Erratic Kitten Behaviour Getting Out Of Hand!

[beans]

Hello,

I have a beautiful 10 week old tabby kitten called Socks, who to begin with was really tame and loving when we got her 3 weeks ago. The owners of her mother boasted about how calm and relaxed the mother cat was and when I met the mother, she really was a lovely calm and affectionate cat.

However, being a kitten we started to see Socks becoming quite energetic and lively, which we were fine with.  We bought all the different types of toys including laser pens, dangly toys, balls, scratching post, feathered toys, a tube toy that has a belled ball inside and so on.  But she gets very bored, very quickly!  Nothing we seem to try to play with her with seems to grab her attention anymore.  So we tried the taking some of the toys away for a few days and rotating what was out to play with, even when we brought them back out she wasn't interested.  

What we are struggling to deal with is the scatty/aggressive (biting), it seems to have come on from no where!  When she wants to be (mainly when she wants a nap) she will come up and cuddle, but even then she will sometimes bite my hand for no reason.  Trying to keep her entertained is difficult when she is bored of everything we have.  Some times as well I will put my hand out to pick her up or stroke her, she will go into what I call attack pose, fluff her tail up and almost stand sideways, sometimes even running away in an urgent way (like I am going to hurt her).

We originally wanted her to be an indoor cat, but she has made it very clear she wants to go outside, she runs to the door and cries to be let out.  Once she is fully vaccinated, microchipped and nurtured,  she will be aloud outside.  Is she just becoming so erratic because she wants to go out? I am very scarred she wont come back if I am honest, she's very stubborn.

Its only been such a short period of time and I have owned kittens/cats when I was younger, but personally never known one to be so crazy and easily bored, usually all it took was either a laser pen or dangly toy of sorts and my previous kittens/cats would play with you for hours.

I want to persist with her and bond so to speak, but if she continues this way or her behaviour worsens then I am worried this cat that doesn't like us and that we don't like being around is going to be living with us!  I want to try any techniques to calm her down or entertain her and not have us shouting at her or trying to discipline her all the time, because personally I don't think it works.  She's clearly not happy and that breaks my heart because I do love her, but can't let her continue to be so scatty and/or bitey.  At the moment we discipline with loudly saying her name in an abrupt manner, water spray bottle, time outs (which were only a few minutes when a scatty moment began, but can last up to 30mins till I hear that she has stopped literally running round the room) and I have now began to slightly tapping her bum if she bites me (but in my opinion this is just making her more aggressive and I think its why she has started to run away from me).  I don't like to do any of these, especially so early in her life, but I need her to know the boundaries.      

I know there are going to be people saying that shes only a kitten and that what do I expect.  I want to have a kitten that's happy, that isn't isn't zooming from room to room, attacking people for no reason or even a kitten that runs in fear of me even though I would never hurt her,  But please, if you can offer advice or techniques that will calm her, make her feel less under threat and any ideas about things that will occupy her, please let me know!  Am I using the correct disciplines to teach her when shes doing something wrong, do you know of better ways?

Any guidance would be much appreciated.

Thank you

Clara & Socks x

 

[kittens mom]

Time outs don't work.

Spray bottles don't work

Tapping on the bum will not work.

Shouting at her will not work.

When your kitten bites. yelp and pull your hand away and leave. That's cat language for behave or I'm not going to play with you.

I know you don't want to hear it but your kitten is simply behaving like a baby.  Since you took her at 7 weeks her social development is not fully formed.

Just like a human baby you have to just deal with your pets infancy. You can't yell at a baby to stop crying anymore than you can yell at a kitten to make it stop acting like a kitten.

Cats follow a pattern or behavior. Play , eat , sleep. You are going to have to find an activity that wears the little critter out.

Food. What is she eating and is she getting enough. A 10 week old kitten should still be sleeping a great deal. If her belly is not full that may be causing some of her behavior.

We just got through the flying gibbon stage. Your anger and frustration are going to inhibit her emotional growth. It really is just something you deal with.

The kitten you raise is the cat you will own.

Patience and tolerance are your best tools.

 

[jcat]

Welcome to TCS!

Her current behavior says nothing about her character, rather, it shows that she was separated from her mother when far too young (12 to 16 weeks is the recommended age).

As kittens mom posted, what's required of you now is patience and tolerance. Discipline won't work. It's now up to you to quietly show her acceptable behavior by disengaging when she gets too rambunctious (as all kittens do).

 

[talkingpeanut]

The advice above is great. I will also add that your kitten should not be allowed to be indoor outdoor until it is at least nine months old. It will not be mature enough to stay safe until then.

 

[foxxycat]

nothing to add-Kittensmom knows her stuff. When my honeybee came to me=she bites HARD! I used to yell but when I looked around online-I found that walking away and ignoring her worked better. Honeybee is my little buddy and follows me and I am mom to her-she eats whatever is in my hand-I have to watchout that she doesn't eat something forbidden. But sometimes if she bites hard I hiss at her and walk away. Hissing is cat talk for "Stop it!"

So try hiss-let kitten go=walk away-ignore.

Play=and play some more- and eat-then sleeps!

 

[beans]

Thank you all for your responses, its much appreciated.

I forgot to mention that she was barely eating at the time, I have since spoken to the vet as all Socks currently wants is kitten milk, she refuses/ignores all other types of food and cries for milk.  The vet has given me excellent advice, which I am currently still experimenting with as Socks is still having her fussy moments.  Time will tell!

Socks will only sleep when me and my partner are not around.  I play with her for a few hours and I can see she's tired but she's is very stubborn and refuses to give in to sleep (even if I pick her up and nuzzle her, she starts purring and closing her eyes, but like a flip of a switch, her eyes are wide open and she's scratching to get away and starts running round like a lunatic again).  But I have found if I put her in another room she will eventually give in to the sleep, but as soon as we are back in the room shes wide awake.  So when I mentioned shutting her away previously, it was also to get her to sleep, she will on rare occasions cuddle up for a snooze, but it doesn't last long.

I did do my research before getting her and the blue cross and the RSPCA both advised 8weeks and older, however there were issues with the owner going away and not being able to put the kitten into the cattery with its mum, so I felt a little forced to take her a week earlier than planned (at 7 weeks).  Ideally I wanted to leave it as long as possible, but I had already fallen in love and didn't want her to go to someone else.

Of course I would never let her out till she's mature enough to handle it, even though I can see she's desperate to go out, she sits crying at the door.

I was wondering have people seen any changes in their kittens/cats behaviours after being neutered? 

 

[profdanglais]

I am a novice when it comes to cats, but.... when my husband and I decided to adopt our kittens we were originally only going to get one, however basically everyone with any cat knowledge advised us to get two instead. They said that two kittens are actually a lot less work than one because they will play together to work off their crazy energy and socialise each other by letting each other know what kind of play is acceptable. I have to say, I'm so glad I listened to this advice. My kittens run around like maniacs and pounce and wrestle with each other, but they also sort of keep a check on each other, and when one starts to play too rough the other will squeak and pull away. When we first got them, they bit our hands as you describe but they don't really do that anymore and it's only been 2.5 weeks. Husband and I are having to do some creative budgeting to afford their vaccines, spaying, microchipping, etc, but I definitely think the kittens are happier and better behaved together than they would be alone, and when they curl up together with their little paws tucked around each other, it is all worth it. So basically, you might consider another kitten, if that's at all possible. 

 

[plan]

If I could do it all over again, I would have gotten 2 kittens as well. It would have been better for Bud.

But I co-sign everything said by members in this thread. Your cat is a baby who needs love, warmth, tolerance, attention, lots of play time, and lots of food. Yes, kittens are cute, but the trade off is that they're incredibly energetic, they bite, they scratch, the tear around the house like lunatics, etc.

Your kitten will grow out of it, it just takes time. In the meantime, as kittensmom points out, you just have to be patient and loving.

 

[jannt86]

Hi there,
I live in the UK and have just recently bought 2 kittens who I took home at just under 9 weeks old. They're now almost 11 weeks old. These are literally mine and my hubby's first pets so I am no expert. However a few things from my own experiences I could note

1) Please don't feel guilty for taking them at this age and other members please try not to judge people too harshly when people take them this early. It's very common practice in the UK to take kittens home at around 7-8 weeks and all of our major animal charities advocate it. We could and probably should debate the ins and outs of this but please know that we are not just irresponsibly ripping the little darlings from their mummys against professional advice

2) From my own observations of my kittens and what other people say I would say that the single best thing you could do if you think you can afford it is to consider getting another kitten of a similar age. My 2 have all the toys they could want and they do play with them but their favourite pass time is tormenting each other. They spend half the day chasing each other and play fighting and the other half sleeping. Not only does the company ensure that they are not bored it also teaches them manors. I have noticed that when they play fight they will occasionally Yelp at each other which I am sure is them telling each other off for playing too rough. In addition to the playing they will also comfort each other a lot. They will often sleep together. Also, the other day They had the sweetest moment. They had just had their jabs and it made the male really quite ill. He had skulked off to a corner and looked really peaky and howled in pain whenever I touched him which was totally not like him as he's very used to being handled. Anyway, his sister walked up to him and very tenderly snuggled up beside him and stayed with him until he perked up a bit. It was adorable! Not to mention that for you watching 2 kittens interacting I can assure you is highly entertaining. You won't need a TV any more! I hope I've sold the idea that 2 is better than 1 here for so many reasons.

ITO the biting I'm personally just saying ow in a really high pitched voice whenever they get carried away and they will usually lick me better then wander off somewhere else. I think they're slowly getting the idea that I'm a boring old human and in fact useless for assassin training and much more useful for cuddling/feeding/litter tray cleaning and generally being their minion [emoji]128514[/emoji] and most of the time they'll stick to fighting each other. Some of it I think as well is common sense and not letting them near our hands when they're in a playful mood. You can condition a cat to restrain its behaviour but I think it's important to remember that they are very much independent and therefore cannot be trained in the way a dog can (there's a reason they say cats have servants dogs have owners [emoji]128521[/emoji]) If you want to play with them then dangly toys and lasers are brilliant as they totally dissociate your hands/feet from the play.

3)ITO the eating I have to say mine have been absolutely fine with solid food. Are you giving them wet though? Mine will hardly touch dry which is understandable when they have such little mouths and teeth. It sounds like you might have to go back to basics a bit with the feeding but I'm no expert on this so it might be best to try and find someone on here who has experience of weaning kittens. However I do think feeding cats is a lot like feeding human children. The more we fuss about their eating the more they will. These are animals with basic survival instincts we are talking about. Not to sound harsh but they're not going to let themselves starve to death. When they need to eat they will eat so try not to overthink it. One of my kittens eats really well now but he is a lot smaller than his sister so I know what it's like because I hate to see him not eat when I know he needs to grow. However I'm making a point of not paying too much attention to what he's eating and what he's leaving. I refuse to get sucked into fussy eating as I just feel Id be making a rod for my own back. I am weighing him occasionally to reassure myself that he's gaining weight though and he is very nicely.

I hope this helps and good luck settling in your little fur ball. Keep us updated