HELP!!! New kitten turned mean!

[SlapACatFuckADuck]

We got a kitten a couple of weeks ago he's about 9/10 weeks He's gone from a loving spend all the time on your lap wanting cuddles and stroking to a cat that does nothing but scratch and bite you he even hides under the washing basket upstairs when it's bath time and attacks as you walk past. We've tried saying no firmly, clapping Ect nothing is deterring him.

I have two DS one 3.8 the other 6m he's scratching us all to death, my babies are covering in scratch and bite marks he goes for them when they're just sitting, eating, playing, sleeping! Today the eldest went to give him a cuddle and he scratched and bit his face! I walked past him the other day and he latched onto the back of my leg and bit and scratched me till I could get him off, 2 minutes later he was on the other leg. He's tried going for my face Ect and the babies

What do I do? The eldest loves him but I don't want them being covered in bite and scratch marks all the time especially the youngest any ideas

We can't keep them apart unless one gets shut in another room 😔
We asked the vet about claws being trimmed and she said they weren't long enough.

Yes he is my first cat, DSis has always wanted me to have one as Ds and their dad. He's now not happy that the cat is attacking the children and making them bleed (he's had cats and dogs)

He's constantly hunched up making himself look bigger and jumping with extended claws he thinks the kids are two much for him. The lady we brought him off said he had
Children around him since birth hence why we choose him but has told someone who brought his siblings she doesn't have kids and their not her cats so no idea :( he's done nothing but bite, his, claw and scratch DP since he's been home as well and the eldest keeps saying he doesn't like him anymore 😔

We had a cat like this, tried everything for 18 months but he was drawing blood every day, would hide under beds and sofas or jump off shelves and attack with claws and teeth, we had to rehome him.

Put a glove on and tickle his belly and let him go bananas. One of mine was a scratchy kitten and needed to wriggle and scratch. I got him into a routine and we had 'vicious bastard' time but the rest of the time he was a teddy bear.

I have trimmed my cats claws myself since he was a kitten. You get special scissors from Pets at Home.

Personally I think you need to play more with him if you can and also appreciate that kittens do have a desire to hunt/ play fight etc. He will calm with age but meantime needs stimulation and attention ie playtime

And agree no games that encourage biting, even with gloves.

You need to get things like feathery sticks etc. My cat loves

http://www.petmeds.co.uk/Ancol-Acticat-Playground-Cat-Toy/p/I0005670?=googleshopping&CAWELAID=120160500000009342&CAGPSPN=pla&fp1=ppc&&fp2=315175833&fp3=25217609793&&fp4=I0005670&gclid=Cj0KEQiAlae1BRCU2qaz2t9IIBEiQAKRGDVS9Z4t7vhy8UgSDxjT0ii_A3-B25lo7hgSLYxgzlPQwQaAm4F8P8HAQ

I always get kittens in pairs so they take some of this behaviour out on each other. I would not recommend any play that encourages biting or scratching you, he will eventually learn that you don't want to play that way. Lots of arms length toys like feathers on sticks help. My three year old still occasionally gets over excited and starts attacking us and he had a huge session this morning "killing" my feet through the duvet. The odd scratch is part and parcel of having a cat, particularly a young cat. I remember going on holiday once and the woman at the car hire counter looked at my hands and said "kittens?" because they were covered in scratches. We did indeed have kittens at the time . Unfortunately I don't think young kittens and young children are an easy combination to deal with.

Your photos of the little terror he looks so cute but equally naughty you can see it in his eyes....

I think unfortunately it's just a kitten thing and kitten scratches tend to hurt more than adult cats scratches with their thinner claws... every time I've had a kitten they are so gorgeous but such hard work because he just wants to play really but I guess the patience is wearing thin.

I agree with what the other posters have said ... make sure he is getting enough playing time throughout the day in short bursts, and when playtimes over be calm and loving ...

Give it a couple months and hopefully he'll settle down

Is he neutered ?

Okay, if he is arching his back a lot as well he probably is stressed out by your children and reacting to that. It's not their fault - they're just children and unpredictable so scary to cats.

Can you give him a safe room that the children aren't allowed into? Maybe a bedroom so he can hide under the bed or in the wardrobe and feel safe?

I have trimmed kittens' claws at 8ish weeks - you can buy clippers at a pet shop, but you have to be careful to get just the very tips, so you don't hurt them.

He will still try to play fight with you though - that's what kittens do. If you realise that you can't deal with it, best to re-home responsibly.

Agree, he needs a safe place to go where he doesn't get disturbed. Reward him for coming when he's called. Try to spend a good 5 minutes of every hour with him, rolling foil balls around, throwing pipe cleaner shapes for him to fetch.

He could be teething, which would be why he's biting. He'll grow out of it, if you don't train him to keep doing it by encouraging bitiness and so on. Does he have scratching posts?

If he scratches someone, immediately put him in a room on his own, with a scratching post, for 5 minutes. Gently show him how to scratch on the post.

Another thing to do is to share food together and you and your DH eat first, then the children, and when you have all finished your snack, he then is given a treat or snack while you all stay in the room. (Try it a few times, so he isn't expecting to be an alpha.)

Always make sure he has water to drink freely available, in any room.

Around about this time I tried a harness on our kittens (quietly) and got them used to it, and then played fetch and other games with them until they forgot they were wearing it.

Time out doesn't work on cats. It will stop the immediate problem by removing him from the situation but there's no point keeping it up for an arbitrary five minutes as it won't make a difference. Trying to frighten/shock him into stopping also won't help if he's doing it out of fear.

The food advice is just bizarre. He won't even notice.

Poor cat. I agree he's just being a kitten and he sounds like he started out being friendly, but the baby/toddler interaction has scared or hurt him at some point so he's now begun to lash out, you can tell this by the body language of trying to make himself bigger, too. The picture of the scratched leg looks like a baby Not a great combination, TBH, very young children, kitten (rather than older cat) and the first time you've had a cat at all. All three of those are difficult situations for pet ownership, let alone all at once!

Anyway. It's the situation so I agree with the following. It's fixable but it will take some effort:

• Making sure you have plenty of safe, high spaces for cat to hide where the DC can't reach him. Stairgates that the cat can slip through also help. For high spaces you can build paths for him to climb furniture, install some shelves, which you can add offcuts of carpet to if you want, or buy one of those tower scratching post gym things. Radiator hanging beds are good, too.

• If this isn't possible or maybe in addition, blanket rule is that nobody touches the kitten when he is in certain places. Enforce with time out or whatever you usually use for the 3 year old.

• Heavy supervision of DC around kitten at all times. It's likely that the incident(s) which have frightened or hurt him have happened at times when you've been distracted for a few seconds. Emphasis on gentle, calm, quiet stroking and then carefully regimented rules for playing actual games (good ideas: Buy a fishing rod type toy so that hands are far away from claws rather than trailing type toys, games where you roll, flick or gently slide/throw something to the kitten can be good as long as you enforce the rule not to try and take something out of the kitten's paws or mouth, wear thick socks and trousers while playing, understand that kitten doesn't necessarily have a handle on his own excitement and might scratch by accident e.g. trying to attack feet.

• When DC are calmer or in bed, approach animal like you would a wild, frightened one. Let him come to you, don't pick him up unless it's totally necessary, be very calm, avoid direct eye contact (cats perceive it as a threat, that's why they always look like they are having staring contests), if you do accidentally realise you're staring, blink slowly - it's a sign of friendliness/non malicious intent. This has more tips.

• Loud unexpected noises might be frightening to a cat, too. With small children obviously this is unavoidable but if he's comfortable with you then you could try to reassure him. Access to a quieter place upstairs is a good idea. A Feliway diffuser might help ease the anxiety associated with a noisy house, too.

Unless you're planning to keep him as an indoor only cat, don't trim his claws, please. They need them for climbing trees and fences.

Also, I'd add that male cats have a tendency to spray a particularly pungent kind of urine in the house when they feel stressed about something, so it's absolutely in your interest to sort this and help him feel more settled before he becomes sexually mature, or you'll have a worse problem on your hands.

Also added to play time - be aware that cats can have a "mad five minutes" where they go completely doolally, ears back, eyes wild, running around the house at top speed. Advise DC to watch from a distance! It can be very funny to see but attempting to interact with them when they are doing this is a very bad idea because they will just see you as prey. It happens less as they get older.

Aargh, our current EvilKitten also loves ambushing you, so I sympathize. None of our other cats have been like this (idle blighters) so she's come as a bit of a shock.

It's a bit like finding out when your demon second-born arrives that your chilled out, nicely behaved eldest child was that way from pure luck and nothing to do with your perfect parenting.

Luckily EvilKitten has fluffy feet, so she tends to fall off my leg fairly easily.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=lisncxkbHfc

No not neutered he's too small.

We have stairgates due to the baby, eldest can work them, he has a safe place but doesn't like it. We've tried putting him in a room on his own but when he comes out he's just as pissed! Kids are told not to touch the cat continuously it seems they're supervised with him but he may of hurt him when I was doing bath time not on purpose. Even when kids aren't here he's more or less the same albeit it's rare they aren't her.

We managed to establish its the eldest he doesn't like. As soon as he see'a him that it he goes off on one, even if he doesn't go near him once he's out the room after 5 minutes he calms down but not all the way down. The house isn't big enough to make sure they're apart at all times

You need to make more safe places then. Cats aren't as easy to herd as dogs, they tend to go where they like. Options are key! I'm sure if your toddler has done something to the cat it wasn't on purpose, he might not even have realised that he's done something upsetting but the size ratio of a child to a kitten is pretty big, you can't blame the cat for being scared.

You don't need to keep them apart at all times but you do need to supervise when they are together. That's why it's not normally recommended to get a new pet when you have several small children. It's not impossible but you will need to have eyes in the back of your head for a bit - if you need to take the baby somewhere then take the toddler too or make sure the cat is shut in another room. If you put little hook and eye locks at the tops of the doors you can stop the 3yo opening them.

It will be easier when he can go out, you won't need to supervise as heavily. But you want to make sure the cat is happy at home before you let him out.

Are you wanting to rehome him then? As it kind of sounds a bit like that.

It does sound like he's very young also. He must have been away from his mum at 7 weeks? My cat was 12 weeks when I got him.

If you feel you are unable to look after you may be best trying to rehome now while he is still a kitten.

He's a baby.
He sounds scared.
And bored.
He needs play and to slowly learn what behaviour is desirable.
Not his claws clipping!

There's nothing wrong with clipping his claws if he has talons. I've clipped mine since he was about 7 months. It's fine - I just take the tips off.

He is an indoor cat but can still climb up his scratching post etc

However yes this kitten needs to play and get used to you etc

He does need to play at this age, when they have a companion kitten they basically play (run around like lunatics, fighting), eat and sleep. With no playmate you need to be playing with him and play at that age is all about hunting and fighting practice so it has to involve pouncing and wrestling to satisfy his instincts. Otherwise he will look for his own amusement and that is your current problem.

I think people underestimate how much playtime a kitten needs.

The toys on sticks are brilliant - he can have a million toys but if nobody plays with him then you will see more and more of this behaviour.

That said I do think sometimes you can have more bitey cats - we once had a female that would lie at the bottom of the stairs just so she could bite one of us - and she really meant it - although she did this as an adult not as a kitten.

Our current kitten, 5 months tomorrow is the most loving cat I have ever had but honestly - it's like someone just dumped twin toddlers on me.

He used to and still does some of the things you describe because he was bored and wanted you to play with him - although I have never had a kitten hiss at me before - do you think he is picking up on the fact you don't seem to like him or he keeps getting told off?

We got a big climbing unit with hidey holes in (in one of which I found an empty bag of raw ox hearts I had taken out of the freezer to defrost overnight for him, sigh) which also helps.

Last night when I got back in our kitten was going mad and I asked DH if he had fed him - erm nope. Often they are trying to tell you things, bored, tired, hungry - our cat doesn't meow for food he becomes a massive pain in the bum. What about getting him some raw meaty food as well to get his teeth into?

Also try giving him a toy to rabbit kick/bite. We have a ratatouille toy and sometimes I rub cat nip on him and drag him around for bit throw it ahem. He does sound like he is trying to get attention - for whatever reason.

I don't think there's any need to slate the poor OP like that. And why get angry? Cats and children can be a life-enhancing combination. She's just got a particularly lively little beastie, by the sound of it. We've had kittens from the time our oldest child was about 18 months; with the first, we never got attacked bar the odd lick.

The newish (6-month-old) kitten is more of a livewire, but is currently being exhausted by having to eat a houseful of spiders and watch the bonkers dog chasing its own tail/bits of newspaper/imaginary postman.

NB I don't recommend getting a dog to exhaust the cat.