My Kitten is Nuts

[ilovemykitty311]

I got my kitten at 6 weeks old, he's now 9 weeks & he has just turned into a little terror. I love him but he just gets crazier by the day and I don't just mean very playful and running around. I mean bolting from one room to the next, jumping on our clothes and hanging on with his nails, clawing at us, and biting us constantly. We've NEVER hit him, but saying NO doesn't seem to work so we've starting correcting him by squirting him with water (just once) when he's really bad. It seems to work a little for the moment, but a few mintues later he does the same thing again. How do you correct kittens at this age? Also, we've tried doing to mommy cat hissing at him and it worked at first but now it doesn't seem to phase him.

 

[sk_pacer]

Sounds pretty normal to me. You may have better luck distracting him from the undesirable behaviour and do play with him - wand toys are usually best.

 

[lorie d.]

Kittens are very high energy little animals. I agree with sk_pacer, get lots of toys and use play times as a way of helping the kitten release his energy. Besides using a wand toy, you can also try using a laser to play with the kitten...just make sure you don't point the laser right at the kitten's eyes. And if this is your first cat don't worry, the kitten will calm down as he matures.

 

[stephanietx]

This sounds like normal kitten behavior and growth stage progression. I also recommend lots and lots and LOTS more playtime with him using wand toys, feather on a stick, laser pointer, balls with bells in them (throw them for him to chase), or pretty much anything that's going to wear him out!

They have LOTS of energy at that stage and EVERYTHING is a toy, so watch out for that, too.

 

[rosiemac]

Welcome to our world

It is normal i'm afraid, but i'm pleased your not punishing him, but l wouldn't spray him incase it gets in his ear because that can cause an infection, plus it might make him scared of you?.

As everyone has pointed out, the secret is to play with them and they'll get tired out, especially late at night when most of them have their spurge of energy!

A good 20 minute play when he's at his most active, then a bit wet food and he'll sleep like baby

 

[crystalkitty]

I had a kitten once that was very aggressive in his play. I tried several ways of stopping him and nothing worked, so I went online for advice. I was told to play with him a lot and give him plenty of attention BUT when he started in with the aggressive play to say "No" firmly, but not yelling, put him down or get up or turn away (whatever is appropriate to let him know in no uncertain terms that I was disengaging and stopping the play), usually with my hands tucked in and turn my back to him, and totally ignore him.

I was surprised, but it worked wonderfully. Within days his behavior was almost totally under control. He grew up to be one of the greatest cats -- he used to accompany me outside as I did chores and would run ahead and hide in the bushes and wait for me to get close, and he would run out (more like hop LOL) on two legs with his forelegs outstretched to "attack" me but never did he use claws and was great at gentle attack-play. Every evening as I finished up at dusk he'd come to me to be picked up and snuggled while I just looked over all the animal pens and felt happy to have my little buddy.

It worked great for him. Just withdrawing my attention for a moment to let him know where the line was, and took only a few lessons. It was probably harder for me to learn to do it properly than it was for him to learn manners by that method.