Kitten a little too adventurous...

[GSRit01]

Thanx for all the advice! I don't have a spray bottle, so tried wetting my hand and flicking it at him when he gets on the counter. He's always trying to get on it. especially if we're trying to make food. Extremely persistent, no matter how much we try stop him.

We keep him in our bedroom for now when we're not there (at work etc) and at night we keep him in the bedroom when we sleep. Don't want him going around our apartment at night so young. But now he's waking me up in the middle of the night and early morning wanting to play, biting me etc. He's got many toys, but plays with them for a minute, then gets on the bed again. scratches on the duvet. This morning he was quite viscious!! He even jumped and swiped at my face while I was lying down! I try ignore him, but he won't have it. He has food and water, toys, everything. He's basically getting more and more naughty!!

We try play with him at night alot so that he's tired when we go to bed, it helps for a while...haha.

[MyBabiesDaddy]

Lol, I always say that my kitten has "a million kitten energy" that's just what kittens do, enjoy it while it lasts! Eventually they'll outgrow this stage and become a lot more mellow. I would just disagree slightly with previous poster so said tap the baby in the head. I wouldn't recommend hitting a cat, as he might associate your hand with hitting, even if its a little tap. Also, when squirting the cat, don't let him know your doing it. The point is to startle him and prevent him from continuing his behavior, but you don't want him to associate you with the water squirter.

Good luck with the naughty one

[katbaalew]

Originally Posted by Marcia

Kittens are just babies and need to learn boundaries. Our Billy was the only kitten we've ever adopted - he was 4 months old so needed to be taught boundaries. I used to take his scruff, put him down and say NO!!. After a few times of that he learned. Think of them as small children. If it persists or you are not home enough to teach the boundary lesson personally there are sprays or scat mats you can buy. YouTube of full of videos of cats jumping and missing, I would not worry too much about that - he'll learn first time he knocks his noggin' good. If that is his pic in your avatar he is adorable!!!!

Thats how we taught our kitten. We got her at about 2 months and she'd get on the refrigerator....and take flying leaps off of it (pretty scary). She never hurt herself, just scared me. You can try water from a spray bottle, although both my cats just look at me like I'm crazy, so I gave that up. Works for some though.

[LaurulFeatherCat]

Most of my cats just look at the spray bottle and continue what they are doing. But if I look straight at them, say "CAT!" and give a little hiss, they stop immediately. I find it logic to use the same language and touch on the cats their mother did when they were babies; and that my cats use on one another when socializing. Even the most aggressive stray I ever worked with stoped his attack when I yowled at him and tapped him on the forehead with my finger -- NOT hit, just a tap, and a follow up yowl. I thought sure I was going to be going to the hospital with a severe cat bite that day, but the yowl and tap got the point across and he stopped in mid attack.