Hi all,
Today I'm going to talk about me and my partner's little angel (or beast). Her name is Daisy (or 'Princess Daisy Tiger Claw' for longer). Her full name is rather apt really (and was chosen before we picked her up). She is 9 weeks old and just had her first vaccinations. She was already litter-box trained when we got her so that was a weight off our mind. We live in a small apartment, with a room which has her litter box, cat carrier and blanket, water dish etc.
She's one of the cutest buggers you'll ever see with beautiful fur and a sweet face to match, but an attitude like nothing else. I want to talk about three points of her behaviour today and see what you guys think. (Bear with me, I want to paint a picture and not miss out any details)
1) Her aggression:
Don't get me wrong, she's loving...for about 15 seconds, then you pet her one time too many and it sends her into hyper and aggressive mode. She'll start biting our hands, climbing up our legs, scratching us as she does...jumping onto our shoulders when we're sat down....she even jumps onto my back from the couch when I'm on the floor (really hurts and I have to shake her off). She attacks our feet when we walk and assaults anything that moves or makes noise, including (mainly it seems) electrical wires i.e. laptop cords, headphone wires, xbox controller cable, tv cables. We covered as many up as we could but some we just can't hide. Her claws are in everything. We know kittens are discovering what they have at this age, but none of our deterrents seem to work.
When she attacks our hands or feet, we push her forward as to confuse her (as it's supposed to apparently, instead of retreating). If she gets too aggressive I put her in time out, but after a while she makes too much noise with crying and scratching that I have to let her out into the rest of the apartment again. If she jumps on me or attacks me, or cables near me, I pick her up and blow in her face (which she seems to hate), and she backs off for about 10 seconds, then resumes. When she starts to claw furniture we pull her off and put her somewhere else, but she soon returns. It seems no matter what we do for her aggression, she doesn't learn to back off and behave. She thinks it's play, and I can't seem to get across that I don't want to, and that playtime is over when she does lash out.
2) Her 'zoomies'
Zoomies, a term my partner and I love. (As we understand; a state of sudden bursts of energy which result in her having fun running laps around the apartment like she's being chased or running for her life.) I guess this is also linked to her aggression in some ways. It's hilarious for a few minutes, and then she decides to run onto us, attacking our hair etc. We can't let her in the bedroom for more than a minute because she immediately starts attacking our feet that are under the covers, jumping and running all over us and general bouncing about on the bed. She'll sprint back and forth for a good while.
We bought her a three-ended tunnel which she loves, but the aggression she shows when playing with and in it are surprising, she'll run in and out of it all evening, attacking it, dragging it across the apartment. She has plenty of toys and spends a good amount of the day playing with them.
She seems fine when me and my partner are not around. We'll come home to find her asleep, but as soon as she's with us, it's like someone injects rocket fuel up her rear-end. She clearly loves being with us, but she gets so over the top that it's increasingly ending up with her going into time out (in her small room with her essentials). And she always seems to do this at night. I've taken her toys away to discourage her working herself up (doesn't work, as she finds shoes to assault...boxes...furniture...me). We even bought her 'Licks' that were supposed to make her chilled out, but they had no effect on her whatsoever.
We just want to let her in the bedroom so she can snuggle with us, but apparently being on the bed means its playtime, and results in her being shut out for the night and crying at the door for us. I don't know what to do to tell her that bedtime means 'calm down!' (We are in Canada and getting a couple of storms lately...might also have some effect?)
3) Bathroom Issues:
She is litter-box trained, but she seems to only pee. She hasn't pooped for about 3 or 4 days and we're beginning to get concerned. Coincidentally she went to the vets on day 3 of her not pooping, and vet couldn't find anything wrong with her; no bloating or inflammation. She shows no signs of discomfort at all.
She eats raw meat for cats (with none of the weird vegetables in that not even humans can digest properly). It's just meat with blueberries, cranberries etc for pro-biotics. She has some occasional goats milk with it, a couple of drops of herring oil and the tiniest sprinkle of some nutrient formula in powder form, all of which is mixed up and she can't eat it quick enough. She's doubled her size in a week from what we can tell. This leads us to think she is going through a growth spurt. She doesn't seem to have pooped properly since we weened her off of her kitten kibble, which she won't even touch now. (We didn't want her on kibble, only healthy meat). Whether or not this is because the raw meat is all absorbed by her system and nothing is excess or something like that I don't know. Like I said, she pees fine, but she hasn't pooped for days, yet she seems fine. I'm not sure how much she drinks, but her water bowl is easily accessible for her, and I know moisture intake can effect stools etc.
Anyway, I want to know what you guys might suggest. I love the little girl to bits. She has become my fur-child, but I don't want to spend her kitten days getting frustrated and annoyed at her, putting her in time-out and worrying about what she's going to attack next. I just want to love her and have her love us in return. She seems fine when I'm in her room with her. She'll sit on me and purr away, but as soon as I leave she cries and makes noise. When I let her out into a wider space with things to play with it sends her wild.
Hopefully someone knows a trick or two about mischievous little kittens
Thanks for your time and look forward to hearing from y'all!
Enjoy some pictures of our little nugget!
Today I'm going to talk about me and my partner's little angel (or beast). Her name is Daisy (or 'Princess Daisy Tiger Claw' for longer). Her full name is rather apt really (and was chosen before we picked her up). She is 9 weeks old and just had her first vaccinations. She was already litter-box trained when we got her so that was a weight off our mind. We live in a small apartment, with a room which has her litter box, cat carrier and blanket, water dish etc.
She's one of the cutest buggers you'll ever see with beautiful fur and a sweet face to match, but an attitude like nothing else. I want to talk about three points of her behaviour today and see what you guys think. (Bear with me, I want to paint a picture and not miss out any details)
1) Her aggression:
Don't get me wrong, she's loving...for about 15 seconds, then you pet her one time too many and it sends her into hyper and aggressive mode. She'll start biting our hands, climbing up our legs, scratching us as she does...jumping onto our shoulders when we're sat down....she even jumps onto my back from the couch when I'm on the floor (really hurts and I have to shake her off). She attacks our feet when we walk and assaults anything that moves or makes noise, including (mainly it seems) electrical wires i.e. laptop cords, headphone wires, xbox controller cable, tv cables. We covered as many up as we could but some we just can't hide. Her claws are in everything. We know kittens are discovering what they have at this age, but none of our deterrents seem to work.
When she attacks our hands or feet, we push her forward as to confuse her (as it's supposed to apparently, instead of retreating). If she gets too aggressive I put her in time out, but after a while she makes too much noise with crying and scratching that I have to let her out into the rest of the apartment again. If she jumps on me or attacks me, or cables near me, I pick her up and blow in her face (which she seems to hate), and she backs off for about 10 seconds, then resumes. When she starts to claw furniture we pull her off and put her somewhere else, but she soon returns. It seems no matter what we do for her aggression, she doesn't learn to back off and behave. She thinks it's play, and I can't seem to get across that I don't want to, and that playtime is over when she does lash out.
2) Her 'zoomies'
Zoomies, a term my partner and I love. (As we understand; a state of sudden bursts of energy which result in her having fun running laps around the apartment like she's being chased or running for her life.) I guess this is also linked to her aggression in some ways. It's hilarious for a few minutes, and then she decides to run onto us, attacking our hair etc. We can't let her in the bedroom for more than a minute because she immediately starts attacking our feet that are under the covers, jumping and running all over us and general bouncing about on the bed. She'll sprint back and forth for a good while.
We bought her a three-ended tunnel which she loves, but the aggression she shows when playing with and in it are surprising, she'll run in and out of it all evening, attacking it, dragging it across the apartment. She has plenty of toys and spends a good amount of the day playing with them.
She seems fine when me and my partner are not around. We'll come home to find her asleep, but as soon as she's with us, it's like someone injects rocket fuel up her rear-end. She clearly loves being with us, but she gets so over the top that it's increasingly ending up with her going into time out (in her small room with her essentials). And she always seems to do this at night. I've taken her toys away to discourage her working herself up (doesn't work, as she finds shoes to assault...boxes...furniture...me). We even bought her 'Licks' that were supposed to make her chilled out, but they had no effect on her whatsoever.
We just want to let her in the bedroom so she can snuggle with us, but apparently being on the bed means its playtime, and results in her being shut out for the night and crying at the door for us. I don't know what to do to tell her that bedtime means 'calm down!' (We are in Canada and getting a couple of storms lately...might also have some effect?)
3) Bathroom Issues:
She is litter-box trained, but she seems to only pee. She hasn't pooped for about 3 or 4 days and we're beginning to get concerned. Coincidentally she went to the vets on day 3 of her not pooping, and vet couldn't find anything wrong with her; no bloating or inflammation. She shows no signs of discomfort at all.
She eats raw meat for cats (with none of the weird vegetables in that not even humans can digest properly). It's just meat with blueberries, cranberries etc for pro-biotics. She has some occasional goats milk with it, a couple of drops of herring oil and the tiniest sprinkle of some nutrient formula in powder form, all of which is mixed up and she can't eat it quick enough. She's doubled her size in a week from what we can tell. This leads us to think she is going through a growth spurt. She doesn't seem to have pooped properly since we weened her off of her kitten kibble, which she won't even touch now. (We didn't want her on kibble, only healthy meat). Whether or not this is because the raw meat is all absorbed by her system and nothing is excess or something like that I don't know. Like I said, she pees fine, but she hasn't pooped for days, yet she seems fine. I'm not sure how much she drinks, but her water bowl is easily accessible for her, and I know moisture intake can effect stools etc.
Anyway, I want to know what you guys might suggest. I love the little girl to bits. She has become my fur-child, but I don't want to spend her kitten days getting frustrated and annoyed at her, putting her in time-out and worrying about what she's going to attack next. I just want to love her and have her love us in return. She seems fine when I'm in her room with her. She'll sit on me and purr away, but as soon as I leave she cries and makes noise. When I let her out into a wider space with things to play with it sends her wild.
Hopefully someone knows a trick or two about mischievous little kittens
Thanks for your time and look forward to hearing from y'all!
Enjoy some pictures of our little nugget!