Kitten madness-how long does it last?

[Orangeena]

We have a 9 wk old kitten and she is driving me potty.So much so that I dont know if I can keep her or not. We have never had a cat-always dogs-and we found this little thing a few weks ago.It is impossible to do anything with her.I am continually using a water spray bottle to give her a little spray for jumping up on worktops etc but she seems to take no notice-I turn around and she is up on the table licking the butter dish ffs.It is just relentless!
I am lucky in that I have a spare tiny box room with a bare floor and just some spare furniture in there so this is where she goes at night with her bed,food,toys ,water etc.No electrical wires etc in there so its perfect for her.I have just now put her up to the room for an hour to give myself a break and for her to nap-is it ok to do this a few times during the day?I dont want to isolate her too much but she is too much of a handful all of the time-I cant cook,eat,sew,bake,go on laptop etc
WILL THIS PHASE PASS? Should we stick it out-she is very sweet and cute btw.

If she came to you at - say - 6 or 7 weeks she was really too young to be separated from her mother and litter mates - so she has all this surplus energy that should be being dissipated on games/learning activities with them now being dissipated on games with you.

It should calm down over the next few weeks but I'm afraid that you'll still have to interact with her more than you would a more mature kitten or adult cat. Lots of games.

(It's OK to put her somewhere to sleep but if you're giving her a concentrated play for 20 minutes, she should conk out of her own accord and give you some time to do things.)

Where did you find her?

Well,this is whats strange-she has the run of the house and its a fairly big one,so she is haring up and down the stairs,playing with toys,shoelaces etc-yet she doesnt seem to nap a lot.She will flake out occasionlly but not for long.Lots of distractions too I suppose with dh,teenagers,dog in and out constantly, that sort of thing.
Thanks cozietosie I was just wanting to know if its ok to pop her up to 'her' room sometimes for a nap/quiet time etc.
God its exhausting this kitten stage-I had no idea!

She was on the side of a country lane with no houses etc in sight.Looked everywhere to see if she had escaped from somewhere but could find nothing.She had a cut mouth and a cut back leg.So eventually we just put her in the car and brought her home..

In my experience (loads of cats over a long life!) the more attention you give her now the better cat she will be when she grows up. But it's fine to put her in her room every now and then- you need a life too! Get the teens to play with her for a concentrated 20 minutes then sit down with her on their lap- she'll probably flake. I wouldn't use the water spray at this age- just remove her firmly and give her something else to do. Has she got anything to climb?

What toys has she got that she can play with herself? A ball of tinfoil are hours of fun. Or, you could do what we did and get two!

She must have been dumped then. How awful for her. I'm so glad you spotted her, the foxes would have got her otherwise.

I'd have done the same thing and dealt with the wrath of fluffycat and dh later.

Did you used to be aaplecrumbly op?

Ah - I remember the thread. How wonderful that she survived.

On the sleeping (or not) I'm just wondering whether she's adjusted herself already to your household routine and is doing her main sleep at night? I'd normally expect an afternoon snooze at least, even with a kitten, but she may just be an energetic type.

Do you get noises at night or do things go quiet?

My 7 month tom kitten hasn't yet calmed down. His current nickname is terrorist as he doesn't know when to stop! Thankfully he's adorable, and sleeps quite a lot. But rampages when he is awake. He also knows what a door handle is and hangs on them for 20 seconds or so in an effort to release the door.

It's definitely easier having more than one. They entertain each other and they teach each other things.

I'm a fan of 'room time' when they get over excited. Play with her lots in bursts to wear her out.
I use noise in general for good and bad things and water spray is last resort for very naughty behaviour like biting each other. A stern no, or a loud clap of hands or a hiss are my telling off noises. Then clicking fingers, higher pitched talking and rustling of dreamies packet are good noises. I like throwing treats to wear them out.

My girl is 2 in September, and still tears around the house, and still does the sideway kitten prance (which I absolutely adore)

Yes fluffy it was me-forgot I was wearing a different hat. Thanks everyone and I suspect cozie that you may be right about the sleeping thing because I never hear a peep out of her at night and yes its very quiet where we live.
Thanks everyone and Im sure we will be fine-just having a moan yesterday really.She really is much more full-on than I was expecting but we love the scamp to bits so we will just have to plod on I guess.She is so cute and mischievous/

Oh, is she cute? maybe a picture to confirm cuteness?

At that age she'd usually be with mum and siblings play fighting all day but that's not the case for her so you'll have to do all that instead.

The weeks fly by, the bed that used to look to big for them stretched out suddenly looks to small for them.

I actually have no pics yet-just realised. I must say cats do appear to be far more clever than I ever gave them credit for-talk about learning as you go eh? She is a tabby with lots of white fluffy..