Skip to main content

Due to decreasing use over the years, I have decided to disable the forum functionality of the site.

Forums will still be available to view but new posts are no longer allowed.

cat help?!

Forums

I'm about at my wit's end with my kitten. I can understand her being needy as I work 40 hours a week, though it is annoying with her in my face constantly when I am home. She is such a cry baby. Seriously I've never seen another cat cry this much. If I go in the kitchen she's at my feet crying, if I get on the computer she's in front of my monitor crying, if I close the bathroom door she yowls at it until I open it. I feel bad but the crying is begining to wear on me. I hope she'll grow out of it? She's about 15 weeks old, and after september I'll be done with work and she'll have more people around her and hopefully that will help. My main problem though is that she wakes me at 5 am! Almost like clockwork! I get up at 6:30 ish, unless it's a weekend. At first she started waking me when I started stirring, which was when my alarm went off. That was nice because it kept me from falling back asleep. But that stopped. Then she started waking me at 2 or 5 or both. Licking my nose and purring loudly. I don't know what to do! If i push her away or fuss at her she just comes right back. Today I think I finally hurt her feelings after the 10th time shoving her away from my face. Also she has destroyed my beautiful headboard. It's one of those fabric ones....I made it myself and I can't replicate it. And she has climbed all over it. She has a scratching board, a scratching post thingy, all the toys a cat could want, but she destroys my headboard and I've noticed her clawing my couch lately too! I try to keep her nails trimmed but I can't do it every day as currently I have to sneak up on her when she's asleep otherwise she sounds like a bobcat! I just don't know what to do. I love Riot, but she's causing so much trouble.... :c

Heidi Wed, 07/08/2009 - 10:39

You [i]named her[/i] "Riot"? :rofl Well, that was your first mistake, giving her a name to live up to. :lol:
Seriously, she sounds like a normal kitten. You are dealing with several problems and I'll see if I can help you with them.

First, the headboard and couch.
Well, the headboard may be 'toast'. I would never have one (fabric or wicker covered) specifically *because* of clawing problems. You need to show her what is and is not appropriate by immediately redirecting her scratching/stretching to appropriate areas. A good way to do that *all* of the time, is to buy some wide, double-sided sticky-tape and apply it liberally to the fabric areas she likes to scratch. Yes, it looks tacky....but most cats cannot STAND to have their feet/fur stick to anything and every time she sets a paw on it, it will deter her...no matter if people are home with her or not. After she has learned to leave those areas alone, then you can remove the sticky-tape.

The constant *need* for your attention.
Well, stop and GIVE her what she wants, until she doesn't want it any more. Do pet her for a bit, but then put her aside from you if you have things you need to do. If she is *still* persistent and demanding of attention...give it to her. Pick her up and hold her firmly. So firmly she cannot move. Sort of give her head/ears/neck a rough-ish scrubble, but continue to hold her firmly so she can't move. When she struggles, hold her even more firmly. Eventually, she is not going to LIKE being restrained and when you DO set her down, she's gonna glare at you, ruffler her fur back into place and possibly lash her tail from side to side as she either runs or stalks indignantly away from you.

The getting you up early? You have to ignore that.
Giving her *any* attention will reward her efforts, even if it is 'negative' attention ([i]push her away, smack her rump, get up and put her out of room and especially getting up to feed her to keep her away from you[/i]) only reinforces to her, that her behavior works! Things that can help: Cats cycle through play, eat, sleep. If you can give her a rousing good play session late in the evening, a cool-down period and then a meal, she should sleep hard for the evening. However, kittens/cats can and will get up at all hours and 'go demanding', either attention or more food. If the evening play session doesn't keep her quiet all night...shut the bedroom door and use a noise-machine to cover any crying she makes.
If she *does* cry...IGNORE it. She will eventually STOP when she sees she isn't getting the results she wants. For a *really* persistent cat crying at my door and rattling it with paws, I will get up and park my vacuum in front of it. Thet manages to deter my persistent kitties. If it doesn't... :twisted: ...I will park the vacuum in front of the closed door...switched "on" and with the cord unwound under my door and the plug end near an outlet. If persistent kitty cries and cries...I plug in the vacuum, and since it is already switched 'on', it will come on and MAKE the kitty leave the door area alone.
To re-train her, you need to be consistent so she learns what is and isn't acceptable.
Best of luck,
heidi =^..^=

Krickette Wed, 07/08/2009 - 13:50

[quote="Sara"]Get another kitty. :mrgreen:[/quote]
i wish! but alas, i dont think that'd work....at all....

Krickette Wed, 07/08/2009 - 13:58

Sara WHYDYOUDOTHAT?!?!?! Ugh, i just went and took a peek where I got my kitten from and.....omg....soooooo many cuties, way more than when i was looking and found Riot (who is still pictured on page 2 under Jason's Kitties

http://www.petsaversshreveport.org/ps/c…" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

i love the black one:
[img]http://www.petsaversshreveport.org/ps/i…]
ooooo:
[img]http://www.petsaversshreveport.org/ps/i…]
omg omg omg the black and the siamese:
[img]http://www.petsaversshreveport.org/ps/i…]

riot!
[img]http://www.petsaversshreveport.org/ps/i…]

anyways.....
i had to stop looking....

Sara Wed, 07/08/2009 - 13:58

Really, they wear each other out. The cat adoption places around here won't even adopt out single kittens any more.

Morgan Wed, 07/08/2009 - 14:05

I discovered how to stop the waking up quite by accident, mainly because I am not a happy camper if woken earlier than I intend to get up. The first time Henry stuck a claw on my eyelid he ended up flying across the room. :? :shock: Hasn't woken me since. :laugh1

Daylene Alford Wed, 07/08/2009 - 14:28

My son did that with our cat as well (by accident). He had a bad habit of waking you up by biting on your nose.

Krickette Wed, 07/08/2009 - 14:30

i'm afraid i might hurt her one day!
I emailed my mom the pictures of the kittens, maybe she'll decide taking care of 2 cats isn't much different than taking care of 1 (or so i would assume....)

lipigirl Wed, 07/08/2009 - 14:46

Heidi's advice is VERY good take it !
Also I think you should not have called it Riot - what did I tell you about names !
and I think it may have Bengal in it - they are very affectionate and needy cats....if you can get another one it may well help.

Krickette Wed, 07/08/2009 - 15:34

yeah, i thought that seemed like good advice, too. but then sara got me all distracted! for shame! lol! anywho, i watched your video of your kitty, and he looks strangly similar to mine in some ways. other ways not so much, lol.

NZ Appaloosas Thu, 07/09/2009 - 02:29

[quote="Sara"]Really, they wear each other out. The cat adoption places around here won't even adopt out single kittens any more.[/quote]

Sara's right...people think cats are solitary critters, but there reality is, they aren't. They just don't necessarily hunt in packs, and can handle being singletons better than some other species, but will always do better when there's a companion for them.

Diane

vneerland Thu, 07/09/2009 - 09:13

Yup. You need another one. I will send one to you. Bow of color of coice attached. :oops: I have an batch of tabby's and tabby and whites, and one gorgeous lynx point siamese (uh???) out of the neighbors black and white cats. I am the one feeding the cats next door (most of the time, nobody there) and they were wild enough for me not to be able to catch. Or spay. :evil: So the mother cat had 4 kittens last year and they lived. Two of her kittens were girls. Do I need to go on? I am at the end of my rope. We do not have a shelter in my county. I seem to be unable to just stop feeding them since they now have moved to my porch and brought their babies (3x4!) The good news in that is that the babies are taming by the day. The bad news is that I don't know where to take them, and I cannot afford to have a few dozen cats fixed. Local advice (shoot them) seems a bit brutal :roll: but after one of my dogs badly nailed a kitten the other day, I am on pins and needles. I never want to hear that screaming again. I did not want cats in the first place, but two (now fixed) boys have adopted me and I have come to like them. The rest? Up for grabs!!
I have a plague.
Kittens anyone? :shock:

Krickette Thu, 07/09/2009 - 09:47

ugh, you're only allowed to tempt me when you are more than 3 states away, not next door!
mom said no, though. and she called me teri, which was very mean.
so then i showed her that horse i was looking at, just out of spite, and she said she doesn't accept horses under 1 hh, so i just said that made it a really easy keeper! :lol:

Rusti Thu, 07/09/2009 - 14:46

I agree with everybody - a 2nd cat will fix most of your troubles. We have 4 cats that live in the house and I was more annoyed when we only had 1. He was constantly under my feet tripping me and crying/scratching nonstop at the bedroom door at night.

Krickette Thu, 07/09/2009 - 15:14

:cry:
i wish I could, I really do! I've seen so many cute ones lately. But it's just not going to happen. Plus, during the school year it'll be me + 3 other girls in an apt, with Riot and a pomeranian puppy, plus possibly an elderly mutt. And it's a $250 deposit per pet.... And I just don't want to crowd up everyone else's space with another critter.... I was going to try to foster this summer, but that did not work out...oh well. I've decided that I'm just going to use it to my advantage, and next time she wakes me at 5 I'm going running. Except this morning, lol. today I pulled the covers over my head and that seemed to do the trick.