New kitten really weird with boyfriend?

[Arykitty]

Hi guys, my boyfriend and I just got a new kitten (we were told she was 8 weeks but she looks about 6-7) about 4 days ago, we picked her up together, we both cuddled her when we got home, he’s been super affectionate to her and the first day she loved it, she was super calm, affectionate back to him, but now it’s basically come to the point everytime he comes over she goes into instant hyper mode as soon as she hears the front door open, she’ll wait for him to walk into then room then attackhim (playfully?) goes wild all over his bag and shoes, jumps all over him, basically HAS to be ontop of him some how.

As soon as I move her she’ll cuddle up to me like she does durning the day, and eventually once she’s sleepy again she’ll crawl over and cuddle on his chest nicely, but it’s about 20-30 minutes of her just going completely crazy. Even throughout the night she’ll wake up and try to wake him by jumping all over and trying to squirm her way under the blankets.

Is this normal for kittens with new adjustment? Or could it be a sign of jealousy? Durning the day she’s completely fine with me, she spends most of her time either sleeping in the spot she made in my closet or cuddled up nicely beside me on the couch or bed, and we’ll spend a few minutes here or there playing with her toys.
Any way to solve this? He wants to love her but it’s starting to affect his sleep, she has a bunch of toys in the room, safe places to go and he’s more then willing to play and be affection to her, it’s just this acting out that’s getting to him.

 

[Katie656]

Kittens need a lot of play time, and maybe your kitten has chosen your boyfriend to be her play buddy. I’m sure she would appreciate lots of interactive play with wand style toys. If she were still with her litter mates she would be playing with them, but now it’s your boyfriend and your job. After a good play I’m sure she will settle down for a cuddle.

 

[Arykitty]

We went crazy with all the toys she has, she has a cat tree, Wands, rolling wands, etc, he tries to play with them with her but to better describe it she’s not interested in the toys when he’s here, she rather bite and claw him

 

[ArtNJ]

I don't get why this would impact his sleep if its 20-30 minutes. Is it multiple times a day? I'd like a little more description of their interactions over the course of a day.

I do agree that the kitten has likely decided that the BF is the fun one and wants to play play play. Kittens can be jerks about that. I adopted my 5 year old from a home with a 3 legged cat. I went to visit for like 30 minutes, and saw my future cat jump on that poor tripod like 300 times. They just don't get social cues, or don't care. So the solution is likely some combination of you playing with the cat more, and your BF finding ways to gently discourage and/or distract the cat when it gets like that. Maybe a laser pointer, or a tiny catnip mouse, or a wand toy.

Edit: just read your new post above. For biting, try a loud "no!" Loud enough to be a bit startling. If that doesn't seem to work, (and it takes time to work!) he can gently hold her down by the scruff and butt, being careful not to hurt her. Take the fun out of it.

 

[Katie656]

Our 6 month old kitten gets a bit carried away with play and has ended up biting us on occasion, and he’s big enough to really hurt now. We keep a kickeroo on hand to distract him, then encourage him to kick and bite that instead of our hand. It has been quite successful.

 

[Arykitty]

I don't get why this would impact his sleep if its 20-30 minutes. Is it multiple times a day? I'd like a little more description of their interactions over the course of a day.

I do agree that the kitten has likely decided that the BF is the fun one and wants to play play play. Kittens can be jerks about that. I adopted my 5 year old from a home with a 3 legged cat. I went to visit for like 30 minutes, and saw my future cat jump on that poor tripod like 300 times. They just don't get social cues, or don't care. So the solution is likely some combination of you playing with the cat more, and your BF finding ways to gently discourage and/or distract the cat when it gets like that. Maybe a laser pointer, or a tiny catnip mouse, or a wand toy.

Edit: just read your new post above. For biting, try a loud "no!" Loud enough to be a bit startling. If that doesn't seem to work, (and it takes time to work!) he can gently hold her down by the scruff and butt, being careful not to hurt her. Take the fun out of it.

To give a better whole picture,
he gets over about 9pm,
She goes wild for 20-30 minutes attacking him and his stuff, doing the things i described, we use toys with her, a little wand to take her away from attacking him, little balls, etc, we’ll even leave the bedroom to give her more space to play with us, but she refuses them when he’s here, she’ll touch them for about 50 seconds then hop back onto him, and cling on etc,
We’ve tried the whole “no!” And the scruff, and even giving her treats when she’
Once she finally settles down we’ll cuddle up for a movie and all will be fine, it affects his sleep but she’ll wake up durning the night and instantly start going at him again trying to get his attention, we even had toys scattered around the bedroom and etc. She leaves me alone completely durning the night too.

durning the day she’s a love bug! Never bitten me, besides a few super gentle nibbles, she’ll cuddle, purr all over me, we’ll play with her toys for about 10-15 minutes every hour before she goes and has a cat nap again, it’s only this wild attitude as soon as he walks in the door.

I understand it’s only been a few days but the attitude switch from when he’s here and when he’s not is just day and night, was super confusing, we’ll continue on trying to discourage the biting and attacking and hopefully it improves, thanks

 

[Katie656]

Maybe your boyfriend coming home is her cue that it’s playtime. Cats are generally more active at dawn and dusk and these are certainly the times of day when our two go wild.

I have found that cats definitely have a preference when it comes to toys, our kittens like Da Bird style wands and toys with lots of feathers. We have toys that have been destroyed, and other toys that haven’t been touched.

I’m sure your little girl will settle down into a routine soon, she just needs lots of time and patience. She is still so little and her life has totally changed, but she will get there.

 

[ArtNJ]

I think its the Christmas Morning effect too. You know, he's here, he's finally here! Its time to play!

Decide whether to redirect the greeting to certain toys (and away from biting/clawing) or try to extinguish it altogether, and stick with that plan.

As far as the middle of the night, kittens and the middle of the night can be vexing. If you don't reinforce the wakes ups by paying attention to the cat, they should stop eventually. (Provided they are not hunger related - something to consider). Not paying attention to a kitten acting out in the middle of the night can be really hard, and personally I'm past the age where I have any tolerance for training a cat away from this sort of habit. No cats in the bedroom when I'm sleeping, period. But many on here have trained many cats to sleep calmly with them.

 

[Arykitty]

Hi guys! Just to update, she’s finally settled into bed with us nicely durning the night, took a lot of “time outs” by placing her outside the room whenever she acted out and she finally got the hang of it, now she just has issues with being rolled on as she specifically has to sleep halfway under either one of us and inbetween us
Her high energy still happens ALOT when he walks in, but we’ve made it more of a routine play time for her,
Incase anyone reads through here with a similar situation.
We leave super active toys at the door for him and her that are “night time toys”
When the door opens and she perks up I encourage her to playfully saying “go get him! Tay’s home! Go go go!” And she’ll run off, they’ll play in the living room for 5-10 minutes, put the toys back at the door, then she’ll come into the bedroom or whichever tv we have on, play with her mice and balls (we’ve learned she likes fetch) For another 20-30 then we kill all the lights, finish our movie and settle her down, and then all tends to be good, of course it’s still not 100% perfect but she’s learning

 

[minish]

Minish has always prefered the opposite sex for rougher play. She's in love with my current boyfriend which she first showed by jumping on his belly while sleeping. She also growls and hisses at him and then goes and sits on his lap when she's tired (she hates lapsitting). Cats and kittens develop different relationships with different people. Since you have managed her energy and play agression, all is fine. Tell your boyfriend he's lucky to be chosen for the antics