How can I stop my kitten being so, well... mad?

[HeadFairy]

Our little ginger tom is only 3 months old but he's completely bonkers. We can't walk around the house without him chasing our feet, which would be cute if he didn't bite and claw them. He attacks anything that moves, the children, us. Everyone. I know he's being playful but it's really annoying now.

He's not put off by water or anything (we've tried squirting him with water to keep him off the kitchen worktops - to no avail, he actually likes it!). Will he calm down when he's neutered? He can't go out yet as he's due one more set of jabs, so perhaps being outside will tame some of his wildness

Any advice?

I should think he'll calm down a bit when neutered. Our hand reared ginger ninja was like a mad thing for months. He's just over 1 now and a bit more settled, but he still fancies a swipe at the children's feet when he's feeling wicked. Have you got a scratch post thingy - ours was a sisal pole with a ledge on top and some dangly things which he spent hours attacking and worked off some of his energy. Silver foil rolled into balls is a good one.

Not sure how you keep him off the worktops, ours go up if they think they'll get away with it, but aren't regular offenders. Ginger gets removed from wherever he shouldn't be by his scruff and a firm talking to, and then shut away.

You'll be sorry when he's settled down you know!

Kittens are just crazy though. Try not to react when he attacks feet - just stand still so he has nothing to play with.

Lots of toys to play with instead maybe? You've probably already tried that though. Ours used to just attack (playing, not nasty) our 4yo cat instead so we were spared physical violence ourselves.

Worktops - I put him down off it with a very firm 'NO' and he learnt and never jumps up now.

Just keep plonking him down on the floor when he hits the worktops. He's clearly having far too much fun with the water.

Try distraction therapy, as frostyfingers says - I remember a kitten occupied for ages trying to murder a piece of balled-up paper.

I had a pair of kittens, so they usually used to batter each other - endlessly - instead of me. They did settle down gradually. In about a dozen years time, you'll reminisce about his crazy youth.

Yy to saying no an removing him from the worktop. My cat now gets down when I tell him, because it's either that or he gets shoved off.

We tried sheets of tinfoil hanging over the sides of the worktops. It worked quite well. They aren't keen on tinfoil.

My cat was like this until he was neutered - the change was instant.

I actually missed the old him

Hmmm not sure I'll miss having my toes attacked every five mins, but maybe... stranger things have happened :o

dh and I keep muttering to ourselves "it's just a phase", he's compared it to having a new born - only we didn't lock the dcs downstairs in the kitchen every night, perhaps we should have done :o

Thanks for the replies, I thought a combination of growing up and neutering would sort him out (not that we'd neuter to change his behaviour iyswim, just being responsible pet owners)

We are most definitely plonking him on the floor every time he climbs on to the work tops, he's started to understand I think because he does look really guilty when I yell at him to get off and he slinks off (albeit reluctantly!) He does love the water though, he's even got in to the bath with the dcs which they think is hilarious! Odd cat :)