Hyper cat

[alewifebp]

I adopted a new cat right about when the quarantine started after my old cat passed away. He aclimated to the house right away, and is also very attached to me, so that's a good thing. But, he is really hyper. I think he is less than a year old.

I try to play with him as much as possible, and he really loves some of the toys, like Da Bird. Tried to give him as many toys scattered throughout the house as possible, cat towers, windows that he can look out of, but he just gets super hyper and needs attention all the time. Since I've been working from home, it means I need to play with him throughout the day or he will start knocking things over, climbing over the monitors, etc. Of course that's not very conducive to working from home. In fact, what convinced me to post right now is that I was in the living room and he was going on the kitchen counters and knocking things over. Even when trying to play with him for a while and he seems like he is wearing out, he still remains hyper. He finally settled down and is sleeping on the couch right now next to me, but that was after a lot of frustration. Plus he wakes me up early in the morning, but that's another story.

My previous two cats were very mellow, so this is new to me. And I was looking for a mellow cat, knowing that I will be eventually going back to work and will be gone for many hours in the day with no other stimulation.

Should I get another cat? I just worry that I'll end up doubling my problems. How else can I stimulate him?

 

[Suru]

Another cat will be another mouth to feed, but might help your situation immensely. I could never provide the stimulation my cat needed... his sister did that.

This is him and his sister at 7 months old. They would be at it for hours, then sleep for a few hours, then continue where they left off. just watching them exhausted me!

He's 2 years old now and *much much* calmer!

 

[ArtNJ]

You might end up adopting a chill kitten though. They aren't all go go go. You can't really tell by analyzing a 12-16 week old ball of fluff for 30 minutes what they are and will be like. This happened to me once. I adopted two kittens, and because one was chill, the hyper one didn't get enough play that way and continued to bug the older cat. And yes, two hyper kittens would introduce new problems, like 4 am runs around the house knocking stuff over as they chase each other.

 

[sivyaleah]

Kittens are hard wired to be hyper. There really isn't a lot you can do other than provide as much entertainment as possible in the form of activities they can do themselves and you can do with them (which it sounds like you are already doing) and also, removing items which are triggers for the behaviors you disapprove of. I know it stinks to have to put away some of your possessions but the ones that you are really concerned about breaking might be better off safely stored for a while for your peace of mind.

Our young one just turned one and while she is much better than when she was let's say 6-7 months old (which I remember being the craziest time) she still manages to find ways to push our buttons. Literally as I was writing this she stretched up to see what was on a small side table in our hallway that we put down keys, etc. on and started to push things around! All I had to do was call out to her sternly "NO" and she backed off. They will learn right from wrong if you are consistent with your reprimands but never use their name when correcting them as it will confuse them when you say their name in daily conversations - they will associate it with having done something wrong.

One does need to learn to tolerate their antics to a degree. I work from home and ours is constantly putting herself between the keyboard/monitor or on it - EVIDENCE BELOW! I'll gently move her and allow her to lay on the desk, it's all she really wants is to be near me. Be happy yours is as attached to you as he is. There will come a time when he wants nothing to do with you and you'll be wondering why he's so aloof LOL

Oh and BTW you say you estimate he's about less than a year old? Have you brought him to the vet yet? If not, you should. They will be able to tell you how old he is. Plus, it's always good to establish him with your practice and get an up-to-date health check.

 

[susanm9006]

Another cat might give him a playmate or it may give him a partner in crime and mischief. Two energetic cats can do a lot of crazy playing and damage so you want to consider an addition carefully.

 

[Sylvia Jones]

Great advice on not using their name when correcting them. I do that all the time. That stops today. My boys (siblings) turned 1yr in May. Cannot imagine trying to play and expel all that energy with one kitten. For us having 2 has been wonderful! They are now very very laid back. I now have to get them playing or they would just chill all day I am guessing that will change to another phase soon? (Hopefully) Anyway my advice is 2 growing up together is good for kitty’s and humans.

 

[She's a witch]

In my case adding another cat helped tremendously, it took lots of time and pressure of me, but mainly for around 2 years... with time the addition turned out to be lazish lap cat and my hyper cat is still very active, although at 3.5yo a bit less. They still play twice a day but it’s not enough for my girl so we needed to step up again. But I still think that adding another cat was the best we could have done and I’m glad they have each other’s company (especially when we’re away) even if they don’t play all the time anymore.

What did help though was the playing routine, we play with our hyper twice a day in a designated time and place, everyday at the same time, starting with the same trigger. For the rest of the day she must find herself occupied, she even learned to play alone to some degree (she loves interactive play so playing by herself is not really natural for her). After several days of that she stopped begging us to play with her anytime she wanted. She still wouldn’t just sleep because she hardly sleeps during a day, but at least she would give US a break. If you try that, you’d still need to make sure he’s got enough enrichment for self entertainment to avoid destroying your stuff.

Btw if yours spends time on the kitchen counter, check if he’s not simply hungry; mine mainly get on the counter when they are. If he’s indeed under one year old, he stills develops and needs a lot of food.

 

[alewifebp]

I definitely want to go in to the idea of a second cat very carefully, as I don't want to just double the problems. I'd also hate to get a really chill cat that he just ends up bothering constantly.

What's odd is that he has been a totally calm sweetheart today. It's almost like he knew he was being a major pain in the rear yesterday and now he's like, sorry about that.

If he stayed on the desk just wanting to be near me, that would be perfectly fine. But he still ends up batting the things off the desk, then gets behind the monitors and starts causing mischief. However, it is all related to me. If I move to some other area, he doesn't stay there and he moves to around where I am. So he's not being mischievous to to just be mischievous, he's wanting my attention and play.

 

[alewifebp]

One does need to learn to tolerate their antics to a degree. I work from home and ours is constantly putting herself between the keyboard/monitor or on it - EVIDENCE BELOW! I'll gently move her and allow her to lay on the desk, it's all she really wants is to be near me. Be happy yours is as attached to you as he is. There will come a time when he wants nothing to do with you and you'll be wondering why he's so aloof LOL

Oh and BTW you say you estimate he's about less than a year old? Have you brought him to the vet yet? If not, you should. They will be able to tell you how old he is. Plus, it's always good to establish him with your practice and get an up-to-date health check.

I'm used to aloof, since my old cat was the very definition of aloof. But he also gave up easily, so if I didn't want to let him in somewhere or whatever (he barely played), he'd be like, ah, forget it. I'll go to sleep now.

When he finally does calm down and is ready to sleep, he has a bed near me that he uses frequently. He will sleep for a while and I can get real work done.

He has been to the vet, but it wasn't a normal session since it was when the lockdowns were starting. Since the shelter did not have a birth date, we only estimated that he is less than a year, but definitely older than six months.

 

[alewifebp]

So, a little improvement during the day when working. My office is in my loft, and while I don't normally watch TV up there, I still had an old TV that was I never using. So today I got it all set up with an old Roku I had as well, and searched for some cat videos on YouTube. Plenty of multi hour videos with birds and other stimulus, and it has kept him pretty occupied. Instead of needing me to play with him, he can look at the birds on the TV.

I also found he likes boxes like Maru does. Found this out when he was trying to get in to a cereal box on the counter. Now he runs in and out of the box on the floor.

 

[alewifebp]

A further update. While he seemed like he was improving, this weekend he became super crazy.

Just some of the things he has started to do

• Perch on the loft railing overlooking the living room, which if he fell, would be a good 12 foot drop on to a wood floor
• He's been very interested in a carveout area next to the loft railing, which I know he is eventually going to get stuck over there
• Try to bat at pendent lights over the kitchen island
• Climb walls
• Bite at the side of a wall
• Biting me, although that is not new

He was doing a lot of these things while I was playing with him. He loves Da Bird toy and jumps and leaps for it, but he seems to get bored by it. But then gets reinterested in it a minute or two later. I'm really not sure what to do.

 

[susanm9006]

He sounds like a healthy young cat doing young cat things. Super crazy periods are totally normal and to be expected.