10 week old kitten & how to play her out

[kitty-mom-2]

Hello,

  I am new to this site but here is some short background about me. My husband and I had 2 older cats, a 9 yr old female tabby and a 3 yr old tortie. He found a 4 week old kitten at work and brought her home, she is sort of missing an eye, she has it but when she was found she had an upper respiratory infection that took over the eye socket so she will never see out of that eye, but is doing just fine with one!

  However my question is we are now finally getting her used to playing with the other two and right now she just has so much energy that she seems to never get rid of, she will jump,climb,bite, etc on us which we turn around and end up putting her back in her room because she is being to rough, how do i get her to burn off this energy and have her socialized as well?

  She is so used to playing with us that I think that is why she is so rough, but also because we had to keep her away from the other two cats until we could get her clean of fleas, etc...so she missed out on that cat on cat training from a mom cat or siblings. I just don't want to deprive her of social time with the other two!

 PLEASE HELP!!!

 

[triciajane2]

First of all, do you know what breeds she could have in her?

Is she keeping you up at night with her energy?

A typical cats daily routine in the wild is to wake up, scavenge for food, and catch prey, then eat, groom and sleep. Make sure that before you go to bed, play with her for about 30 minutes, string, or play mice could keep her going if she is interested in them, and then feed her and she will groom herself and go to sleep.

Make sure you have a couple cat towers around the house that she can play in/on, and scratch. Cats are curious and also need to be stimulated, so play with her with a laser toy, string, etc. She will 

Hope this helps!

 

[johnson-bennett]

Kittens have lots of energy and they are also still in the early stages of learning about their developing skills and abilities. Kittens also don't have a sense of territory yet so it's natural for your kitten to go up to the other cats and become a playful pest. She doesn't know any better and because she didn't have the benefit of learning from her mother and her littermates, she doesn't know what's acceptable cat protocol.

I would engage her in several little interactive play sessions each day using a fishing pole toy. This will put a safe distance between her teeth and your skin. It will show her that when she bites an acceptable object play will continue but if she bites skin, play will stop.

Make sure she has lots of things to keep her busy when you aren't able to play with her. Set up some activity toys and puzzle feeders or even just toys inside of paper bag tunnels.

Since she's young, this is a great opportunity to do some clicker training with her so you can teach her what is and isn't acceptable behavior.

Here's more information:

Interactive Play Therapy

Biting behavior

Clicker training

Keeping the peace

Good luck with everything.

Pam Johnson-Bennett, CCBC

www.catbehaviorassociates.com