How to stop the cat from scratching you and stop her from jumping where she is not supposed to

[pinkeed]

Ok, so long story I have an 8 month old kitten.

I was going to get her declawed on Saturday, but (before anyone says anything) decided against it.

So I am wondering about methods to stop her from scratching me too much. She was on antibiotics recently and that was horrible (I have tons of scratches from that). I'm wondering about methods to stop that from happening.

She also uses me as a jumping board sometimes and bats at my husband's ears with her claws while he sleeps at night. Sometimes she uses her claws for kneading him too.

I have tried the spray bottle to get her to stop the clawing and to keep her off the lizard tank, but she just goes back and tries it again a little later. I have also tried yelling ouch and similar with the same results. We also recently bought her a cat jungle gym for her to jump on and while it has decreased the jumping onto the lizard tank she still does it. The problem with this being that she is breaking the top of the tank and I am worried that one day she will be able to get to the lizard. She also jumps on top of the kitchen table...

I have heard of soft paws, but don't understand how they work. I have also heard to trim her nails every 15 days. She has a scratching post (which she uses a lot) and plenty of toys to play with. She has never scratched the furniture (I know, somehow I got lucky).

She doesn't like when people pick her up most of the time and will try to scratch you.

Are there other methods to stop her from doing this?

Also wondering if it is a problem that she is not declawed and is living with an older cat that is front declawed (it happened when I was younger and still living with my parents who took the cat in to be declawed as well as spayed, at the time I didn't understand what was involved in the procedure).

 

[ondine]

First of all, thank you for not declawing her!  She sounds like a rambunctious kitty, so teaching her not to use the claws may take some time.

First of all, you can hiss at her when she inappropriately scratches - this is the way her mother would tell her "no." 

The Soft Paws are glued onto her claws.  Because her claws are covered, they won't scratch.

She may be the type of kitty who just doesn't like being picked up.  We have several of those - we take them on their own terms.

We also have declawed kitties (done before we knew better and I still kick myself every day when I realize what we did).  We have one cat with claws who is pretty tough - she loves to play with the others, who basically ignore her.  There have never been any problems with them.

I do have a friend who trims her cat's claws.  Other than defending herself, a cat will usually claw to mark territory or to help remove the sheath on her nails.  The cat tree will help with that.  Thank goodness she isn't using the furniture!

Welcome to TSC!

 

[laralove]

I'm having the same problem with my kitten. He likes to scratch my furniture and our arms when he's being playful. He's also clawed my beautiful comforter on my bed, which is now not so beautiful because of it. He has a cat tree with scratching post and a scratch lounger thing. He doesn't use either! He uses my couch, which I can't seem to stop. Although, he's recently taken to scratching the wood beam in our kitchen, so maybe that will catch on.

ANYWAY, I bought clippers and clipped his nails this week. It didn't totally fix it. I may have left some too long, but I wanted to be careful not to get his quicks. So he still gets the couch and my comforter, but when he's being playful it doesn't hurt my hand. Now only if I could do something about those fangs...

 

[happybird]

As for jumping on the lizard tank and the table, you could try putting double sided tape on both. Most cats hate getting their feet sticky/ stuck on the tape and will quit jumping up after a few run-ins with it.

 

[pinkeed]

I tried, but sadly she still did it and tried eating the tape too (so it ended up all over the house). Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

[tammyp]

Yes to soft paws, and yes also to trimming claws.  Note it will NOT stop them from scratching, and you don't want it to, as scratching is a majorly important activity for a cat.  Trimming nails simply means that unintended scratches - like when they jump on you and off - won't really scratch.  Likewise unintended pinpricks in furniture/clothes won't occur (like when they run around like a hurricane), and any freaked out scratching if they are startled and struggle against you won't do so much damage (depending on how much they are scared and how much power they put into trying to escape - just make their life unscary and that problem is solved).  We have two active maniacs, and trimming nails is done regularly with great success.  You will need to train them into it, and it will then be fuss free:  http://catstuff4aussies.weebly.com/5/category/nail trimming/1.html

The rest is simply correct training - much of it 'human' training lol.  First rule: MODIFY the ENVIRONMENT.  Sounds like your lizard tank needs to be repositioned, and a good solid top put on it.  Maybe some wood?  Then there will be no problem if she jumps on top of it.  And of course she wants to see the lizard - you just made excellent live 'cat tv' for her.  And this is great to enrich her environment, the only thing you want to do of course is keep everything secure. So, you could try repositioning also - either with her own viewing platform next to the tank, or just reposition completely away from the cat if you want to keep animals separate (this means a separate no cat zone room with the door always closed).  I like the first option of including the cat and making the lizard a special entertainment (safe of course).

So the next important point is ALTERNATIVES.  Cats do things because they need to.  Want equals need for a cat.  So if the human doesnt want a cat to scratch furniture for example, then alternatives for the cat need to be given.  It has to be an alternative just as good.  So figure out what aspect it is of the thing they want to scratch. Could be that it is vertical, horizontal, inclined.  Could be the material.  Could be that they just want to 'own' that thing.  So make the alternative to be what they want - in the case of wanting to 'own' something, put the alternative ON that spot or NEXT TO that thing.  The next job is praising them every single time they use it.  If they use the other thing they shouldn't, don't punish (no water bottles), just gently reposition them on the thing they should scratch, mime scratching with your hands and make lots of happy noises about this thing.  And just do this over and over and over again until they get it  - promise it will work.  If you have smart cats, it will probably start working after just two repositionings.  

In the case of the kitchen table, get her a place mat, and put it on the kitchen table.  This is where she is allowed to sit, nowhere else on the table.  You have just compromised.  Use the repositioning/praise/happy noises technique.  Alternatively, get her a bar stool that is high enough to see the table - she probably wants to see - and teach her that that is her thing, the table is your thing.

Re Scratching when picked up.  Don't pick her up.  Some cats don't like it, so we work with other affection things that they do like - pet her where she is, without removing her feet/body from the ground/thing she is on.  Use Cat Kisses (slowly blink at her - it is 'I Love You' in cat speak).  Talk to her.  

Re Jumping on you.  We have this with our cats and have actually moved our thinking from 'don't want cats on our shoulders' to 'do want cats on our shoulders...but only with a pullover on'.  With our first preference, we started training them that jumping up on us to get high, would NOT get them high - so when they jumped, we immediately sank to the floor.  It was working fine, then winter happened, and we wore more clothes, and decided we quite liked human-riding cats.  So now we say 'yes'.  Literally.  Our cats will look up at us intently with a crouched posture, maybe meow, and we say 'yes, you can come up', and make our bodies accommodating - either hands ready to catch them as they jump up to our chest, or bent over so they can jump on our backs.  If for some reason we DON'T want the cat up (like no pullover) then we wave our hands in front of us and say 'no, you can't come up' and back away.  We may then pick them up so they still get the 'up' they wanted - normally it is to see something.  It is very successful, and with trimmed nails, there are very very few 'oopsy, misbalanced' scratches.

Re danger to  your other cat/play scratches to the humans.  Firstly, when cats play with each other, they really don't extend the claws.  Mine are maniacs and love wrestling, but I have noted that scratching does not occur.  Scratching is a fight/defense mechanism, so work on proper introductions and keeping a happy cat home and this then won't be a problem.  I am the boss of the house, so I make sure things don't get out of hand - if there is noise, then I intervene as this is getting too intense.  With a kitten however, a certain amount of learning that humans do not have fur is needed.  They will try to play with you like with a litter-mate.  But we don't have fur.  It will take a bit of time, but make sad and injured sounds and pull away from your kitten if they ever get a bit too carried away.  You could also try a cry or a hiss.  A litter-mate teaches what is too much in the same manner - a cry, perhaps a hiss, and withdrawal from the game or shunning.  A bit more difficult at night during sleep, but same technique should be applied - cry and rollover.  If it happens again, cry and gently pick the kitten up and put her out of the room with the door shut.  We have done the out-and-door-shut technique on the third time ('three strikes and you're out') and it only took two nights.  As for claws out when kneeding - a few squeaks from the human should do it, if not, a few squeaks and put a towel or pullover between you.

And if you read all that, well done!  Hope it helps!

 

[tammyp]

Ah, one more thing...make sure you are wearing your kitten out with interactive play sessions.  Around 2x20mins per day (although some cats need more).  A wand toy like 'Da-bird' is excellent for this.  And just remember, if you have played them into exhaustion, they will have less energy to create mischief!  

 

[pinkeed]

tammyp I don't mind her watching the lizard. I would use wood if I could, but this is way too heavy for on top of the tank, just like the cat (and it gets too warm). I guess I could move it, but I don't know where else to put a 20 gallon lizard tank. She doesn't bother the other lizard because the tank is too high and is on top of the other chest of drawers where there is no room for her to climb up there. Same with the fish tanks...no room for her to climb. We did stack blankets there for a while but she started knocking them down. She can watch him, by sitting on the dresser or the bed, which she often does. It just that she always ends up going back on top of the tank. The lizard already has a basking light and uv light on top of the tank, so the kitten being up there too has started to break it down. I can't remove the lights because he needs them. She goes on top of the cricket tank when I take it out and it's fine. Maybe I can come up with something else to put on the dresser that she can't knock over. Or give her something else to do besides jumping on the tank (like you mentioned).

I noticed she also jumps on the tank when I am in the bathroom because it's the closest spot to it for her to wait for me.

Good idea with the table, I usually just let her have the chair. The table is glass, so see through (but if she needs something level with that, I'm sure I can find something).

And lol to the now we say 'yes'. I didn't think about sinking to the floor.

I will try the hissing tonight and maybe putting the comforter between us (hope that's enough of a barrier).

No worries about the play session, she definitely gets way more than 40 minutes every day. She even plays when she's panting really hard. I don't think she's ever done, more tired though yes. Overweight cat lasts about 15 minutes a day and then stares. Kitten continues all day long.

 

[lokimonster]

I have an aquatic turtle and I have the same issues you do with the cat jumping on the tank. This summer he jumped on the tank, and somehow when he jumped off he knocked the lid off, which has two lamps resting ontop of it. One of the lamps fell into the tank and the bulb shattered, but luckily the filament and the lamp didn't actually touch the water or else I would of had turtle soup!

To prevent him from jumping on the tank, I've tried wrapping chicken wire around the top and above the lamps so he can't jump on it. It doesn't really look nice, but it keeps him off of the tank for now (he's starting to realize he can just step on the chicken wire because it sags under his weight). I'm not very handy though, so I'm sure it'd be easy to get some heavier duty wire and make it look nice on your lizard tank.

 

[pinkeed]

I wanted to update this thread on the kitty's scratching problems. She was spayed on Saturday and since then has stopped using me as a jumping board (mostly) and stopped climbing up on my desk for now (which I don't think I mentioned earlier).

The picking up problem has kind of resolved itself oddly, not unlike tammyp's   cats if she is the one jumping on me she is fine with being carried, just not the other way around (odd I know). In fact, she likes to sit on me or next to me pretty much 24/7 if she's not playing.

She has not stopped with the lizard tank however. I can't seem to find another place to put it and I have been using various objects to block her from getting up there. Her latest thing is to use the shelf to climb onto the dresser or the night stand. I'm guessing she is doing this because of the spay, instead of the big jumps she was doing before.

She has gotten really bad about that cone that they make them wear on the head because of the stitches. So far she has thrown up on it and got diarrhea on it. So we took it off this morning and I am watching to make sure that she leaves the stitches alone for now.

I put the scratching post where she usually likes to climb up onto the tank and a pillow pet for now, that seems to deter her some but doesn't solve the problem completely.

If there was something that caused her to slide she would probably stop, but I can't think of anything like that at the moment.

Lokimonster Chicken wire seems like it might work, but I am constantly moving the lid of the tank to clean and feed the lizard so I don't know if I should be it on there or not.

As for my husband, we tried the hissing but she just goes back to playing with his ears (she only does it when he lies down though). I guess she thinks it's a game, she stretches and stretches until she reaches his ears. She will eventually stop and go to sleep though. He tried going under the covers too, she then proceeds to sleep on top of him or under the covers, which really doesn't bother him as much. I think she also might be doing the ear thing to check if he's awake.

 

[tammyp]

That's all great news!  Sounds like both the humans and the cat are adapting nicely 

 

[pinkeed]

Well, the lizard tank problem has not stopped. I'm not sure anything will keep her off of it. The only solutions I could come up with were to close her out of the room when I leave and make sure all the lizard lights are off when I'm not in the room. When I am in the room I watch her to make sure she doesn't go on top of the tank. If she does, I taught her that a finger up and down means get off. When I move later this year (and hopefully have more space), I'm going to put the tank somewhere where there is no room to climb, like my other 3 tanks.

We ended up sticking the cat outside the bedroom at night so that my husband could sleep. She eventually learned to stop meowing at the door in the middle of the night.

As for the table, we are going to try putting her on high stool to see if that will get her to stop.

 

[tammyp]

Another lot of good news!  Sometimes we can't get and 'ideal' solution, but we can get a liveable one.