We kept two of the kittens from the litter we rescued a couple of months ago. They are only 13 weeks old now. They stay in our guest room, separated from our adult cats. When we had 5 kittens, we started with just the door closed, but all the kittens would rush the door when we opened it. We put a baby gate across the door, but the kittens started climbing the baby gate.
Now that we are down to just 2 kittens, we leave the door to the room open and have baby gates stacked floor-to-ceiling in the hallway so the kittens can see more of what's going on in the rest of the house and the adult cats can see the kittens more, and hopefully get more used to seeing them. Whenever my husband or I come to the baby gates, they rush the gates, trying to get through any opening possible. We don't want them to get out yet. While we're 99% sure that our male cat wouldn't do anything to hurt them, we're not sure about our female cats (they still sometimes hiss and growl at the kittens). One of the kittens weighs just over 2# and one of the females weighs 17# (a seriously unfair match-up). Also, part of our house isn't "kitten proofed" yet.
I know that they must get lonely and are excited to see us, and they probably just want to explore the rest of the house and play with our male cat (their buddy who goes in to play with them every day). However, is there a way to keep them from rushing the baby gates and trying to escape whenever we we open the baby gates? One that doesn't involve squirting water at them and/or making loud noise (one of the kittens is shy and skittish)? Using the laser pointer sometimes works, but not all the time.
Now that we are down to just 2 kittens, we leave the door to the room open and have baby gates stacked floor-to-ceiling in the hallway so the kittens can see more of what's going on in the rest of the house and the adult cats can see the kittens more, and hopefully get more used to seeing them. Whenever my husband or I come to the baby gates, they rush the gates, trying to get through any opening possible. We don't want them to get out yet. While we're 99% sure that our male cat wouldn't do anything to hurt them, we're not sure about our female cats (they still sometimes hiss and growl at the kittens). One of the kittens weighs just over 2# and one of the females weighs 17# (a seriously unfair match-up). Also, part of our house isn't "kitten proofed" yet.
I know that they must get lonely and are excited to see us, and they probably just want to explore the rest of the house and play with our male cat (their buddy who goes in to play with them every day). However, is there a way to keep them from rushing the baby gates and trying to escape whenever we we open the baby gates? One that doesn't involve squirting water at them and/or making loud noise (one of the kittens is shy and skittish)? Using the laser pointer sometimes works, but not all the time.
