Is this normal kitten behaviour?

[Blueberrymuffint0p]

Our 4 month old rescue kitten is a gorgeous bundle of fluff but she's fucking mental and vicious with it. She's constantly stalking us, pouncing on us, jumping at our faces, we're covered in scratches. She does have calm moments, she curls up on us in the evening when we're watching tv and is happy to see us in the morning. She enjoys a little stroke and fuss occasionally during the day but only for about a minute then she goes back into attack mode.

Is this normal? She has lots of toys, we play with her lots. My ds is a bit scared of her! Will she calm down as she gets older or is she ferral?

[Fluffycloudland77]

Normal, if you had two they'd do it to each other and leave you alone.

They calm down after neutering.

[Liara]

Normal, but I would try to teach her not to scratch by stroking her paws when she is playing - usually makes them retract their claws.

[Blueberrymuffint0p]

Fab tip, thank you I'll try stroking her paws.

I feel awful for doing it but I've given her a tap a few times, when she's really sunk her claws in, I figured it's what her mum would do. Any other ideas?

Good to know it's normal though, we don't know her history, she was found in a log shed.

[Fluffycloudland77]

I wouldn't tap her, mum cats don't. They usually walk off when kittens get feisty.

She needs distance from your hands so toys like da bird are good or any toys on string.

But no tapping.

[Blueberrymuffint0p]

Ok, no tapping, I won't do that again (that was advice from my dad). I'll just remove myself. Thanks for the reply.

[Fluffycloudland77]

It's all hunting behaviour, when she starts going out you'll see her stalking leaves etc.

Sounds like you've got a little live wire there. Has she got ping pong balls? They are good for wearing them out or a lazer pointer.

[timtam23]

I remember when my cat was about 3-4 months old he had a party trick of launching himself off the sofa towards me when I was standing about 2-3 feet away, he would land on me with all his claws out & would stick to me like velcro. It was really really painful! I couldn't believe such a little thing could jump so high. He did calm down a lot after he was neutered, although he is still quite feisty (he's nearly 18 months old now).

I was really careful not to get him chasing my hands as toys because I had done that with my other cat years ago, when she was a kitten, and she ended up being quite vicious towards me as an adult cat because she would attack my hands for fun. My DH spent ages stroking her and treating her very gently until she was really much tamer. So with this most recent kitten I used a laser pointer, ping pong balls and also feathers which are his absolute favourite thing (he prefers pigeon wing feathers which are often lying around at the park - we don't kill pigeons specially for him!)

[awaywego1]

Sounds exactly like my kitten who is 16 weeks..she's lovely and cuddly but very bitey..particularly with me and is really going for me the past week. I just put her out of the room everytime she does it but am hoping it'll pass soon!

[MedusaIsHavingaBadHairday]

My two are now 5 and a half months..and yep.. bonkers!
NO ONE in my house dares stick a toe out from under the duvet... that's an invitation for bleeding feet, and I am usually woken up by teeth trying to chomp my toes!

Mine beat eachother up, then cuddle,.then chase things, then sleep..and repeat. They go outside now but it hasn;t calmed them down!

[Blueberrymuffint0p]

Thanks for all the replies. Her favourite trick is to creep up behind you when you're doing something in the kitchen then launch herself (claws out) into your leg. She then claws her way up your back until she is happily perched on your shoulder! The pain is indescribable! She's so cute though, just the prettiest little thing, she's light grey tabby with a little M on her forhead so she constantly looks worried. She's got a ring of stripes around her neck that look like a necklace and little white socks.

[Blueberrymuffint0p]

Here she is having a quiet moment

[givemushypeasachance]

She is gorgeous! We had a cat with that colouring when I was a teenager, Smudge. He was a stupid, soppy thing and probably my favourite childhood cat.

Going to do my traditional recommendation of boinks which are also sold in the pocket money toys in Hawkins Bazaar - great to spring across the room to chase and my boys adore batting them around the place, their favourite toys. Worn out kittens cause less chaos!

If she likes clawing (and kicking?) hands then has she got some bigger chunky toys she can wrestle with? Like Kong Kickers? Different toys are used to practice different hunting behaviours with, so you have your little chasing objects and your catching objects and bigger toys like that allow cats to practice their larger prey killing techniques - effectively what they'd do with a rabbit or a rat, wrestling, neck biting and kicking. Your hands are fun, moving and very reactive substitutes so they're great to play with - you want to make the toys more fun (by regularly waggling and throwing them, perhaps applying catnip/valerian if she's into that) and your hands less fun by moving away and ignoring her when she gets rough with you.

[Fluffycloudland77]

She's a very pretty cat.

[Liara]

She's very pretty! Same colour as my 4mo nutcase.

[slippermaiden]

Our rescue kitten used to be a bit like that before we let him out. He used to chase the children most and ambush them when they weren't expecting it. Now he is more of a smooth operator with only occasional craziness!