New kitten. Advice needed?

[MrsPeeWee]

We got a new kitten on Tuesday. She's 9 weeks old and we just love her. She's settling well. She snuggles in to me, doesn't run and hide. She loves to play. She's getting used to our 5 year old really well. She's currently playing with a petal off the flowers I have in my living room. I love her crazy play times, she goes mental, runs through the house very happily, darts left, right and centre and plays with her toys. I am just a little worried about her scratching. I understand kittens have/need their claws out a lot. We have a scratch post for her, but she loves putting her claws in to the sofa. She also tries to play with me but nips and scratches me. It comes keen and has drew blood. How do we stop this? Also, sleeping!!  The first night we had her she (naturally) 'meowed' most of the night. So last night, I closed my bedroom door so she stayed out and I could sleep. Will this be harmful (mentally/physically) to her? I felt guilty closing my door, but she's crazy and just runs around my room and 'meowing' - so am I ok to close the bedroom door? She knows where all of her things are. Any advice/tips welcomed. Thank you.

[superbagpuss]

OK here is my advice

1 every time she scratches the sofa move her to the scratching post and help her scratch that - she will get the idea

2 leaving her to miow outside your door will not leave her scarred, she's a cat - I have never slept with my cats, and now they sleep on the sofas downstairs, its all about putting boundaries in place

[superbagpuss]

and the biting stage will stop as she gets older, just don't encourage it

[issey6cats]

when she bites its because shes over stimulated just pick her up and put her in another room for a few minutes she will soon get the message calm down,

i have 4 cats and two foaster kits at the moment and non of them sleep in my bedroom never have even when they were kittens,

what i did when mine were tiny was had a shallow box with a big fluffy blanket and a teddy bear in it in the bathroom with the litter tray and just as i was going to bed put kit in box and turned off the lights as i went and non of mine have meowed the house down, now they are grown up its a different story madam jojo dosent think i need a lie in on my day off work and insists on me getting up at 7am by meowing outside my bedroom door lol

[MrsPeeWee]

Ive padded her blankets in to a nice space next to my fridge freezer in the utility room and in there is her food, water and litter box. She usually sleeps on the back of my sofa on a soft blanket. Do you think that just before we go to bed, if I put her on to her blanket in the utility room and then close the kitchen door, so she has free roam of the kitchen and utility room, she will be ok? I feel guilty because she sleeps on my sofa, however, if I let her in to my living room, she can also access our up stairs and will maybe meow outside of ours and DS's bedroom. Very unsure about what's best. I don't want her to be scared in the kitchen & utility all night but can't handle another sleepless night

[timtam23]

Hi, my kitten is a very similar age and does very much the same as you describe, he sleeps a lot & then has "crazy" phases, inconveniently he usually has one around midnight, lasting for a couple of hours and he goes absolutely bonkers running around the furniture and trying to savage my hands/feet

I think they would usually do this playfighting with their litter mates and it is an important way for them to learn how much fighting is "too much" because their litter mates would nip them back etc

So with humans it's harder for the kitten to work out when to stop because we don't react in the same way as another cat would (I tend to screech in pain as he jumps on me with all claws splayed, and he then adores the excitement and digs his claws in even more - I think I should maybe try to react calmly and just remove him from my leg?!)

We also sometimes shut the bedroom doors as otherwise none of us would get any sleep, it's complicated by having 2 old cats as well, one of them is blind and they are both very set in their ways but we are coping!

One thing I would not do this time round with my little one is encourage him to play very roughly with my hands, I did this to some extent with my old female cat when she was a very young kitten and she remained quite temperamental into adulthood and would scratch, it took a very long time to get her more used to being stroked and handled without attacking my hand. We did manage it in the end but I blame myself for how I played with her as a kitten.

[MrsPeeWee]

Thank you timtam

[Bodicea]

I heard that a ticking clock in the cat basket is reassuring for them - replicates mums heart xxxx

[moonbells]

MrsPeeWee I've been permanently covered in scratches since Moonkitten arrived! Mad half hour is inconveniently between 3am and 5am and we go round shutting bedroom doors in the evening after the flap's locked so they can't get in and go to sleep under the bed! He's definitely a lapcat in training despite the biting! Purrs like mad. We have a giant scratching post and I periodically spray it with catnip oil to attract those little paws.

We adopted his mum Mooncat too; she's an ex-stray and is very aloof. Wish she would come and sit on me but she's just too independent. But the kitten is forever trying to jump on her, stalk her and generally badger her as he would have his littermates. She has got so fed up she bats him away, growls and hisses! We are hoping that once he grows up things will calm down again. His sibs were all reserved by the time we met them all, but I wanted Mummycat as she's so pretty!

It's just so much fun in a chaotic sort of way!

[WinterWinds]

Yes to putting her to bed in the utility room and closing the door, that is ideal.
With my last kitten, she had free roam during the day but had her own bedroom with litter tray, bed toys etc at night (due to elderly poorly cat)

I used to put her to bed every night with a small amount of food.
She soon learned that when the lights went off downstairs it was bedtime and she would lead the way and climb happily into bed.

I never heard a peep out of her until morning.