arm and biting continues.  After I tell him no or be nice he backs off but then attacks again.  I need him to stop doing this and I don't know what I can do to make him stop.

The second thing is discipline.  There are certain areas that I don't want him on that he continues to go on.  I don't yell at him but I do do the water bottle.  He is getting used to the the water bottle and just ignores getting wet (I think he likes water a little bit or doesn't mind it).  I have started to put him in the bathroom by himself for a few minutes after being naughty and he just continues to go in these areas.  I have a side table next to me that he continues to try to go on and I have to physically move him(I take him by the cuff and put him at the end of the couch), which I don't want to do.  He has many toys and a scratching post.  I will be getting him a cat tree on friday.  The most problem times are early in the morning when I am still sleeping on days that I am not in school and at night when I go to bed, he thinks it is play time.  He makes me lose sleep.  Another problem is playing with things that he shouldn't.  I cross-stich and when I am cross-stitching he will try to bat at the material.   I don't want to get physical with him, I don't believe in that.  Are there any other things I could do to make him stop doing these things?  He seems to be so smart that he catches on fast when I do a new discipline thing.  I always say he is a baby and being a baby but I don't want these things to become permaneant as he get older.  I want him to learn that if he does something wrong, something he doesn't like will happen.  I am a little frustrated.  

Any help with these two matter will be greatly appreciated.

 

[yayi]

Biting - hiss and/blow on his face the second he starts biting. He should stop. You must be consistent, do it every time. You say he is smart, he will catch on and stop his biting within a week. 

What places are forbidden to him? Cats are curious and love to explore and "hunt". The cat tree will help. The only places my kitties are not allowed are on the dining table where I have my meals and the kitchen table where I prepare food. I am not 100% sure if they climb up when I am not around but I have never seen them do it when I am at home. It only took a NO, psst, a loud hand clap for them to understand. 

I also cross stitch. Cats love to play with strings. Not letting them do it is virtually impossible. I do not lock them up in the bathroom but I do my cross stitch in another room without cats, I lock myself up. 

 

[brina]

I don't want him up on my bear table.  It is a bear holding up a glass table.  I also don't want him on my side table.  I took away the items he liked on my entertainment centre below the TV, so that won't be a problem.  My main problem is when he goes up on my dresser at night when I am trying to sleep.  I have a lot of precious items on there and I refuse to take them off and put them somewhere else because of a kitten.  He keeps jumping up on there.  There are breakable items on it.  I don't know how to stop him.  Any ideas?

 

[orientalslave]

I would put everything that is precious or fragile in a safe place where he can't get at them.  Wanting to jump up is part of a cat's nature and even if you can teach him not to do it when you are there you can't be sure he won't do it when you are away.

 

[brina]

My boyfriend told me he won't learn anything if I put my stuff away.  I think it is okay cause when I put some stuff away in the living room under my tv, he no longer goes there.  It is like they get uninterested cause there is nothing there to play with.  I think each cat is different.  Shadow is very very active and then he calms down and then gets cuddly.  I want him to feel comfortable in his home.  He is a kitten after all.  Only place he doesn't belong and I close that door, is my guinea pigs room.  I have four guinea pigs.  He can only go in there when I am in there.  He likes them though and vice versa.  The next battle will when I put the Christmas tree up.  Mine is a fake one that is part metal and part material.  Any ideas to keep in off the tree when it comes up?

 

[yayi]

My boyfriend told me he won't learn anything if I put my stuff away. 

Sorry, but does your boyfriend know about cats? It seems he thinks you can teach a cat the same way you can teach a dog. 

Anyway, when you have a kitten, you really need to cat proof your home. Kittens are curious about everything and they are also a bit clumsy. They can't tell the difference between fragile and sturdy stuff. As long as it is interesting, the kitten will go for it. 

About the Christmas tree, more experienced members will help you. In my case, when I used to put up the tree (I am too lazy these past years), my cats used to knock off the Christmas balls at the bottom whenever a breeze would blow. 

 They never climbed the tree to go after the decorations on top. 

 

[kat013]

Biting/clawing:  in addition to hissing at him and blowing in his face, also get in the habit of saying, "No claws!" or something similar (the words are conditioning for later).  Try re-directing aggression to a stuffed animal about his size.  He may be trying to engage you in play-fighting.  The thing to do is stop paying attention to him immediately if he uses too much force.  If you can get him to disengage by hissing and blowing, next immediately get up and leave the room.  Go do something else for 5 minutes.  Then you can come back and start playing with him again.

If he doesn't respond to hissing and blowing, next detach yourself from him by grabbing him by the scruff of the neck, and move the limb he's attacked towards his tail to disengage from his claws.  Then immediately present him with the stuffed toy.  Bounce it along the ground to engage his attention, and if he attacks it, gently play-fight with him using it, then give him a treat.

If he doesn't go for the stuffed toy (try it for at least a week before giving up on it) or it's not within arm's reach, disengage from him and carry him (by the scruff, but supporting his rear) to your cat tree and place him on it, then release and walk away and do not pay any attention to him for ~5 minutes.

Once you've done this for about two weeks, you can move on to a more advanced technique - drop the hissing and blowing and just say, "No claws!" as a warning.  If you've been combining the words with other techniques above, he may respond to the warning alone.  If he does, praise him (verbally at first - avoid tempting him by trying to pet him - and give him a treat) and stay in his presence.  Then engage him again with a toy.  Eventually you'll be able to work up to the point of praising him and immediately re-engaging him with your hands in some petting, and then eventually he'll just quit using claws and hard biting (I allow mouthing) all together.  I've done this with several cats and kittens and it works.  My cats can even differentiate when I'm wiggling my fingers at them under a door vs jiggling a toy, and will retract claws appropriately.

You trim his claws, right?

Putting him in time out will do nothing.  I don't even think that works with dogs.  That's a human thing only.

Asking him to stay off of an end table, that is the same height as and right next to a couch, is not going to work - he can't differentiate between the two.  My cats are allowed everywhere except food prep surfaces and the dining table.  I put fragile things completely out of their reach (7-8' off the floor).  You can't teach a cat to leave your fragile things alone any more than you can teach a 1-year-old to not mess with electrical cables.  They don't have the brain capacity to understand 'breakable' or 'silent and inanimate but dangerous'.  What you can do is give them appropriate, comfortable places to climb, which you've already taken a step towards doing with getting him a cat tree.  Consider also any furniture you'd be okay with him getting on top of - like a bookshelf - and provide access to that.

If you want to keep him off your dresser, you have a couple of options:

1) canned air with motion sensor, blows compressed air whenever sensor is tripped.  Option for when you aren't sleeping - the deterrent effect is the hissing noise of the air.  Some people have good luck with these, others don't, as you can see from amazon dot com reviews.

2) one of those 9-volt powered shock mats. I've lived with someone who had this before, and it definitely works to keep a cat off a surface.  And yes I tested it on myself to make sure it was not overly painful.  I would recommend against doing this on the end table next to your couch, or any other low table that's right next to another piece of furniture - again, cats can't differentiate between stuff sitting right next to each other in terms of surfaces.  But for the dresser it should work.  You can leave a few items on top of it if they're ceramic or glass or otherwise non-conducting.  First couple of times it will really surprise your cat, though, so think about it first.  Eventually you can remove the mat after he's trained to expect it.

3) remove all items from top of dresser, tape down a garbage bag to protect the top and then lay out a towel, then completely cover the surface of the dresser with shallow pans of water.  He's going to jump wildly if he encounters this, so expect some water to get splashed around.  Cheap cookie sheets from a grocery store work well for this.

You are going to have to cross-stitch in another room.  I also do a handcrafts and have to lock myself away from kittens when doing so, because they are endlessly fascinated with anything you are moving with your hands.  Just give him some catnip on a toy at his cat tree and play with him a bit before you disappear.  

Playing with him more in general (have you tried a laser pointer?) will use up some of his energy and he will have less to direct into aggression or keeping you awake at night.

It takes several months for a teenaged cat to settle down at night.  Start by locking him out of your room if he wakes you up once.  You may have to put some floor tiles or a piece of plywood at the base of your bedroom door to keep him from clawing at the carpet trying to get in, and you may have to use a fan for white noise to mask the sound of his meowing outside the door.  I don't know where your litterboxes, food, and water are kept, but make sure he has access to these, and to a comfy place to sleep, if he's locked out of your room at night.  Eventually you'll be able to let him back in.

Good luck!

 

[brina]

We have several play sessions with his feather toy.  He even falls asleep on his back when we play with it.  His claws are always trimmed.  It is hell to do with with lots of hissing and growling but what can you do lol.  My boyfriend has had cats before, I guess he trains them like a dog in a way.  I plan to get him some more toys for him to at the end of the month.  I was wondering where all the one's I got for him were and found a nest of them under my futon couch lol.  I guess just one day at a time for now.  He gets his second shots and rabies on Saturday, that should be fun lol.  Wish me luck everyone!  Oh and thanks for all the help.

 

[three cat night]

Brine,
Someone suggested a stuffed animal about his size and I second that . My cats love attacking it and it uses up some of his energy. I got a stuffed tiger toy and I put it at the top of the scratch post . Also,
Get some cardboard boxes ( with circle holes ) ( Check cosco , they have the best free containers) and stick plastic straws in the holes . I leave the tv on in my living room when I have to put them out of the bedroom so I can sleep. It helps keep him company. Also I made it a mission to keep my cats active during the day, yes they wanted to sleep all day so i just kept waking them up . Now they want to sleep at night. While doing the daytime play I really played hard with them. One of their favorite toys are tin foil crunched up like a ball or even paper wadded up. Have fun!!