My cat is giving me a hellofa trouble

[smelltheglove]

No. Catpnip is perfectly fine for cats. It is not addictive, it is just extremely attractive to them. There is no catnip withdrawal or anything. The reason you see cats go crazy for it and they find it if it's in a room is because it smells very strong and very attractive to them. One thing to note is that a lot of cats don't actually react to catnip. Also, if you're worrying about being able to afford it, buy a plant and grow it yourself. Just make sure to keep it in a place they can't get to. The top of the refrigerator is not one of those places, by the way.

my mom grows mint around her house. it makes a great ground cover, you can make a killer mint tea from it, and it looks and smells good. cats seem to like mint. there is even a type called cat mint which they really like (it's not catnip, despite a similar sounding name).

[StayTuned]

There could be many things, and it would be hard to find out and make much better in a week, but I would say that if the cat is otherwise sound and healthy (no illness or infection/disease/injury annoying it) then it would probably be somewhat a behavioral issue. Other than cats are pretty clawy and scratchy to begin with and use their claws to hang on to things, then some things may help if it does too much of stuff it's not allowed to do or bites.

Very informative post, thank you. I tried to punish her with absence of things, but that doesnt really seem to bother her at all. I throw her out of the kitchen if she misbehaves while we eat, only for her to repeat it again the next day. She doesn't learn that jumping people while they eat is a bad thing.

I think it should be worth noting that I've just spend 20 minutes cuddling with her. She was like an angel. But god forbid I go and get myself something to drink, there she is clawing into my leg trying to climb me. I just got another scratch mark.

Was she trying to tell me "wtf don't stop cuddling with me", or what?

Btw, I have to sleep now. I'm tired. Please keep posting, I'll read everything tomorrow.

[Snowraven]

I think your cat wants more attention then you give it. That's with the scratching and chasing and scratching furniture. She does that because she knows you'll chase her or someone will and then she can play.

Also, it's ok to let her eat a bit.

People say you can't teach a cat, but you can. When she claws you, first say "augh" loud. After, whenever she does something wrong, life her by her neck (like a mother cat does with her kittens) and yell at her. After a few such experiences she learns. Yes, it's a bit brutal, but it doesn't hurt the cat as long as you hold her for a little time only and don't agitate her in the air. So, you lift her, yell at her, put her down. She won't learn first time though.
However, if you don't play a bit, she won't understand much. Ger her a playmate, another cat of similar age. They'll have lots of fun ruining your house! Nah, I'm joking, after they learn to get along they'll have fun playing. I say after since at start one or both might be kind of agressive to one another, but they'll get used to eachother.

[Sigma]

Isnt catnip the equivalent of LSD? I don't want to make the cat addicted to something that the people here cannot afford to buy anymore once I move out. Which is going to be next week. lol

Cat on Catnip
Cat on LSD **** Warning this is disturbing video hence the link and not embedded *****


To me it just sounds like the cat has way too much energy. Try letting it go out of the house.
as for the people whos cat it is. if they put a higher value on their furnature than that of the animal there is only two choices.

1 - you take it with you.
2 - give it to the animal shelter.

[Snowraven]

I've had cats all my life. heres some suggestions.

Why has noone suggested a Spray bottle of water yet? carry it around with you. she starts clawing your legs or the furnature, Spray her. Also if you can get a can of Compressed air (not that computer duster stuff. thats not air. a small bottle of compressed CO2 or air.) and spray it near them (not on them. near them.) they hate the sound. it sounds to them like a HUGE cat hissing.

For the most part it sounds like the cat is bored. try playing with her more with a lazer pointer or something she likes. provide her with more positive stimulation. catnip might help too.

Good ideas here! Spray her with water or air. My cat is scared of my parfume because of the sound and smell for example.

No chemicals though, water or air, she'll just wash herself.

[Morogoth]

If your cat eat too much, maybe it has worms (it's something common for the young cats, they catch it from their mother milk). Also, you need to cut the claws every 2 weeks. Washing furnitures with vinegar helps too.

[Auloria]

Overreact when the cat claws or bites at you, pretend to yell out in pain. You want her to believe that she doesn't have to actually do much damage to get you to stop doing what she doesn't like. Ideally she'll swat at you with no claws and run away when she's unhappy. The other half of that is you learning her warning signs.

Excessively reward her for doing things you like. Give her treats at her scratching post and pet her when she is near it to make her associate it with rewards, so she likes being around it (and will eventually prefer to scratch it). It is much much easier to do this than to try to follow her around 24/7 and punish her for scratching furniture.

You might try putting tape or some other unpleasant feeling material around the furniture to discourage her from going to it. Prevention is better than punishment, and a happy cat is easier to train. :-)

[Rotted]

exactly what someone said above me, its having fun

Its playing, the problem is, and believe me I have 3 cats with this type behavior, but only 1 uses claws, this is because she / he hasn't learnt to play without claws, because you didn't give it enough time when it was younger,

Like I say I have three cats now, 2 can play and will on a rare occasion use claws, or when they catch a mouse to play with, they pummel it with their paw and no claws

bloody buttons (the cat we didnt play with much as a kitten) will play with it, with all claws blazing and rip it to shreds, makes quiet a mess

bottom line is, its a cat being a cat

[Mjau]

She is still young, might be she is just acting like a kitten and/or have a very playful personality. Of my 3 cats, our female was a crazy kitten. Full of energy, playful, would chase feet, steal food, open doors, climbing trees and get stuck, hunt everything and do about every mischievous thing she could think of. I was about 10 when we got her and didn't mind cat scratches at all. My arms,hands and feet were full of tiny scratches from playing with her! We tried the water bottle when she was naughty and it had 0 effect.
Then we started carrying her away by her scruff when she did something wrong(don't do this when she gets older/heavier) and that seemed more effective, but in truth I think she just had to grow up.

She is now 14 and still as playful as ever. She was always a friendly cat, but when she was younger she didn't realize claws hurt but she grew out of it and plays a lot gentlier now. She is a clever one and know what is wrong and right now, so she only steals food if we don't see/don't put it away She grew up to be the greatest cat ever though! My two other cats were never as crazy as kittens as she was, so we just figured it was her personality. They're not as funny as her either, allthough they both have their own unique and charming personalities.

When you deal with young animals you need a lot of patience to teach them things, and some things are just a part of the personality. Pets aren't objects, they come with personalities and different traits and you have to be prepared for that! You can't expect a 6 month cat to behave like an old lazy cat. Kids are kids, and they will play, explore and find ways to use all their energy. Some have more energy than others, so you can always try to tire your cat by playing with her if she has too much energy.

[Liagala]

For clawing the furniture, we got some (way overpriced) spray at the pet store that's supposed to discourage that sort of thing. It does no damage to the furniture but has an odor cats hate. It turned out to be primarily eucalyptus oil and lemon scent, with a tiny bit of other stuff mixed in so they can justify selling it at $10 a bottle. Spraying some of that around the furniture you want her to avoid should help a lot, especially if you place a scratching post (treated with a tiny bit of catnip, if she likes it) nearby. That will put out a loud and clear message that says, "Scratch here, not there."

As far as clawing the people goes, she needs to learn that it's unacceptable. Every time her teeth or claws touch a human, that human needs to do something unpleasant. A yell, jumping to startle her, water from a spray bottle, whatever. It doesn't matter what, just that she comes to associate very unhappy things with her teeth or claws touching people. It has to happen every time, from every person she claws or bites. At other times, people should be sure to be gentle, playful, and affectionate, so she doesn't just start thinking the people themselves are mean. That worked very well with my old cat, who had a serious people-biting problem as a kitten. She never lost the habit entirely, but she did learn to snap in someone's general direction instead of actually biting.

[Luuth]

Weird. It sounds like your cat is acting like a cat and not a person. Why are you so surprised. The cat is basically a teenager at this point. Things will get better when the cat gets a little older. You applying human expectations to it by calling "rude" is just ridiculous. A cat isnt rude, its a cat.

[Bergtau]

Not necessarily. I have very little knowledge about the physiology of feline animals so don't take my word for it. But cats should be dewormed annually, that's all I can say really.


For them it's an act of play and bonding. We might not appreciate it as such since it often brings a world of hurt, but that's how cats work
I've had cats my entire life so I'm hardened by the experience of clawing and biting. You'll get used to it with time.

Play biting and biting are different, though. When my cat play bites, it doesn't really hurt and never pierces the skin. If she real bites, though, it hurts and will make you bleed.

---------- Post added 2012-11-16 at 03:40 AM ----------

my mom grows mint around her house. it makes a great ground cover, you can make a killer mint tea from it, and it looks and smells good. cats seem to like mint. there is even a type called cat mint which they really like (it's not catnip, despite a similar sounding name).

Catmint and catnip are the same thing, actually. There are about 20 or so different kinds with very different looking plants.

[StayTuned]

If your cat eat too much, maybe it has worms (it's something common for the young cats, they catch it from their mother milk). Also, you need to cut the claws every 2 weeks. Washing furnitures with vinegar helps too.

Cutting claws is not something that is common in Croatia, or even throughout Europe. It is the equivalent of cutting of somebodies fingertips according to my vet. A cat is a cat and it should have claws. Why else did I get her a scratch tree to sharpen her claws on it instead of our furniture?
Also she did not have a mother. I guess she got either dropped in front of our house or her mother got killed very very early. My guess is that she was maybe 1 week old when we found her.

After work I'll go and buy some spray bottles, catnip and maybe some extra toys for her.

I would really like to take her with me, but I can't for I am going to Korea in a few months and they do not allow animals in the student house. My plan is to take her to me after I come back from Korea next summer. By that time I should be a full student again and have all the time to take care and play with her.

[Pokot]

Cutting claws is not something that is common in Croatia, or even throughout Europe. It is the equivalent of cutting of somebodies fingertips according to my vet. A cat is a cat and it should have claws. Why else did I get her a scratch tree to sharpen her claws on it instead of our furniture?
Also she did not have a mother. I guess she got either dropped in front of our house or her mother got killed very very early. My guess is that she was maybe 1 week old when we found her.

After work I'll go and buy some spray bottles, catnip and maybe some extra toys for her.

I would really like to take her with me, but I can't for I am going to Korea in a few months and they do not allow animals in the student house. My plan is to take her to me after I come back from Korea next summer. By that time I should be a full student again and have all the time to take care and play with her.

You are wrong. Cutting cat's claws is done everywhere. Not cutting them out, just cutting them a little bit. If your vet doesn't own a pair of cat claw scissors I have bad news for you.

A shame you have to leave your young pet for so long. Hopefully you have someone to take care of her when you're gone.

[Kerath]

Sounds to me like she just wants to play. Not affection or cuddles - she wants to run around like a nutter and chase things like a hunter, wear out some of her energy.
My cats are normally very docile and affectionate, but every now and then they'll get playful and that usually involves claws and/or teeth.
So what I do then is get out their favourite toy - a pair of old shoe laces tied together. Seriously - all the mouse shaped cats toys, toys with bells etc that we have for them, and shoelaces are their favourite.
Wave that around on the floor, swing it up in the air, they will chase the thing around for ages.

If she insists on jumping all over you at dinner, keep a spray bottle of water handy. Or yell at her. It takes a while to get through, but she'll eventually learn that acting like a dick at the dinner table = unpleasant consequence.

Our cats have learned to tell by the tone of our voices when the humans are NOT happy with them. I've seen them leg it out of the room when one of us has shouted at the PC screen because we've died in a game or something, and they've mistaken that for the 'Oh shit, I've done something I shouldn't have' shout and legged it for the door.

Never needed to trim any of our cats claws yet, maybe when they're older it'll be necessary but no problems with them as yet. We spray a bit of some catnip scented spray stuff we have on scratching posts/mats that are dotted around our house and they'll happily scratch the shit out of those and leave most other stuff alone. They'll also roll all over and rub their faces against the scratching mats.

[Whitey]

Cats are hellbent on world domination. Do humanity a favour and annihilate the furry vermin before it's too late.

[naifas]

Sounds like you have an Alpha. It will eventually get better, you just have to make a point (at least it worked with me).

Talk softly all the time, even when you're no talking to her, so to make sure you're angry when you talk louder after she ripped your curtains.

Several other ways of punishment include water sprinklers, orange peels being squeezed at her nose, etc

Get a newspaper to hit something when she misbehaves. It's loud and she'll probably learn to avoid the sound by not fucking up everything you own.

Other than that, good luck! Had one once, and it wasn't easy...

[Cairhiin]

Very informative post, thank you. I tried to punish her with absence of things, but that doesnt really seem to bother her at all. I throw her out of the kitchen if she misbehaves while we eat, only for her to repeat it again the next day. She doesn't learn that jumping people while they eat is a bad thing.

I think it should be worth noting that I've just spend 20 minutes cuddling with her. She was like an angel. But god forbid I go and get myself something to drink, there she is clawing into my leg trying to climb me. I just got another scratch mark.

Was she trying to tell me "wtf don't stop cuddling with me", or what?

Btw, I have to sleep now. I'm tired. Please keep posting, I'll read everything tomorrow.

Your cat probably has a lot of spare energy and wants to play with you. She is young still so very energetic. What you think is hurtful is not how the cat perceives it. You shouldn't punish her for that it will go away as she gets older. I used to have two cats, both female but with totally different personalities. One liked to cuddle unless she was hungry then she turned into a demon, and the other didn't like to cuddle at all. She would claw strangers trying to grab her. "Oh what a cute cat!" CLAWS. But she would always sleep on top of me, even though she'd claw me most of the time as well if I'd pick her up.

Listen to your cat and play with her when she is playful, and leave her alone when she wants rest. Cats are not like dogs for that matter. Cats are very stubborn and if they don't like something they will let you know with claws if necessary.

[Schmittay]

Ahaha my cat was like that, maybe not as extreme but quite crazy. All I can say is at around 10? months she started to settle down.

She is hungry all the time because she is growing at a very fast rate, it's actually almost impossible for a kitten to overeat at that age. Make sure you get her vaccinations, de-worm / flea her.

Spend time with her, play with her. A kitten that age will find amazement in just about anything and you can really tire them out. If it's at all possible think about a companion, they'll occupy themselves most of the time.

The most important part is your reaction to her bad behavior. Under no circumstance should you hit or hurt them in any way, not only is it plain cruel, it actually reinforces bad behavior. Personally I make a TSSSST (think Cesar Milan) noise and if that fails I have a spray bottle that can shoot a few meters (she's bloody fast). When she stops give her a pat or a treat and eventually she will see NOT doing it is a good thing.

Good luck!

[Kerath]

The most important part is your reaction to her bad behavior. Under no circumstance should you hit or hurt them in any way, not only is it plain cruel, it actually reinforces bad behavior. Personally I make a TSSSST (think Cesar Milan) noise and if that fails I have a spray bottle that can shoot a few meters (she's bloody fast). When she stops give her a pat or a treat and eventually she will see NOT doing it is a good thing.

Ah yeah, that's a good one - forgot to mention that. A loud SSSSSHHHH! noise from me normally startles them out of what they are doing - also a loud clap works for that as well. If two of the girls start tussling (happens on rare occasions), I'll clap loudly next to them and that startles them apart. They don't like loud, sudden noises or hissing noises (like they are scared of the sound of my deodorant spray) in general so they seem to be quite good deterrents.