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Frightened new kitten
- Thread starter elfin
- Start Date
I agree with @Lamiatron too. Chatting, and making response sounds and words when your cat is meowing to you is positive and can help with bonding. Another lovely thing you can do, especially including your kids, is read aloud in a room your kitten is in, or you want to encourage them to come in to. Read calmly. Most cats love this and come to listen and to see what you are doing, may even start to climb on to you and investigate the book. There's actually a rescue place that encourages local kids to come in and read to their cats to socialise the cats and encourage the kids reading at the same time (Brent rescue i think it is)!
Here are a couple of links to articles on this site which talk about some of the signs you can read of when a cat is getting anxious or agitated and might become aggressive, and common situations and triggers for cats being aggressive with people. They might help you and your kids get to know what signals your kitten uses. Then you and your older child could take the quiz which is the last link here, it's good fun and covers some basic cat communication a the same time.
http://www.thecatsite.com/a/playtime-aggression
http://www.thecatsite.com/a/cat-aggression-toward-people
http://www.thecatsite.com/a/how-well-do-you-speak-cat
Another tip to see how your kitty responds to touching is to use something like a wand toy when he is reasonably happy and relaxed; you can check out which parts of his body he likes to be touched on and which are more sensitive and he is more likely to get defensive if you go near them but at an arms length.
Here are a couple of links to articles on this site which talk about some of the signs you can read of when a cat is getting anxious or agitated and might become aggressive, and common situations and triggers for cats being aggressive with people. They might help you and your kids get to know what signals your kitten uses. Then you and your older child could take the quiz which is the last link here, it's good fun and covers some basic cat communication a the same time.
http://www.thecatsite.com/a/playtime-aggression
http://www.thecatsite.com/a/cat-aggression-toward-people
http://www.thecatsite.com/a/how-well-do-you-speak-cat
Another tip to see how your kitty responds to touching is to use something like a wand toy when he is reasonably happy and relaxed; you can check out which parts of his body he likes to be touched on and which are more sensitive and he is more likely to get defensive if you go near them but at an arms length.
