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56 responses total.

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Kitties practice their hunting techniques on Mommy and siblings.  In her
little mind you have replaced them so you are the natural target.  Having
watched our 6 I was mildly amazed at how much they do bite each other.  Not
enough to draw blood, but enough to be felt.  She doesn't want to hurt you,
she is just doing what comes naturally.  I found with mine that if I just
yelled ow/ouch loudly enough to startle a little it didn't take long for them
to lighten up on the biting.  I still get nibbled on but gently :-)  Same for
using the claws.

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cats are fun. I have to admit though that I think I am going to be done 
with cats for a while when my old kitty finally kicks the bucket. Here 
is something for you to ponder. My cat is 13 years old and she still 
pounces on me and bites me. 

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I like to sneak up on cats when giving medication.  If you go through a ritual
of pulling out the medicine, putting cat on table, etc., they'll know it's
coming and sharpen their claws up in preparation.  So instead, have the
medicine ready (no tell-tale noises of a bottle opening, for instance), and
just walk up while the cat is napping, pop open the mouth and shove it in.

The other thing to do is hold her in your lap while you are sitting 
indian style.  Attempt to calm your cat before hand.  Then gentley 
nudge the injector thingie into mouth.  If you do this fast enough 
(don't ask me how I did it, but it worked from Scott - No Scott Helmke, 
he is too much to handle giving meds to).  Scott is also good about 
pills as well.  Then cuddle with them a lot afterwards, give them 
reassuring words, and love them. 

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Kewl!  As long as you love them a lot, I notice that the little darlings will
let you do almost anything to them.  Scott (not S. Helmke) even lets me clip
his front claws without too much fuss.  The back claws are a bit more
difficult, but not such a serious issue.

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Honestly? Some of it will just be time. 

My (no so) little monster did that when she was a baby- and took 
several flying lessons (middle of the night attacks got her tossed from 
the bed). She's basically treating you the way she would her sibs or 
the momma cat, and they can certainly play rough with each other.

A thought may be when she does that to put her on the floor, or at a 
distance and ignore her- teaching her that momma doesn't appreciate 
that behavior and that she won't get attention if she continues it. 
Then after awhile get a toy she can play roughly with and play (you 
don't want to just go get the toy because she'll end up learning that 
biting gets her positive attention and fun). 

Make sense?

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You need the.... SPRAY BOTTLE...

Works very well for reinforcing things.  Course Scott knows not to beg to go
out if you have the water bottle, but if you don't, he will beg like crazy.
And he is 3 1/2 years old!

Right.  We have spray bottles in every room and at every desk/table.  When
a couple of our kitties seemed to like being watered I added some white
vinegar to the bottles.  They hate the smell (all except Smudge, she loves
vinegarette salad dressing and just licks it off, but hates getting wet).

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With spraying that's the idea- when the behavior starts- spray. Though 
cats can be smart and will learn where the water comes from and look 
for the bottle- if they don't see it then they misbehave.

Okay, so as I was saying in Agora... The ignoring thing can take a long 
time to really be effective. Things cats *want* to learn they learn 
quickly, things they don't want to learn seems to take longer.

Something else that I recall trying was simply tapping Sasha on the 
nose while saying 'No!' when she started to bite.

As an adult Sasha used to cuddle with me before I went to sleep at 
night and would eventually start to nibble or try to grab my hand with 
both front legs and hold it to nibble on- that generally got her a tap 
and 'NO BITE!' and then I would stop petting her completely and 
wouldn't pet her again. Eventually this worked and Sasha only rarely 
bites (or nips rather) when getting petted. Although if you try to pet 
her and she *doesn't* want to be petted she'll nip but not break the 
skin.

In other words, while lil Mynxie is being completely obnoxious now- 
she's not a hopeless case. :)

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We've left ours alone for much longer, but we have 6 so they amuse each other.

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She should be fine for that length of time. Heh, as for losing her toys 
this will give her a chance to look for them. ;) As long as you've got 
plenty of food and water out she should be okay- it's not like you're 
making this a regular habit.

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It's a cat, not a dog. Don't worry about it. It will help her learn how 
to amuse herself when alone. I leave my cat for 2-3 days sometimes with 
no cat sitter. She is fine. 

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Don't worry about it, just put breakables away.  If she seems upset over time
or seems to be getting into a lot of things that she shouldn't, get her a pet
(another kitten would be best).  Two animals will play and cuddle together
amusing each other.  With 6 we get some damage because of the wild kitty races
and kitty smack downs. 

We have a couch across the archway between the living room and dining room
since the TV is on the buffet at the backwall of the dining room.  Some
mornings when I had to get Staci up for school, but didn't have to go in
myself I would lie down on the couch for a while rather than go back upstairs.
Every morning around 7:30-8:00 is kitty steeplechase time with the couch being
the main jump.  When going over from the back side they go completely over,
the other direction is too high to jump so they land on the couch (or the
person lying there).  Was rather shocking the first time.  I was almost asleep
and sat up real fast.

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Just ignore her unless she is actually becoming too skinny. If she is 
too skinny, take her to the vet. If you keep taking her to the food, 
she will expect that for the rest of her life and will demand that you 
take her to the food forever. I have a cat who cries by her food dish 
*even when it is full* and wont shut up until I come by and put more 
food in the dish. I can get away with pretending to put food in the 
dish. she is 13 now so it is probably too lake to break her of the 
habit but I often wish I never let her develop it in the first place. 

We use self feeders, the kind that would normally get filled once every couple
of weeks (every couple of days with our bunch).  We tried the 2-3 times a day
bit and had them fighting over the dishes with the faster eaters getting more
than the others.  Smudge has slightly deformed teeth and has a bit of a
problem with dry food so it took her so long to eat that the others stole all
her food.  With the self feeders someone checks them (one on first floor and
one on second floor) and fills as needed.  We do water the same way, it gets
spilled less often.  I don't have time to arbitrate fights over kitty food.

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I found that playing with my cats paws when she was relaxed helped her 
get used to me messing with her paws which helped her remain calm back 
when I used to trim her claws. I never was able to get her to stop 
clawing up the furniture though so I eventually had to have her 
declawed. 

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If worse comes to worse, wrap her in a bath towel and pull out the claw you
want to work on.  We have been doing our babies since they were little with
only a little fighting.  When they try to pull away a light tap on the nose
usually startles them enough to stay still for the rest.  The wrap in a towel
bit helps in getting medicines down their little throats as well.

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Not too many problems soo far, though I've determined that Magnus is not 
getting wet car food, if ever.  I got him his stuff becayuse the Cat 
Clinic here in A2 added that to his morning food.  It seems that it gets 
his tummy a little unfriendly and he stinketh up the bathroom, that 
poor, barely two pound handfull of fluff.

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My question is, are you following the "punishment" with verbal as well?  a
*firm*  no to go with that will re-inforce your saying no to future bad
events.  Scott definately knows the words:  "no!"  "good boy", and "pounce"
(his dental treats).    

It is a lot like raising kids, but they don't get older than 7 years old
mentally and they never leave home.

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Give it time, it may take a few months... and a bit of maturity on the kittens
part.  .

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- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss