I don't much like my kittens at the moment. Tell me it gets better?

[fedup1981]

My kittens are driving me bananas and I really don't like some of their behaviour at the moment. One is "worse" than the other, she is obssessed with food, constantly sitting under the highchair scoffing anything that drops down, stealing food off my ds when he's not in the highchair, she climbs on the kitchen worktops looking for food just all the time, and runs straight in the cupboards/fridge when we open the doors. Yes, we've wormed them.

We can't put a bag of rubbish on the floor for half an hour, indoors or out, without her attemtping to rip it open to get at the food. If she smells meat or fish she will fling herself at the kitchen worktops while you're preparing it.

She is rubbish at covering her poos in the litter tray, I often see her standing in the poo. The other one has diarrhea (again) probably from eating something he shouldn't out of the bin they ripped open, so he has been doing runny poos, and has left pooey footprints all over the bathroom, kitchen worktops etc - It's disgusting.

I don't know how to stop them going on the worktops, they're up there everytime I leave the room, sniffing the saucepans while I'm cooking, licking any dishes we leave about etc. I was up til 12.30am last night scrubbing the bathroom last night with a scrubbing brush and dettol to get rid of all the pooey footprints on everything, and this morning I got up and it was the same again, I could have cried.

The "worst" of the two also constantly has her claws out and regularly scratches you accidentally because they're lethal and always out. (She isn't an aggressive or nervous cat, she just has them out all the time)

Plus they have fleas at the moment and haven't responded to the flea treatment yet, and I've just found flea bites all over ds's legs who was just asleep in his pushchair (which they have started sleeping in) I'm awake every night itching because I am allergic to fleas and even more allergic to flea treatments, and somehow they always manage to sneak into our room despite trying our best to keep the door shut.

Yes they're cute and cuddly and sweet, and they love each other and ds loves them, and plays nicely with them, but aibu in occasionally thinking "oh god what have I done??" - they're so much hassle it's unreal. Nobody would forgive me if I rehomed them (especially my dp who just adores them) so that option is out, but I'm so sick of scrubbing poo, and just suspecting there's poo and fleas everywhere does my head in.

It feels like mental torture sometimes knowing I can leave the bathroom clean at dinner time, come back in an hour to bath ds and it's covered in pinprick dots of shit... floor, bath, toilet, sink, windowledge, shelves - and I have a ds who loves to drink his bathwater! - they even hook bath toys out of the box and play with those so I have to scrub them too before my ds can have them in his bath.

I'm so tired of it. Please tell me they'll grow out of this stage, please? I love cats and I don't want to have to get rid of them but they're driving me mad and making everything a lot harder.

if them being all over the house is stressing you out that much why don't you try restricting them to a smaller area of the house?

do they go outside much? a good few hours outside a day should help them burn off a fair bit of energy so that they sleep alot of the time they're home.

as for the food issue, how much do you feed them? if they're eating what they root out of the bin and steal from the counters and definitely don't have worms i'd be inclined to suggest they may need more food, try leaving a bowl full of dry food out and keeping it filled so they can eat as much as they need... remember they're growing so may need more food then you think.

as for the cleanliness issue, they do get cleaner honestly.... the messiest cat you ever met in your life was my kitten when i was 14, now she's 10 she's so neat and fussy it's impossible to equate her with the soot covered, mud drenched, smelly little thing she was for her first year or two

Do sort the flea infestation, it is quite bad if the baby is getting bitten. Get spot-on treatments from the vet and apply as directed. They will also recommend a good aerosol spray for the house, you will need to do all the rooms including carpets and furnishings and the pushchair. This will kill adult fleas and the eggs, which is important to prevent a re-infestation. Don't only do the cats, you must do the house as well. Treatments from the vet are much stronger and work, unlike ones from pet shops which are a weaker formulation. You will find that re-infestation is highly unlikely if you keep up regular treatments, and regular worming as the life cycles of worms and fleas are inter-related.

Re litter tray problems, think about getting more litter trays if you have only one between the two, if they are fillingit regularly, having a larger surface area may avoid the standing in it to some degree.

Try to limit the rooms they can go into, but at the same time, play with them more. They may be a little bit bored if they cannot go out yet, and need to burn some energy.
This is behind a lot of "naughty" kitten behaviour. They will learn to keep their claws in eventually. Ping pong balls are good to chase, throw a ball of paper in the air for them to jump and grab. Mine liked to retrieve a toy mouse that we threw up or down the stairs, and she would bring it back to be thrown again! Sadly at 2yrs she doesn't do it anymore. ( I enjoyed it as much as she did!) Once they go outside to play, they wear themselves out running and climbing.

Shut them out of the areas when you are eating so that you can get on in peace. We still have to do this now. A good way to put them off is to feed them just as you sit down to eat. It's also possible that one may eat more than the other if you feed them together, so that the one who gets less is more likely to scrounge.You could try feeding in separate areas if you feed at set times, or just leave dry food available at all times. Some cats do better eating on a self service basis.

Oops sorry I had to go and do something.

I keep their litter tray in the bathroom as they kick litter everywhere and are generally dirty little beggars, so it's easier to mop the bathroom rather than keep scrubbing accidents off the carpet (although it has the drawback of allowing them to jump all over the bathroom)

We do let them out for fresh air once or twice a day for a few minutes but we don't have much of an outside now, just a tiny yard, and they sit there hunched up waiting to be let back in. We're moving soon so we'll have a lot more outside for them to explore and hopefully that will help with the energy aspect. Do you think that's why they're being so annoying?

I do keep bowls of dried food out for them constantly (they have a bowl each, each filled twice a day) they SHOULD be getting enough food but it's weird - despite there being food there, they are constantly "asking" for food, hanging out near the food box etc - when I fill up the bowl they run to it, then act like "is that it?" and walk away. (I think that behaviour stems from when I fed them boiled chicken for a week because they both had the runs) they think dried whiskas isn't good enough for them now - tough!

The water pistol is a good idea. As is getting dp to clean the poo but that's easier said than done, he claims he "doesn't see" the accidents, pooey footprints etc

I don't like wet food sitting around getting smelly and germy, plus the vet said dry food was more nutritious as wet food can contain a lot of plumped out filler and water. I did used to feed them wet food but they constantly had diarrhea, which has calmed down a lot since feeding them only dried food, (although one has it now, I suspect because he ate something he shouldn't have)

We always put them elsewhere when we are eating because of her habit of sitting under the table eating highchair scraps, yet whenever I go in the kitchen she's jumping down or running off licking her chops as if she's just been eating something (you can't leave anything anywhere even for a minute, they even stick their heads in your coffee cup- it's shit!)

The flea problem we are trying to cope with, I really do have quite a bad allergy (chest gets tight, huge weals on my skin etc) to flea products so worried about liberally dousing the house with powder etc, it's difficult. I bathed them, hoovered, we've put some kind of spot-on treatment on them, and they have flea collars etc but it hasn't had much effect. Dp is, as we speak, at pets at home getting flea tablets in the hope that that might rid them of fleas without giving me a huge reaction.

Yes we do have toys for them, a scratching post with dangly balls, mice, jingly balls, a "fishing line" stick etc - they mostly just playfight with each other.

How old are they?

They have a huge plastic box which was supposed to be under bed storage as their litter tray, it's about 2.5ft x 1.5ft, and about 6 inches deep, so plenty of surface area. Before I got such a deep one the girl cat used to crap with her bum over the side of the box so I don't think it's about surface area, I think she's just a messy cat tbh, that's why I was asking if they'd get better.

They're about 5 months (I can't remember exactly now, seems like we've had them forever)

Bless. Mine is 17 weeks, he'll be 4 months on Monday.
No problems with worms or fleas thank god, or squitty poos!

He loves chasing the dog and winding him up
He gets fed 4 X a day - 2 whiskas kitten pouches with a small hand full of biscuits. Despite this he'll always meow at me when I'm in the kitchen or try and lap something up from our plates if he gets the chance!

I'd like to get a 2nd kitten or young cat so he has someone of his own kind to play with - although, you might have put me off that idea

I'm sorry it's not going well; it does sound nightmarish. Have they always been like this? We have just collected ours; they are 12 weeks old and for the first day or two, I thought it was a huge mistake because they pooed everywhere. But they seem to be settling down with the litter tray now.

It really sounds as if yours need to be outside by now - even if you only have a small outside space, they can roam further afield, can't they? Cats have a wider territory than their own back yard and their having access to it will mean they burn off a lot of energy, stop using the litter tray so much.

I also agree about the wet food; it wouldn't be out all the time because generally cats will eat up their wet food straight away. You can then leave the dry down all the time for them to snack on in between meals. You can get good quality wet food if you're worried about the nutritional value - look in pet stores rather than supermarkets.

If topical flea treatments are a problem, you could ask the vet about an injectable called Program, it is given every 6 months and is very effective. Vets tend to give a health check at the same time, so if you can get their annual vaccinations done at the same time as the other one you should only need to see the vet every six months!

The infestation does sound bad enough to need vets advice about how to treat and with what. You have to treat the house because the flea eggs get scratched off and lie in crevices, carpets etc for up to a year before hatching, the vet approved sprays will penetrate the eggcases which are pretty resistant to pet flea powders/sprays and kill them. This is why people wonder why they get a re-infestation at a later date, despite treating their pets.
Trust me on this, many years ago I had to treat my two cats and our home, and ever since have been vigilant using only products from the vet, none have ever had fleas since.

You could try emailing Your Cat magazine regarding the behavioural issues, their team of experts will reply to you with advice. [email protected]

I can so sympathise with you!

I have just gotten a kitten a couple of weeks ago, he is now 13 weeks old and a bit of a nightmare already!

He too, is useless as burying his poo and ALWAYS stands in it before leaving the tray then we get the pooey footprints all over the place. He also always has traces of poo on his bum still, even though his poo is solid and not runny at all. He doesnt seem to realise that it needs cleaning so I need to wipe that for him aswell otherwise he'd be spreading poo onto my sofas and carpets etc!

He also quite often likes to kick pieces of poo out of the litter tray and play with them of course spreading the poo further. So basically I have to watch him and when he does a poo I have to get straight over there, clean the poo out of the tray before he kicks it everywhere and wipe his bum for him It's honestly like having another baby around and I'm hoping it wont last too much longer!

I don't know why he feels the need to play with his poo, it's not like he doesnt have enough toys to play with. We've got bloody hundreds of little fake mice, jingly cat balls, sticks with feathers on that we dangle in front of him, scratch posts etc...

Oh, he also had worms which i actually saw hanging out of his bum this was the day we got him so it was straight down the the vets to flea and worm him!

He hasn't yet learned to get up onto the worktops in the kitchen but I am dreading the day that he does. I will be keeping the water squirter ready!

I do think at times OH MY GOD, what have I done?? but then I see how much my kids love him to bits, poo covered or not

Kittens are a pain in the neck until around a year old (puppies are just as bad IME). I always said I want a cat and a dog without the baby bit, but sadly I also want to be the only trainer of said animals from weaning.

A lot of wet cat food is filler but I would still recommend it for the first year (with dry food down as well). Every vet has a different opinion on everything, their word is never law. I believe Felix has one of the highest protein contents. It's what I gave mine, with Iams as the dry food. Don't leave it down, just give them what they will eat then and there and no more.

They do get cleaner, they do calm down, they do become lovely (mostly )

Make sure you (or dp) always cleans away every trace of any accidents - even the faintest of smells can give them a licence to do it again.

A water spray will stop your cat from jumping up to steal while you are there, but cats are opportunists. This may never change. Always put food away. Always assume a cat has walked on any surface you are preparing food on. If you can shut them out of the kitchen then do.

I repeat: It will get better - but not overnight and you will always need to keep on top of their behaviour by minimising opportunity.

Good luck

Gawd! I must be very lucky in mine. She's very clean, never has accidents. She does play scratch and bit but it's not that bad. I am expecting that to calm down a bit. Yes she does eat a lot but it's up to you to restrict their food - the fact that there are 2 probably makes it worse as they compete for food.

What flea treatment is it? You might need to treat the carpets and furnishings too.

How often do you clean the litter tray?

Two kittens is a nightmare, we did that for the first time last year where as previously had only had one at the time. I was shocked how much worse two together were.

However they are about 15 months now and are really good family cats who are pretty much no trouble now.

i should show this thread to dp so he realises what well behaved little darlings our kittens really are as he's forever whinging

i would strongly agree with giving meals of wet food twice a day, my 2 are about 4 months and get a pouch in the morning and one in the evening between them and gobble this down instantly even if they still have dry lying there. cat's can also be oddly picky about dry food, they often don't like certain brands and we even had a cat who would refuse it towards the end of the big bags, i could never figure out if it was because it had gone a bit stale or if he just liked a change of flavour every now and again

as for the runny poo, are you feeding them, or are they stealing, cow's milk? most cats are intolerant to it contrary to popular opinion and it is the most common reason i've ever found for runny poo, some cats are very badly affected by even a tiny bit.

honestly, the messy tendancies do get better in even the worst kittens, and once they're out and about a bit more you'll find they seem to be perpetually asleep when they're in!

Good point about the milk pinktulips. I buy kitten milk atm but she only has that once or twice a week. I think goats milk is OK too. But not cows milk.

I agree that once they go out more they will calm down. Feeding them on dry food only is fine, mine is on a dry food diet only and as your vet said is the best diet for them.

Cats are scavengers by nature and will scavenge for food - this is why they need to get out more, then they will scavenge outside and not in your house/kitchen!

Start gently knocking them off worktops now with a firm NO - they will soon get the message.

Our kitty somehow managed to get in the kitchen cupboard and attack the fresh sack of cat litter hidden in there. Took me ages to locate the bad smell...she had pooed in it.
Was desperately trying to tidy up this morning, as our family worker was coming over. I then went for a brief nap and kitty decides to overturn a small pot of pva glue on the dining table. Trouble was, there was a pack of sequins that she had knocked onto the floor. I woke up to find sequins glued onto her paws and on the carpet...and sequins all over the damn house.

Haven't had any probs with the kitchen counters, and she pays no attention to our goldfish either. However, she will do absolutely anything to get into DD1's room and attempt to launch herself at the guinea pig cage....

Ours is nearly 7 months. I hope it does get better. I'm certain my old boy kitty wasn't as mischevious as this girl is.

Oh and don't waste precious money on a kids water pistol. An inexpensive empty washing up bottle works just as good.

Maybe foolishly I thought it would be great to get a kitten. DS is four and great with animals, so I mentioned it to a neighbour, who has just left a message saying she's got a work colleague who may be able to bring us a black female kitten this weekend... I'm not sure how old it is, but apparently it's ready to leave its mother.
So do I really want a kitten, or should I go for a teenager? I've heard kittens are a bit of a mare, but I like the idea of us having the fun of one. Any quick advice welcomed. I am totally clueless.. THANK YOU!

sorry, am in such a rush I thought I was starting a new thread (d'oh!) I will copy this into a new thread. Sorry to invade fed up..!