First time cat owner who adopted two lovely cats a couple months. The girl Sophie is 11 months old (spayed) and the boy Ollie is just over 5 months old and will be neutered soon. They are both great members of the family and we absolutely love them. Never having had cats before I realize there are a few training/behaviour things I need some help with. I've been doing some reading and researching on food when I found this site so I'm hoping you can help out a newbie.
The cats get on the counter and dining room table which isn't unexpected. We have a cat tree and other climbing options but they really enjoy the dining room table to lounge. We didn't mind initially and when we got them we were mainly eating on the patio but now we'e starting to eat at the dining room table and of course the cats are up there. And of course being inquisitive creatures they are sniffing around our dinner etc. So clearly I made a misjudgement about letting them up on the table. Is there any way to train them to stay off while we are eating or to leave on command like a dog does or do we have to ban them from the table altogether? Um, any tips on how to do that?
We have a number of vertical and horizontal scratching surfaces for our cats including sisal and cardboard. Ollie is really good about using the scratchers. Sophie is using the vertical sisal scratching posts but not the horizontal. Both of them, and Sophie especially, also enjoy using chairs as a scratching post. We put up tape but they have learned how to peel it off (smart cats!). I read spraying with a water bottle is not a good idea but I'm not sure what to do to dissuade them from using the dining room and living room chairs as additional scratching posts. By the way, we made sure the posts are in the same area as the furniture so they don't have to leave to scratch.
And finally, not really a problem at this stage but odd and I'm not sure if I should dissuade it - Ollie the kitten like to suck on our ear lobes, especially mine. I don't absolutely mind but it seems odd - is this normal kitten behaviour? Will he grow out of it? Could it lead to other problems later?
Thanks for any advice you can provide!
The cats get on the counter and dining room table which isn't unexpected. We have a cat tree and other climbing options but they really enjoy the dining room table to lounge. We didn't mind initially and when we got them we were mainly eating on the patio but now we'e starting to eat at the dining room table and of course the cats are up there. And of course being inquisitive creatures they are sniffing around our dinner etc. So clearly I made a misjudgement about letting them up on the table. Is there any way to train them to stay off while we are eating or to leave on command like a dog does or do we have to ban them from the table altogether? Um, any tips on how to do that?
We have a number of vertical and horizontal scratching surfaces for our cats including sisal and cardboard. Ollie is really good about using the scratchers. Sophie is using the vertical sisal scratching posts but not the horizontal. Both of them, and Sophie especially, also enjoy using chairs as a scratching post. We put up tape but they have learned how to peel it off (smart cats!). I read spraying with a water bottle is not a good idea but I'm not sure what to do to dissuade them from using the dining room and living room chairs as additional scratching posts. By the way, we made sure the posts are in the same area as the furniture so they don't have to leave to scratch.
And finally, not really a problem at this stage but odd and I'm not sure if I should dissuade it - Ollie the kitten like to suck on our ear lobes, especially mine. I don't absolutely mind but it seems odd - is this normal kitten behaviour? Will he grow out of it? Could it lead to other problems later?
Thanks for any advice you can provide!
