Huge kitten regret

[Chikapu]

We've had a kitten for about two months now and I have so much regret about getting him.
He's a beautiful little boy and I love him to pieces but he's such a handful I feel like I can't cope. He bites and scratches despite being constantly redirected to a 'legal' biting toy. He has every toy you can think of and I play one on one with him a lot, I'm guided by him and stop when I see that he's had enough and leave him to play on his own. He hardly sleeps though and ramps up his biting when he's seriously overtired, my husband is for some reason the main target of his biting. I'm anxious and desperately trying not to let bites happen.
I feel like every single aspect of our lives has been disrupted, I can't sit down to knit or crochet because he's on me trying to bite my moving hands.
He's not destructive towards furniture, he uses the litter box perfectly, he eats well and has been declared beautifully healthy by the vet.
I feel like such a pathetic failure and fully expect to be told that's exactly what I am. I want to cry I feel so bad about this.
Will he get better? Has anyone else had serious remorse after getting a pet?

Maybe you should have bought a small kitten rather than a huge one

Get another kitten? Whenever we have gotten kittens we have rescued them in pairs. The take their kitten energy out on each other.

Get him a kitten friend? They will play together for hours. Many rescuers will not home single kittens, in large part because of this.

You really cant expect a young kitten to be 'directed' to anything! Our ones were wild for a bit then settled down. Your one will be lovely, he's just playing and discovering. And because you only have one, he can't play fight and explore with another friend, so he'll do it with anything!
They're like toddlers- Its a phase they grow out of. Please persevere! Xx

Definitely agree with second kitten. My cat is six and still I sometimes think he needs a friend to play with. I didn't get a kitten for just this type of situation (kittens to me are more like tarantulas) - my cat was one when we got him.and I'd say he calmed down after about eighteen months so when he was about two and a half.

That's kittens tbh.

I got my two a couple of months after moving into my house post divorce. All newly decorated and furnished, and there were times when I wondered what the hell I'd been thinking.

He will calm down but it will probably be a few months. Has he been neutered yet? That will also help.

2 dkittens is a much better idea.. Not even matters if from different litters op.

Second kitten, definitely.

Another vote for getting another kitten. I foster for a rescue charity and we only home in pairs under about 4/5 months. They need company at that age to play, sleep and learn how to be cats together.

If people only want one cat, they have to have one that's slightly older and more independent. But I'm not sure that you can ever expect to be able to knit with a cat in the house though. That's literally waving an interesting toy at them.

It means that people miss out on the 'squeee tiny kittens' stage, but as you have discovered, there can be a downside to them at that age.

@Warmduscher

Maybe you should have bought a small kitten rather than a huge one

I came on to say exactly this!

No advice I'm afraid because this is why I prefer adopting older cats. We got ours at 18 months and she was beautifully behaved (other than getting stuck on the roof )

My 2 kittens tire me out so yes, a kitten needs another kitten.
He sounds pretty confident your fellow, so make sure new kitten is also quite confident.

I couldn't do crochet with a huge kitten biting my hands either you poor thing!

Seriously though, the kitten will grow out of it you'll just need to wean through this early behaviour as best as you can.

One thing we used to do for ours was a laser pointer. We also used to shut him in his bedroom (which is the dining room) for half an hour to an hour in the evening. Okay with the laser pointer up and down the stairs for half an hour and he’d be out like a light. I used to put the feliway on in the fining room and it used to make him a little calmer. He got much easier when he was going outside though, he would climb the curtains at night and chase shadows all night every night until I felt he was old enough to go out! An hour outside would tire him out so much when he was little as well. Have you got a cat tree? For scratching we had some horrible smelling spray stuff/ anti scratch spray that was good, on the sofa we got some anti scratch stick on tape from Amazon, it was incredible!

Spray your hands and appendages with the anti scratch stuff, it didn’t take long for ours to realise we taste disgusting 🤣 That and get up and walk away or put him down immediately when he bites. With cats it has to be a very quick reaction and he’s trying to play, so if he bites playtime is over (for 30 seconds lol)

At this age they need lots of attention, but it will pass. Give it a year and he’ll be asleep nearly all day!

I have a 10 week old rescue kitten, had him for 2 weeks now. He's definitely harder work than my previous 2 as they had each other, or maybe my memory is a little fuzzy of those earlier months as it was over 20 years ago. He is gorgeous, so affectionate but like yours he bites and shimmies up curtains and my legs, is a total grubber and comes alive at bedtime! Just part of having a kitten. Once he's over this toddler stage he'll calm down like my other 2 did and they're lovely company. Persevere is what I'd advise, the kitten will settle down and you'll be able to enjoy being owned by a cat!

A new kitten would help they bond better from separate litters, also the older one although a bit crazy will set a good example with trays etc

I remember feeling like this when we got our little boy....he calmed down after getting neutered but even aged 9 he still has his moments

They grow out of it, he just needs neutering.

Another vote for needing a second kitten but if that's off the cards then yes it does get better but if you have two you can lock them In the kitchen overnight with food and litter etc and they just play happily to their hearts content

You got a child. Did you not think a child would act like a child?
Carry on redirecting him and make sure you play with him a lot.
Thankfully they grow up a lot faster than human children so it wont be years and years of kittening. 😁

I can't knit around my 11 year old cat as she gets involved

He'll calm down. Will he go outside when he's older? I wished I'd got a littermate for our younger cat but he calmed down a lot once he could go out.

Our little guy came to us at 5 months and he was a handful! He's coming up to one now and so much better. Still has major zoomie episodes but he rarely jumps on our ankles now.

We used to put him in the living room overnight. He'd get his food, water, litter tray, some toys, his favourite blanket about 10.30/11 and we'd let him out when one of us got up in the morning (usually latests was 6 because DS is a very early riser!) It was essential for us to do this. He's been allowed in the main house at night for about 8 weeks now and it's so great, he just needed to grow up a bit.

I felt exactly like you for ages after we got him but it's brilliant now he's a bit calmer!

I saw a lady I know who runs a kitten rescue, selling feral kitten to unsuspecting families, and hoping that they’d manage ok.
It’s a mean trick, in my opinion, and this may have happened to you.

Our latest cat, we brought from a pet shop many years ago, on a further visit, to buy food, I heard her saying they sold farm kittens, which our cat patently was.
Like yours she bit the children and us, without fail, no matter how we dealt with her, and used distraction toys all the time.
We’d had cats previously so we knew how kittens are.

Our old cat, now, still doesn’t tolerate anyone except our family, but she has outlasted other, more friendly cats locally, who all seem to have succumbed to a local busy road.
And she no longer bites us, but tolerates us all.

We have a single kitten too. He's now 8 months and neutered. He still has his bitey spells when he's tired but it lasts seconds now. He has calmed down a lot from the early days, when we were at the same stage as you. We also bought a plug in thing in the fortnight leading up to neutering as he'd become very difficult but he's so much better now, although he still has his moments.

get him neutered at 4 months and get a 2nd kitten!

it does work having 2, they will play fight and leave you alone a bit!

He was meant to come to us with his sibling but sadly he passed away at four weeks. Their mum died a few days after she'd given birth (hit by a car) so they were bottle reared by a friend.
Sadly getting another kitten isn't going to happen just yet, I'm struggling with some very recent health issues and I just don't have the mental energy.
He's fast asleep at the top of his cat tree atm and I can see all his tiny pink toe beans he really is adorable.
He's due to be neutered in January so hopefully, that will help. I'm heartened to hear that other people have felt the same way. I've always had older cats so having such a youngster has been a shock to the system!