Some behavior & education questions

[reiten]

Me and my family adopted a feral kitten 2 months ago. The kitten(Kika) should be roughly 6 months old now. I already made a post about her in the feral part of the forum, but since my questions this time around probably don't have much to do with Kika being a feral I thought that I should make a new post here.

Now the questions:

1) In the beginning Kika used to lick my hands, but now that has lessened and instead she rubs her head against my hands. Is it a show of affection or something else?

2) Next a bit about her evening behavior. I usually play with her(20 to 30 minutes) around 20:00 and then give her the evening meal. After the meal she starts to run around the apartment and make a racket for the next 2 or so hours. The situation is similar in the morning except that nobody plays with her in the morning. It's probably imposible to completely stop it, but is there a way to teach her to play peacefully and not run around as if somebody is chasing her?

3) The next thing is about something that happens after she calms down in the evening. When someone is walking around she mews at that person a few times. Any idea what that means?

4) Next about the door to my room. In the last week or so Kika has started to scratch at the door when I close it for the night or when I go out during the night. Luckily she loses interest fast but it is still troublesome since there is a hole in the door(accident during renovation) which is covered with posters. Is there a way to stop the scratching or should I look for something more sturdy to cover the hole?

5) A more general question, but any good suggestions how to teach a cat not to do something? There are no serious and frequent problems, but some scratching furniture and plant gnawing that I would like to fix before it becomes a habit..  

 

[Willowy]

I'm guessing she's not feral, as she seems friendly . Has she been spayed yet? This is important as she'll be going into heat very soon if not. That can cause all kind of problems that I'm sure you don't want (inappropriate peeing, howling, escape attempts, etc.).

As for the questions: 1, 2, and 3 are perfectly normal cat behaviors. #1 is how she would bond with/groom a kitty friend. Since she doesn't have a kitty friend, you'll do ;

#2 is how cats play. She should get more sedate with age but this is still the main way housecats get their exercise. Does she have a lot of toys to bat around? If you play with her more, until she's tired out, this might reduce the free play. But she'll still have to run around a little.

#3, she's just talking to you . Also normal.

#4 if there's a hole, I expect she'll try to get through it eventually. If you don't want that, cover it with something sturdier, a piece of thin plywood or plastic (I cut holes in Sterilite totes to make litter boxes, and I use the cutout pieces for everything!). Keep her nails trimmed to minimize damage, and don't reinforce the behavior by letting her in when she scratches.

#5 redirection is best. Trying to teach a cat what NOT to do is generally a lost battle. Instead, you want to teach what you DO want her to do! If you see her scratching something she shouldn't, redirect her to her scratching post and praise, praise, praise! Chewing plants is a bit more difficult, as most cats find plants quite irresistible. I prefer to hang mine from the ceiling to avoid trouble. But If you get some cat grass or catnip, a plant she can have, I'm sure you can use the same redirection technique to get her to leave your plants alone. But just know that the plant probably won't be 100% safe. Make sure it's not a toxic plant. . .you can find lists of things that are toxic to cats online.