Sudden terrible twos in kitten(f), obessed with litter box, peeing and biting! Ahh!!

[kittylover618]

I have an 12 week old female. She is healthy, happy and extreamly playful. She uses her box, eats solids both wet and dry food.

Within the past couple of days she has become extremely rambunctious! Picture a child running around in a circle running into a wall, falling down then doing it all over again. She has started going nutso! Running all over, biting my face, nose and feet in my sleep.

She has been doing the same to her mommy! (I took in mommy and baby was born in my house). She's been healthy and her siblings already are off in their new homes. She also has been crazy with her litter box. I am beginning to thing we praised and spoiled her to much. We always greet her "Who's the baby?!" and when she was litter box training "Who's a good baby!! Good girl!". Now as soon as she greets us she runs to her box OR a corner and will urinate in the corner. When she is in the box she romps and spills over the litter like a mad woman! When mommy goes in "her" box she goes in right after. If I touch the box she will go in it. If I'm cleaning the box she will pee in the corner of the room near the box. I'm beginning to think she spoiled from praise and she is being very territorial over "HER" box. I have 5 cats total who don't go near her box and she absolutely adores them. Perhaps she is showing off I don't know.

She just started acting like a bratty two year old. I know she's a kitten and have had many. I wake up looking like a wild beast attacked me! The territorial peeing behavior is driving me nuts though!! I don't want to discipline her because I don't want to have a reverse effect.

When she is calm she is very clingy to me she loves people and loves to sleep with us. Once she wakes up, her kitten hyperactivity kicks in!

Any suggestions?

 

[rad65]

My suggestion: Buckle Up. I am also in that stage of dealing with kitten development and it is often, as you did, compared to the terrible two's. It usually lasts until at least after they're 6 months old, sometimes closer to 9 months, but she will have lots of energy until she is 2 years old and starts to mellow out.

 

[carolina]

Is she spayed already? Also, it might be a good thing to get her tested for an UTI. I would get her spayed ASAP, though... Good luck!

 

[kittylover618]

Originally Posted by Carolina

Is she spayed already? Also, it might be a good thing to get her tested for an UTI. I would get her spayed ASAP, though... Good luck!

No not yet. She is still too young for that most vets won't do it that young. Only rescue groups do and its frowned upon to do it so young because they get a larger pouch and scar tissue.

I was thinking that may have something to do with it. I've had lots of cats/kittens but never this issue. I've always waited till about 5/6 months to fix any of my animals for health safety issues.

thanks!!

 

[carolina]

Originally Posted by kittylover618

No not yet. She is still too young for that most vets won't do it that young. Only rescue groups do and its frowned upon to do it so young because they get a larger pouch and scar tissue.

I was thinking that may have something to do with it. I've had lots of cats/kittens but never this issue. I've always waited till about 5/6 months to fix any of my animals for health safety issues.

thanks!!

Hummm... That was the thought of years ago... Things have changed and there have been plenty studies that shows there is no safety differences in between of spaying 7-week cat or a 7-month cat. In addition, if you spay before the first heat, you greatly reduce the risks of mammary gland cancer, and pyometra. Early spays have been used for many years by shelters to ensure that the kittens adopted out will in fact be sterilized.
At 12 weeks, she is for sure ready to be spayed... There is no need to wait, and it will certainly calm her down a bit. The great majority of breeders adopt their cats at 12 weeks, and they leave the cattery spayed... Rest assured, she is ready

 

[missymotus]

Originally Posted by kittylover618

Only rescue groups do and its frowned upon to do it so young

It's very commonly done, and not just by rescue groups. It is not frowned upon at all. Winn Feline Foundation, a well respected organisation has a study you can read about http://www.winnfelinehealth.org/Health/spay-neuter.html

It's also healthier to get females done before their first heat cycle, which can happen at 4 months, quite irresponsible to wait until 6-7 months IMO.

If your vet won't do the surgery I'd find one who's more up to date.

 

[crazybird]

Anything over 2.5 pounds is off for speuter at this house. Lots of fosters; cats and kittens, and as long as they are of 2.5 pounds (and healthy, we won't speuter right away if they come in with URI or other illnesses) they are done right away.

In my personal experience and opinion, the "little guys" recover much faster than the adults. Kittens bounce back and are their old selves in no time. It seems harder and slower to come around for the adults and older kittens.

As for your rambunctious little kitty, I had a foster guy that sounded a LOT like your girl. He was sooooo extremely hyper, and abused everyone, human, canine, feline, it didn't matter. Friendly as all get out, but he was just extremely high energy. Aside from the peeing, that may just be her kitten energy mixed with a playful personality. The peeing though, may be a UTI, though she's kinda young for that and it sounds more behavioral.....

 

[kittylover618]

Thanks all. Yes I agree with the spaying. This is what my very told me. I prob going to go somewhere else. We have a spay/neuter program near where I live I will see what places they suggest.

I agree about the UTI since she's so young. It sounds behavioral to me also considering when she does it.

Thanks again !


Update* Today I am at wit's end! She deliberately urinated next to the other cat's water bowls. Never her own but the other cat's yes. I went to bring her back to her area and she did her usual flailing and throwing her arms (holding her by the scruff does NOT work). She bit me and I mean good!! finger was gushing blood. Is there anything I can do until her spay appointment? We had a huge blizzard here so I'm def not going anywhere soon. I love her oodles but with in the past week she turned into a TERROR!

 

[ldg]

Inappropriate urinating: praise the heck out of her any time she uses the box. If you see her peeing somewhere, else, just pick her up and put her in the box. If she finished going in the box, praise the heck out of her. She doesn't know she's doing something wrong by peeing outside the box, and negative reinforcement does not work with cats.

You MUST clean anywhere she's gone outside of the box with an ENZYME cleaner. Forget Nature's Miracle unless it's all you have. Find Urine Off or purchase Nok Out online. http://www.nokout.com The area must be thoroughly soaked, left to sit for 15 minutes or so, soak up excess moisture, and let AIR DRY. We cover the area with aluminum foil while it dries so we don't step on it and it also discourages kitty from using the same spot. The smell of urine outside the box encourages kitty to continue going outside the box.

As soon as you can, purchase Dr. Elsley's Cat Attract litter for kittens and put it in her box or all the boxes. If you live in the U.S., you can find a dealer by typing in your zip code at the Precious Cat site: http://www.preciouscat.com/ I don't know how many cats or boxes you have, but the rule of thumb is to have one more box than you have cats. If she's peeing someplace rather regularly, put a box there.

You may also want to consider purchasing a black light and going through your home to find all the spots where there is pee, in case you've missed any.

You may also want to purchase Feliway - either spray or plug-in. Plug-in is like an air freshener you can't smell, but the cats can. It is a synthetic hormone that mimics the "friendly" markers in your cats' cheeks. It is the wrong scent for "marking" (for urinating). Make sure not to plug them in near any boxes. If you get the spray, make sure not to spray near the boxes.

If she continues to have peeing outside the box problems, you may have to confine her to a very large crate or a single room while training her to use the litter pan. There is a thread "stickied" at the top of this forum about inappropriate urination that discusses this.

For the biting: Your kitten is about a month away from teething, but who knows - she may be maturing early. Either way, the best way to deal with it is as if she's teething. They become VERY bitey during this period. It is imperative that everyone in the home NOT allow kitty to use hands, arms, feet, legs, body parts as toys. Buy a box of bendy straws, and scatter them everywhere. Any time she's bitey, blow a short, sharp puff of air directly in her face, and say "no" firmly. Redirect her "play" to the straw. If she redirects, praise the heck out of her. If she doesn't, try again, same method. If she won't redirect, walk away and completely ignore her.

But at her age - she needs lots of attention, lots of play, and lots of praise for everything right, and getting told "no" with the puff of air and a firm "no" - and redirect to appropriate stuff and if she doesn't redirect, she gets ignored.

There are a lot of articles in the Cat Care and Cat Behavior links up at the top of the web page you may find helpful too.

 

[ldg]

...and at 7 years old, every once in a while, Flowerbelle still "freaks out" in the litter box - runs in there, jumps around, rolls around, does 180s and tosses litter everywhere.

We have litter mats outside of the boxes and hand vacs handy.

 

[carolina]

One more thing to add to LDG's wonderful post (as always

)
Take VERY good care of that bite. I have colloidal silver at home just for that and scratches, and immediately wrap a soaked wet cotton ball on the bite site for the next 12-24 hours or so. One of my best friends has been on the Hospital for the last 6 days because her kitty bit her Sunday before last; she was admitted last Tuesday and is yet to be released. She is taking IV antibiotics 6x a day - the doctor told her 80-90% of cat bites end up infected, and the infections are nasty. Do NOT take it lightly.

 

[kittylover618]

I've never experienced this before. My carpet is RUINED and I have no idea how I'm going to get this by my landlord. I am terrified he is going to freak and kick us out. I would never give a cat away because of the issue.

It's not that she doesn't use her box at all she def uses it. Like I said she is overprotective almost. She likes to pee against the walls also not just any where. She for some reason pees near the food.water. I tried the "put the food near the spot" theory. I think all that did was confuse her and now she just keeps going there anyway. I was going to purchase the Feiliway but $50 seems steep. I'm going to look at amazon and eBay. Has anyone personally used it?


Thanks for the concern with the bite! I have been bit by cats before and recently so I have an up to date Tetanus shot and left over medication. All clear! The biting has gotten better. I started giving her straws like someone suggested. She loves chewing on them and lets it out on them.


Thanks!

 

[kittylover618]

I took her to the vet AGAIN bc she went from urinating along the side of the walls to flat out in the center of the room. My vet was a lil nervous to see us again so soon.

Her bladder was very swollen. Our vet said that it is very odd since she is so tiny to have a UTI but it obviously can happen. He came to the conclusion that from the excessive playing and territorial behavior over the litter box that it was most likely her playing in the box so much gave her a small infection. No high fever.

Let's see how this helps! Hopefully its just this simple!