Hi everyone! Thank you to all who have posted on my other thread about Jupiter (http://www.thecatsite.com/t/248210/cat-doesnt-seem-to-know-his-limits-and-tires-himself-out). He's actually getting a lot better with his breathing, and we're learning to really monitor him when he plays. We're giving him multiple short bursts of playtime, and if we see him starting to breathe heavy and pant, we give him a break. It seems like he's a bit overweight, and just needing to work on exercising to build up strength.
I'm going to post little updates about various things about him as I go along here. We've had him since August 20th, and he seems to be starting to settle in, and we're starting to get used to him and learn about all his little quirks.
I'm working on changing (as much as possible!) three of his behaviours right now: meowing all the time, jumping on the kitchen counter, and getting too aggressive with my hands/arms/legs while he is in a playful mood.
Meowing:
He cries quite frequently while we are around, and he just seems to be seeing attention, or food! He stops immediately as soon as we pet him, feed him or play with him. A tip that I saw somewhere else on this site is really working this evening; talking to him and giving him positive encouragement whenever he's quiet, and ignoring him when he cries. So far it has been a fairly peaceful evening while I have done this, while on previous evenings I've been driven bonkers to the point that I want to go to bed early just to get some peace and quiet (we close our bedroom door at night to keep Jupiter out, and he's amazingly good at respecting this).
Countertop:
On previous nights, I have just tried telling him NO firmly, which doesn't really seem to get my point across. I then tried a squirt bottle, always being careful to aim for his back half so I don't get water in his face or ears. This is effective at the time, but then minutes later he hops up again....it almost seems like it's a game to make me come chase him. Right now I've got tinfoil all over the counter, and he's tried jumping up twice and slipped, and then jumped back down. This seems good for now, but I'm worried he may slip and fall the wrong way and possibly hurt himself. I saw another tip on here where someone bought one of those plastic computer mats with the little pointy plastic nubs on them, cut it to size and put it on the counter with the pointy nubby side up. Apparently it doesn't hurt them, but they hate the feel so they jump down. The next time I'm out at the store I'm going to pick up some and try it for myself.
Aggressive Playing:
Sometimes if I am sitting on the floor playing with him and he's all hyper and playful, he will all of a sudden turn on me and start to nip at my hand. If I can't get my hand away and break that "play/attack" train of thought, he'll wrap his front paws around my wrist, start kicking at me and biting. Same thing happens if he's playing near my feet or knees, he will start with a bit of light nipping and then progress to latching on to me and getting more aggressive. (I think this is something cats do to their prey, so for some reason he thinks I'm something to eat? Any advice on why he's doing this would be welcome!) If I try to pry him off of me, that just results in more attacking. The spray bottle works to get him to stop, but then I think he may think I'm attacking him, and may see my hands and myself as a threat, which perhaps causes more attacks? Once again, on the advice of this website, tonight I tried hissing at him a bit when he started going after me. He immediately stopped and backed off, and let out a little meow that sounded quite submissive and almost like "I'm sorry". Perhaps all I needed to do was "speak his language" to get across what I meant.
If anyone has any comments or suggestions, I always love to read them. This website is such a good resource for me, especially for learning about Jupiter because I have never owned a cat this young before, so I'm kind of in a new territory. I'll keep everyone posted here about anything new with Jupiter or how the above issues go. Thanks, and we'll see you around the site!
I'm going to post little updates about various things about him as I go along here. We've had him since August 20th, and he seems to be starting to settle in, and we're starting to get used to him and learn about all his little quirks.
I'm working on changing (as much as possible!) three of his behaviours right now: meowing all the time, jumping on the kitchen counter, and getting too aggressive with my hands/arms/legs while he is in a playful mood.
Meowing:
He cries quite frequently while we are around, and he just seems to be seeing attention, or food! He stops immediately as soon as we pet him, feed him or play with him. A tip that I saw somewhere else on this site is really working this evening; talking to him and giving him positive encouragement whenever he's quiet, and ignoring him when he cries. So far it has been a fairly peaceful evening while I have done this, while on previous evenings I've been driven bonkers to the point that I want to go to bed early just to get some peace and quiet (we close our bedroom door at night to keep Jupiter out, and he's amazingly good at respecting this).
Countertop:
On previous nights, I have just tried telling him NO firmly, which doesn't really seem to get my point across. I then tried a squirt bottle, always being careful to aim for his back half so I don't get water in his face or ears. This is effective at the time, but then minutes later he hops up again....it almost seems like it's a game to make me come chase him. Right now I've got tinfoil all over the counter, and he's tried jumping up twice and slipped, and then jumped back down. This seems good for now, but I'm worried he may slip and fall the wrong way and possibly hurt himself. I saw another tip on here where someone bought one of those plastic computer mats with the little pointy plastic nubs on them, cut it to size and put it on the counter with the pointy nubby side up. Apparently it doesn't hurt them, but they hate the feel so they jump down. The next time I'm out at the store I'm going to pick up some and try it for myself.
Aggressive Playing:
Sometimes if I am sitting on the floor playing with him and he's all hyper and playful, he will all of a sudden turn on me and start to nip at my hand. If I can't get my hand away and break that "play/attack" train of thought, he'll wrap his front paws around my wrist, start kicking at me and biting. Same thing happens if he's playing near my feet or knees, he will start with a bit of light nipping and then progress to latching on to me and getting more aggressive. (I think this is something cats do to their prey, so for some reason he thinks I'm something to eat? Any advice on why he's doing this would be welcome!) If I try to pry him off of me, that just results in more attacking. The spray bottle works to get him to stop, but then I think he may think I'm attacking him, and may see my hands and myself as a threat, which perhaps causes more attacks? Once again, on the advice of this website, tonight I tried hissing at him a bit when he started going after me. He immediately stopped and backed off, and let out a little meow that sounded quite submissive and almost like "I'm sorry". Perhaps all I needed to do was "speak his language" to get across what I meant.
If anyone has any comments or suggestions, I always love to read them. This website is such a good resource for me, especially for learning about Jupiter because I have never owned a cat this young before, so I'm kind of in a new territory. I'll keep everyone posted here about anything new with Jupiter or how the above issues go. Thanks, and we'll see you around the site!
I don't remember if anything is mentioned that hasn't been mentioned here.
