Background on the kitten.
Hello all, I just got a new kitten that I named Sabriel on October 16th. She's about 3 and a half months old, her birth date was June 29th, 2012. She's a sbt savannah, and very active but most kittens are very active lol. She was spayed on October 2nd by her breeder, she was healed by the time I got her on the 16th. She came to me by plane from Oklahoma, I live in South Dakota.
When I got her on the 16th she was taken straight to the vet by me to her rabies shot, to get set up for her future vaccinations to go with the schedule that the breeder already had her on, she was also tested for fiv and felv and thankfully both were negative. Since I've had her in her main room she has been very affectionate and playful with me, but when I bring her into other rooms (which I do sparingly) to try to slowly adjust her to the house she gets all skittish. Hopefully as she gets to know me more she'll settle down with that.
Some history on me as an owner.
I see myself as owning 3 main cats before Sabriel. There were like 2 other house cats but as I was a little kid I didn't really get to know them well and they ran off because I was stupid and brought them outside.
1st cat: Spunky, siamese cat that actually belonged to my grandma but I considered mine as well because I spent a lot of time with him, and my grandma raised me from when I was 8 onward. Anyway I had him from when I was a baby to when I was 17 and a half and he died from old age. He was over 18 by that point I believe but may have been just under it. He is where I got my love of cats, most mellow affectionate cat ever and very bright too. He was an indoor/outdoor cat.
2nd cat: Tigger, I feel very badly about how I treated Tigger, if I had her when I was older I would have been a lot more understanding. I had her from when I was 8 to 10. She was abused in the home she was in before ours, she'd been thrown across the room a few times there I believe is why a family friend had her given to us. Long story there... Anyway I'm assuming because of the abuse in the previous home she was very odd at times... she'd be affectionate and purring at one minute and then biting hard enough to bleed the next. She'd also sneak attack people all the time. She then got fleas. Pretty much I didn't want to be around her after a while. I also wasn't great about changing her litter box. Sometimes I forgot to feed her as well, in my defense at the time I was eight my mom should have done something but didn't. Anyway long story short she ended up going out to live on a friends farm. Out there she was a lot more mellow and when I called her she came to me and would let me pet her without biting. Then when I was 11 or 12 I went out there and called and called but she never showed up. I was told then she likely ran off. I found out years later she was hit by a car and they buried her... At this point though I still had Spunky and loved him like crazy.
3rd Cat: Neka, I didn't get Neka until I was 22 because before that I was living two places where either a) pets weren't allowed or b) my grandma no longer wanted a cat in her home. Anyway I loved Neka very, very much. I got her from the same breeder that I got Sabriel from, and actually Sabriel is Neka's "replacement" cat. When she was alive she had a lot of issues both health and behavior wise. Health issues at first it was giardia, but then also signs of a uri for a long while she seemed to be fine though. I got her when she was 6 months old, she was already very affectionate with me and playful and everything. She knew to use the litter box, and to use the scratching posts instead of furniture. She did have a bit of a pica thing where she would chew on carpet, wires, metal etc. I treated and loved her like a child. Then in August she had quit eating as much, and long story short I found out on September 1st that she pleural effusion in her chest cavity and a few days later that she had lymphoma. I put her on steroids which helped but ended up putting her down on September 10th because she was going down hill fast... Pretty much been heart broken since...
Getting to the point:
Anyway because of what happened with Neka the breeders offered me a "replacement" cat because of how much Neka cost. I told them I wanted to wait until November or December and they said that was fine just to get in touch with them. Well last week I contacted them via email because I wanted to know if I had to get anything from the vet like proof of what happened and that she had been put down. Long story short they offered me Sabriel then, and it was an offer I couldn't refuse...
Thing is I've never had a kitten this young before, granted she's 3 and a half months, and yes I've been around kittens before but I've never been in charge of training them before.
***She's already litter box trained and has been excellent about using it here.
*** She does use the cat scratching posts but does sometimes start to scratch at chairs to.. So far I've said "hey" or "No" in a loudish voice tone and she stops and runs off then but I'm not sure if I'm getting the message across right... I don't want to scare her.
*** She is affectionate but also a bit skittish sometimes. She does sometimes try to play bite and since I don't want to encourage that behavior I say "ouch" in a loud-ish voice tone and she stops and then licks...
*** She's in a room that all that is in there when she's unsupervised is: litter box, cat dish, a cat tree, a cat scratching post/tree thing, 2 pet beds, a toy ball thing that spins in a circle, a stuffed mouse that she couldn't possibly choke on and that so far she treats like a ball, and her cat carrier that still has her blanket and hammock that the breeder put in there for her trip (she held her bladder and bowels for like 7 to 8 hours, when she finally did go she went a lot... i felt bad but kind of proud too..). The flooring is vinyl. The only thing I can see her being able to ingest is either a) if she tore up the mouse, pet beds, or blanket or b) what's already happened is her scratching the cat trees carpet off and then she'll chew on the carpet. I just want her to be safe, and particularly after Neka I'm even more paranoid then I was before.
*** She meows a lot when I'm in the room and I'm trying to figure out what she wants...
tl;dr ??: Sum up of questions:
I want tips of how to train my kitten right. So that she doesn't scratch the furniture, so that she doesn't play bite, much less bite for real. So that she doesn't chew or swallow things she shouldn't.
Also: I'm afraid that she's bored that I'm at work, do you know of any really good, hard, sturdy cat toys that I can leave with her that she can't harm herself with? I thought of getting her a play mate around December or so from the humane society as long as she was settled in fairly well by then. But my vet strongly discourage me from it and now I certainly will not be doing that.... Pretty much told me they'd had health issues going around there for years and if I wanted my currently healthy cat to become unhealthy to get another cat from there. So since I'm not paying the money again for another savannah and I'm not interested in another special breed of cat I'm content being a single cat owner. I'm just hoping that my cat won't be lonely.
+++
For the record I have an awesome vet even if he isn't a fan of the humane society. When the stuff went down with Neka all of her tests (x-ray, ultra sound, blood tests etc) were done at the emergency vet and the results were shipped over to my normal vet... so he didn't really get any money from that type of stuff even though that cost me like 700.00 in tests. But when Neka was put down, he unbeknownst to me had a histopathology report done on a biopsy from my cat to make sure it was lymphoma (there was a chance it could have been wet FIP). Lets just say over the year that I had her I was in there a lot and they thought I was a worry wort more or less, but when she was diagnosed with lymphoma my vet and all of his staff were very sympathetic to me. When I had her put to sleep I was crying like a baby and he was kind and also sent me a sympathy card with a personal note. So when I came with Sabriel on tuesday they understood that I was a bit paranoid and got the fiv/felv which both came out as negative thankfully. I brought up that I was a little afraid that she could potentially develop FIP, even though it had been over a month since Neka had been a live I wasn't sure how many weeks the virus lives on. The emergency vet couldn't assure me that it wasn't both lymphoma and fip. When I put her down I thought she had been through enough and didn't want to put her through more stuff like an autopsy or something - not to mention at that point I had spent around 800.00 dollars or something. So tuesday my vet told me he could assure me, and he showed me the histopathology report that was in the file, which said it was lymphoma carcinoma or something like that. I asked him what the report was because I was a little confused as I know the emergency vet didn't do it. He said he did it on his own because "i had to know... for myself"... are the words he used. To me that is an awesome vet...
Okay I'm done rambling... I know I practically wrote a book... Can anyone please help me though with training my kitty?
Hello all, I just got a new kitten that I named Sabriel on October 16th. She's about 3 and a half months old, her birth date was June 29th, 2012. She's a sbt savannah, and very active but most kittens are very active lol. She was spayed on October 2nd by her breeder, she was healed by the time I got her on the 16th. She came to me by plane from Oklahoma, I live in South Dakota.
When I got her on the 16th she was taken straight to the vet by me to her rabies shot, to get set up for her future vaccinations to go with the schedule that the breeder already had her on, she was also tested for fiv and felv and thankfully both were negative. Since I've had her in her main room she has been very affectionate and playful with me, but when I bring her into other rooms (which I do sparingly) to try to slowly adjust her to the house she gets all skittish. Hopefully as she gets to know me more she'll settle down with that.
Some history on me as an owner.
I see myself as owning 3 main cats before Sabriel. There were like 2 other house cats but as I was a little kid I didn't really get to know them well and they ran off because I was stupid and brought them outside.
1st cat: Spunky, siamese cat that actually belonged to my grandma but I considered mine as well because I spent a lot of time with him, and my grandma raised me from when I was 8 onward. Anyway I had him from when I was a baby to when I was 17 and a half and he died from old age. He was over 18 by that point I believe but may have been just under it. He is where I got my love of cats, most mellow affectionate cat ever and very bright too. He was an indoor/outdoor cat.
2nd cat: Tigger, I feel very badly about how I treated Tigger, if I had her when I was older I would have been a lot more understanding. I had her from when I was 8 to 10. She was abused in the home she was in before ours, she'd been thrown across the room a few times there I believe is why a family friend had her given to us. Long story there... Anyway I'm assuming because of the abuse in the previous home she was very odd at times... she'd be affectionate and purring at one minute and then biting hard enough to bleed the next. She'd also sneak attack people all the time. She then got fleas. Pretty much I didn't want to be around her after a while. I also wasn't great about changing her litter box. Sometimes I forgot to feed her as well, in my defense at the time I was eight my mom should have done something but didn't. Anyway long story short she ended up going out to live on a friends farm. Out there she was a lot more mellow and when I called her she came to me and would let me pet her without biting. Then when I was 11 or 12 I went out there and called and called but she never showed up. I was told then she likely ran off. I found out years later she was hit by a car and they buried her... At this point though I still had Spunky and loved him like crazy.
3rd Cat: Neka, I didn't get Neka until I was 22 because before that I was living two places where either a) pets weren't allowed or b) my grandma no longer wanted a cat in her home. Anyway I loved Neka very, very much. I got her from the same breeder that I got Sabriel from, and actually Sabriel is Neka's "replacement" cat. When she was alive she had a lot of issues both health and behavior wise. Health issues at first it was giardia, but then also signs of a uri for a long while she seemed to be fine though. I got her when she was 6 months old, she was already very affectionate with me and playful and everything. She knew to use the litter box, and to use the scratching posts instead of furniture. She did have a bit of a pica thing where she would chew on carpet, wires, metal etc. I treated and loved her like a child. Then in August she had quit eating as much, and long story short I found out on September 1st that she pleural effusion in her chest cavity and a few days later that she had lymphoma. I put her on steroids which helped but ended up putting her down on September 10th because she was going down hill fast... Pretty much been heart broken since...
Getting to the point:
Anyway because of what happened with Neka the breeders offered me a "replacement" cat because of how much Neka cost. I told them I wanted to wait until November or December and they said that was fine just to get in touch with them. Well last week I contacted them via email because I wanted to know if I had to get anything from the vet like proof of what happened and that she had been put down. Long story short they offered me Sabriel then, and it was an offer I couldn't refuse...
Thing is I've never had a kitten this young before, granted she's 3 and a half months, and yes I've been around kittens before but I've never been in charge of training them before.
***She's already litter box trained and has been excellent about using it here.
*** She does use the cat scratching posts but does sometimes start to scratch at chairs to.. So far I've said "hey" or "No" in a loudish voice tone and she stops and runs off then but I'm not sure if I'm getting the message across right... I don't want to scare her.
*** She is affectionate but also a bit skittish sometimes. She does sometimes try to play bite and since I don't want to encourage that behavior I say "ouch" in a loud-ish voice tone and she stops and then licks...
*** She's in a room that all that is in there when she's unsupervised is: litter box, cat dish, a cat tree, a cat scratching post/tree thing, 2 pet beds, a toy ball thing that spins in a circle, a stuffed mouse that she couldn't possibly choke on and that so far she treats like a ball, and her cat carrier that still has her blanket and hammock that the breeder put in there for her trip (she held her bladder and bowels for like 7 to 8 hours, when she finally did go she went a lot... i felt bad but kind of proud too..). The flooring is vinyl. The only thing I can see her being able to ingest is either a) if she tore up the mouse, pet beds, or blanket or b) what's already happened is her scratching the cat trees carpet off and then she'll chew on the carpet. I just want her to be safe, and particularly after Neka I'm even more paranoid then I was before.
*** She meows a lot when I'm in the room and I'm trying to figure out what she wants...
tl;dr ??: Sum up of questions:
I want tips of how to train my kitten right. So that she doesn't scratch the furniture, so that she doesn't play bite, much less bite for real. So that she doesn't chew or swallow things she shouldn't.
Also: I'm afraid that she's bored that I'm at work, do you know of any really good, hard, sturdy cat toys that I can leave with her that she can't harm herself with? I thought of getting her a play mate around December or so from the humane society as long as she was settled in fairly well by then. But my vet strongly discourage me from it and now I certainly will not be doing that.... Pretty much told me they'd had health issues going around there for years and if I wanted my currently healthy cat to become unhealthy to get another cat from there. So since I'm not paying the money again for another savannah and I'm not interested in another special breed of cat I'm content being a single cat owner. I'm just hoping that my cat won't be lonely.
+++
For the record I have an awesome vet even if he isn't a fan of the humane society. When the stuff went down with Neka all of her tests (x-ray, ultra sound, blood tests etc) were done at the emergency vet and the results were shipped over to my normal vet... so he didn't really get any money from that type of stuff even though that cost me like 700.00 in tests. But when Neka was put down, he unbeknownst to me had a histopathology report done on a biopsy from my cat to make sure it was lymphoma (there was a chance it could have been wet FIP). Lets just say over the year that I had her I was in there a lot and they thought I was a worry wort more or less, but when she was diagnosed with lymphoma my vet and all of his staff were very sympathetic to me. When I had her put to sleep I was crying like a baby and he was kind and also sent me a sympathy card with a personal note. So when I came with Sabriel on tuesday they understood that I was a bit paranoid and got the fiv/felv which both came out as negative thankfully. I brought up that I was a little afraid that she could potentially develop FIP, even though it had been over a month since Neka had been a live I wasn't sure how many weeks the virus lives on. The emergency vet couldn't assure me that it wasn't both lymphoma and fip. When I put her down I thought she had been through enough and didn't want to put her through more stuff like an autopsy or something - not to mention at that point I had spent around 800.00 dollars or something. So tuesday my vet told me he could assure me, and he showed me the histopathology report that was in the file, which said it was lymphoma carcinoma or something like that. I asked him what the report was because I was a little confused as I know the emergency vet didn't do it. He said he did it on his own because "i had to know... for myself"... are the words he used. To me that is an awesome vet...
Okay I'm done rambling... I know I practically wrote a book... Can anyone please help me though with training my kitty?
.
