How do I discipline a kitten whose so adorable?

[skimble]

I have three orphaned kittens that I bottled raised. Teaching them without another cat to learn from was new to me. My daughter is a human behaviorist and she taught me how this compares to animal behavior. She also has cats. The key is in what others have posted already. Redirect the behavior from an unwanted behavior to a more acceptable one.

This was written by a TCS veteran http://www.thecatsite.com/Behavior/4...-Dont-Mix.html

This article about training won a Cat Writers' Association award.
http://www.shojai.com/articles/trick...ing-tabby.html

May find in the article some way to divert the attention elsewhere. The more you redirect the attention the hope is the bird will become boring.

Something verticle of his own to climb (in another area away from bird) may help as he is able to get on the refridgerator. There are inexpensive online cat towers that offer free shipping.

Seems like he may be going through the "teen" stage. This will get better as he ages. Lots of patience helps.

 

[arlyn]

Hehe quakers are awesome little parrots, I miss my quaker girl.
But she was my trouble maker in the cat/bird relationship.
That little stinker used to call the cats to her "here kitty kitty" and then bite them!
So my older kitty goes out of her way to avoid all birds.

Just keep taking your little devil off the cage and redirecting him, he'll get it eventually, or, if your Tiki is anything like my Abby was, he'll bite Sunny and Sunny will not want anything more to do with him.

Best of luck to you, cats and birds can be so stubborn

 

[fastnoc]

Originally Posted by Arlyn

I know lots of people do it, but cages should never be hung, they move when hung and it upsets most birds and it is visually confusing to them.

How is this possible? Tree branches move more than a cage does and that's where birds would be sitting if they weren't in a cage. I don't understand.

 

[arlyn]

Because cages have bars and tend to spin as well.
When a caged bird has been hatched and raised in a world of cage bars, they think of the "nest" as a static area, one of no changes.
When a cage spins (I'm not talking about centrifuge, but minute changes in direction), birds only know that their safe "nest" has changed, and it can really cause issues for them.
You have to remember that most all cage birds, huge thank you to C.I.T.E.S., are domestically bred and raised and have never known anything other than cage bars and/or free flight in a home.
The same goes for round cages, they look pretty to us, but to a bird, a prey animal, they are very visually confusing and do not feel safe.

The other issue is that a hanging cage is still not out of a determined cat's reach and the added weight can cause a cage to fall, which, as anyone with birds can tell you, means that most likely, the bottom tray and grate will slip out, meaning easy snack for kitty.
Bird cages are safest on sturdy, weight bearing stands.

 

[fastnoc]

That's interesting. I never would have thought of all that.

 

[coaster]

Originally Posted by chadsgirl374

My original question is (and still remains to be answered) how do I discipline him? I need to nip the behavior in the bud before it gets out of control.

Time-outs have worked pretty good for me. Perhaps where your time-outs have failed is that they're either not long enough or don't occur immediately after the behavior so the cat doesn't know why he's being separated from his people, or perhaps haven't been consistent. For example, with biting and scratching, if you just dump the cat on the floor, and walk away, and do it immediately, and do it consistently, the cat learns that when he bites and scratches he gets deprived of your company. He wants your company and so he learns not to do what loses him something he wants. This is NOT discipline, this is TRAINING.