My kitten crawling up my legs

[flinch4me]

Okay Ever since we got two kittens (partly wild but still human friendly) we took them in from a home where they didn't really get fed and fed them more often and they are not as wild as they used to be. Right now we keep them house bound because I fear they might get hurt.  One of them still hides when scared and is a little strange but she has grown out of that. She is friendly and loves to rub herself against your legs. The other is a fiesty fire ball of fur lol and that is being literal. She is like a fiesty red-head and its cute how silly she can be.

So for the most part they are kittens and seem fairly normal. 

Although the fiesty little red-head of a kitten has a tendency to climb up our legs and body (while we are standing) if she gets too excited. We haven't had her de-clawed because well I don't agree with it so she has her nails which allow her to climb. But she is getting a little out of hand and I am kind of curious why she would do something like that.

But I was curious if this might be a behavior of a kitten who grew up in a more wild climate. Or maybe having lived with a family of cats if maybe she learned it from another cat. 

 

[zella]

My mothers ex boyfriend brought a kitten for my six year old brother a few months ago.

The moment I saw little Knuckles i sad to my mother 'he's been taken away from his mother so early!' He was just the Smallest little thing. However he came from a nice home who were simply looking to get rid of their kittens. He took quite a shining to my mother and now follows her all around the house, constantly trying to climb up hers (and eventually mine) legs.

He was no wild, he had always been handled and around people so It may not be something that only semi wild cats do.

I thought maybe it had something to do with him being taken from his mum so early

However the only similarity between Knuckles and your kitten is that they are redheads, hey maybe that has something to do with it

 

[p3 and the king]

This is absolutely normal. They grow out of it eventually.  Every kitten I've ever had has done this.  In fact, I would consider it odd if they did not.  Enjoy!!

 

[zella]

This is absolutely normal. They grow out of it eventually.  Every kitten I've ever had has done this.  In fact, I would consider it odd if they did not.  Enjoy!!

thats funny you say that cus every kitten I've had hasnt. If im sitting at my desk they might occasionally climb their way up onto my lap but thats all. Its only ever my mums cat I've seen done that. The world is funny isnt it.

 

[jcat]

It's perfectly normal kitten behavior and probably more a question of personality than background. We brought Jamie home in the summer and ending up wearing long-sleeved sweatshirts and heavy jeans through all the heat because he was constantly using us as trees. He'd often wait until one of us had our hands full to charge up our legs and backs. Those needle-sharp claws really hurt!

 

[ichini]

If you don't want him scratching up your legs, and you can't really stop him from doing that, rather deviate it and find things for him to climb up. One of those cat tree's. Or my Ichi's personal favorite, our computer chair (it's a cheap old chair so I'm not bothered by it, plus he only climbs, not scratches) 

Kitties just like to show off their strength and test out their new agile abilities. 

 

[flinch4me]

Actually The idea that she was taken too early from her mother might be something... She was younger then the other one we got and she used to suck on my thumb when she slept... which makes me think she might've been taken away too early. So it might be something like suggested earlier. As for kittens doing it all the time... I've never had a kitten do this before... EVER... so no it's not really normal... lol Also she has taken to running up to me when I come over to see them and meowing loudly in greeting but she always sounds like she is whining to me or something and sniffing my shoes like she did when I first got her. She is so very friendly and we love her to death cause she is so small but has grown up a lot since we got her. 

Also it's not all the time it's just when she gets too excited or is playing... she doesn't do it when we're not looking or something like that...And usually we push her down so she understands that it's not right for her to be climbing us like trees. 

 

[p3 and the king]

I always thought of it as saying they wanted to be held.  That seemed to be when kittens did that to me.  King Arthur and his siblings did this to me only when they wanted held.  They were with their mother.  So it couldn't be that they were taken away too early.  It could also be practice for climbing trees.  But, as soon as I would lift them up to my chest, they'd start purring happily and relax and snuggle into me.  Try just lifting them to your chest and cuddling them.  That's what I did and it always seemed to work.

 

[Willowy]

A lot of kittens do that---when they're little, there's really no other way for them to get up high! :lol3: When they get too big to climb so easily they usually stop doing it. I think you're handling it correctly by pushing her down, but you need to be consistent and not allow her to do it sometimes but not other times. Red females are always a bundle of fun!

 

[flinch4me]

Yeah so far we just push her down all the time... she only does it once and awhile but even then we don't allow her to get away with it... but she also tries to bury her food when her food is in the bowl and it's a fruitless effort... lol 

 

[p3 and the king]

Yeah so far we just push her down all the time... she only does it once and awhile but even then we don't allow her to get away with it... but she also tries to bury her food when her food is in the bowl and it's a fruitless effort... lol 

That is just instinct, the burying the food in the bowl.  My cats do this, too.  It is what they would do in nature to preserve their food and keep others from getting it.  Not all mine do this, 3/4 do!!

 

[flinch4me]

It's still strange..I've never had a cat that acted like she does but I had a feeling she was doing it because in the wild they bury their food... but there is two other cats who eat it so maybe she wishes she had her own bowl to herself where the other cats wouldn't get to it or eat it.

 

[p3 and the king]

Burying their food is nothing..... My Paige, and on occassion King Arthur, like to "drown" their toys!!  Only their toy mice or any furry or feathered toy that reminds them of an animal... They "drown" it in the water fountains!!  It was the strangest thing I've ever seen when I first noticed it!! 

 

[flinch4me]

Oh I also have an update, Pangur Bahn (the orange red-head kitten who does all of this stuff)....She wakes me up by rubbing her face against my face whenever I sleep over at my bf's house... I am not sure why she does it but I think it's a form of saying that I am her mommy and that she loves me...but while sleeping it's disruptive... I love her and she's my baby but she determined to wake me up or something... I am also slightly allergic and so her rubbing against my face is a little bit of an issue. I am not sure what to do about it. 

 

[flinch4me]

Omg now the other kitten (nutterbutter) who has shown no sign of being a weirdo has a thing for feet lol she is now trying to suck on and bite on feet... any explinations? 

 

[thembcat]

My parents' youngest cat, Ghibli, always climbed up my leg  when he was really young.  This is him climbing my leg,

Ghibli really only did this when he was around this age and when we were outside and I called his name, so it never really grew to be a problem with his claws.  We were lucky that it wasn't anything he carried with him as he grew older because I'm sure it would be painful now lol.

If its a regular occurance that your kitten does without being prompted to, I would go a head and start discouraging it now while the kitten's young.  Like others have mentioned, just having high objects, like cat trees available for the kitten to use to get up to that height will most likely help.

About your kitten waking you up by rubbing against your face,  Its a cat thing.  Lol especially if you don't have food out all the time for the kitten or cat.   Sometimes its just in the mornings, other times, your cat gets lonely at night and wants some attention.  Really the only thing to do is just to keep your door shut so your kitten can't come in and rub against your face. I know its awful, I have a slight allergy to cats as well so I know miserable you get to feel in such a short time when you have a cat literally in your face.  My cat Chacho woke me up just the other night by standing on my windpipe then proceeded to stand over my face with his belly on my face.  Needless to say my nose started to run and I started to get itchy and miserable feeling lol.   I hate shutting him out of the bedroom but when he does things like this or is in a troublemaking mood and getting into everything, I don't have much choice if I want to get any sleep.

 

[rafm]

The kitten climbing the leg is normal for some kitties. This particular kitty may always like to be higher than the other cats. Do you have car trees around?  The climbing behavior will stop when he is big enough to jump up to the places he wants to go. You may not have seen it before, but trust us, this is not abnormal behavior. 

As to getting you up.....you have to ignore it to get it to stop, or use an aversion tactic to make them stop. For instance, if the kitty starts rubbing your face, blow in his face really hard, cats hate this. Typically the cat will leave and not come back for a bit. Don't say his name, don't reach up to pet him, just blow as hard as you can. We have a 14 year old orange cat that is absolutely AWFUL about waking me up when he wants something. I used to not mind but now that I am on call 24/7 and get late night early morning calls ALOT , getting my sleep disturbed is not an option. So, I have to blow on him. It took about 2 weeks but he finally figured it out (he's a very stubborn cat). He will come in and lay on me but he won't get in my face crying and carrying on. 

I know kittens are cute but all of your issues are why I only adopt adult kitties. 

 

[calico2222]

Oh honey, welcome to the wonderful world of kittens! 

  Everything you have mentioned I have seen other kittens do and it's normal behavior.

The climbing thing, some kittens do, some don't. My Harley (the kitty in my avatar, a red tabby too...maybe it's the color? lol) was a climber. I thought it was cute at first...he would climb up my jeans and the back of my t-shirt and perch on my should while I was making dinner. Yeah, real cute when he was 7-8 weeks old (he was abandoned and we bottle fed him and his sister). It WASN'T so cute when he was 12 months old and 6lbs and still trying that. To this day he still thinks me in my jeans are his personal scratching posts (and he's almost 8 yrs old now, and MUCH heavier!). Good thing you are nipping it in the bud now. Some cats just like to climb more than others, and kittens especially will climb anything available just to show they can!

Burying the food is normal too for some cats. Harley (again, Harley...can you tell he's my problem child?) will try to "bury" his food if he's done for now but wants to "save" it. I keep telling him that he can't bury it in the kitchen floor but he still tries....

The toe and feet thing. They're kittens. They will attack anything that moves (or they think WILL move). They're practicing their hunting skills. Not to say it's not annoying when you are laying in bed at 4:00, sound asleep, and feel daggers suddenly embeded in your big toe. Of course, you jerk, and that just makes them hunt more 

 . When I got my first kitten I didn't have a clue. Jasper snuggled up on my shoulder and went to sleep purring his little head off. I would then move him to the top of my dresser in his little bed. I was able to get a few hours of sleep before my feet were attacked. I finally learned to keep tons toys in the room to occupy him. I would keep a few in the nightstand for when he wasn't interested in the 20 or so laying around the floor. The jingle of cat toys I could sleep through my better than the teeth and claws in my feet!

Oh, and the face rubs at the crack of dawn has nothing to do with being a kitten and everything to do with a cat that thinks "I'm up, why aren't you feeding me, petting me, playing with me, etc". Some never grow out of that!

Basically, your kitty is not weird, she's just your kitty.

 

[parsleysage]

Ooooooooooooooh - I know your pain, literally!  Simon & Garfunkel used me as a climbing tree so much when they were baby kittens.  They would run out of nowhere and just sink their nails in and climb like I was a tree, all the way up to my shoulders sometimes.  I had so many scratches on my legs and back... ouch!  They did eventually grow out of it, but despite having scratching pads/posts and shelves to climb, they did it for a good long while.  Good luck!!!

 

[aeevr]

There are literally thousands of videos on youtube of kittens climbing human legs.