How to tame an aggressive kitten?
Asked by
emt333 (
794
)
December 1st, 2008
My girlfriend just got this kitten, 4 or 5 months old, and she’s the sweetest little thing but very energetic which wouldn’t be a bad thing but she has the tendency to latch on to one’s arm and chew on it. Right now it’s cute but we’re concerned that as the cat gets bigger it might attack people and things and do damage. is this normal, any suggestions on how to calm down and teach a kitten it’s not always appropriate to pounce on things? could she be in heat right now and therefore more aggressive?
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8 Answers
When she’s in heat, it will be obvious. A lot of meowing and backing up with their rear stuck in the air. It’s fairly disgusting.
Anyway, just squirt her or something when she acts up. It usually works in my experience.
my girl is a big softie she’ll never go in for the squirting thing
When the kitten hurts you, overreact. Pull your arm back and yelp loudly.
This is how the kitten’s mother would react if the kitten were playing too aggressively with her, and that’s how kittens learn.
Be careful with this. See my latest question.
Make sure that you don’t play with the kitten with your hands. This is really, really important.
It’s normal for kittens to be quite rambunctious and playful, and now is the time to teach her her manners.
You have to keep the rules very clear – play is for toys only, never hands or feet. People skin is for loving only. Keep a toy handy and when she starts getting too wound up, displace her activities onto the toy. When she even begins to bite or claw at you, give her a loud, sharp, firm “no!”, set her aside and walk away.
The only way it works, though, is to be entirely consistent. If you let her get a way with a little bit, or just sometimes, she’ll never be able to figure out the rules. Be firm.
(P.S. She’s old enough to be spayed, be sure to get her into the vet soon.)
I second what syz said. We stopped our three kitties from doing the biting clawing thing by immediately setting them aside and walking away. That way they knew that gnawing on us was not part of their fun playtime. They haven’t done it since they were about 5 months old. We got them when they were 4 months old, and they are now 4 years old. The only time they’ll bite now is as a warning, they don’t bite hard, it is their way of saying don’t do that, it hurts/annoys/scares me. That is the only biting that we don’t discourage, because it is their way of communicating a problem.
Yelp like you have been hurt and they will learn to stop. Same thing works with dogs.
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