# Kitten Behaviour. First tim kitten owner - need some advice please!!



## sparker (Oct 9, 2010)

Hi,

We got Bruce a couple of weeks ago, he is now about 12 weeks old. He seemed to be settling in fine. He was very nervous at first obviously, but his confidence has been growing every day. He was already litter trained, never had any accidents, has been so well behaved and quiet.

But over the last few days he has changed dramatically. Most of the time he is totally fine, and so affectionate. But in the evening and the morning everyday he is just a totally different cat. He races around making loads of noise, he has started biting and scratching us, and not gently! We are covered in scratches. He wont let us go near him, just runs away, acts as if he is scared of us. He will run at us, bite us, then run away again. But then a couple of hours later and he is back to normal again. It's like he's possessed!! 

He got so excited last night he peed in the corner. Only a little bit, but thats never happened before. And he has started making a funny noise when running about, like a wheeze or a hiss. Is there any way to calm him down? We play with him loads, so I don't think that's the problem. Or is it just a case of waiting until he grows out of it?

He also tried to get a bit too friendly with my arm last night too...... he started biting my wrist then wrapped around my arm and started humping it! Isn't it a bit too early for him to be doing this? I didn't think they started hitting 'puberty' until a few months?

Any advice please?

Thanks xx


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## ClaireLily (Jul 8, 2008)

Sounds just like normal kitten behaviour to me but he doesn't have him mum and litter mates around to keep him in check.

The biting and scratching needs to stop, when this happens you should say a firm NO! and stop play, remove your hand or the toy.

I have a 2 year old girl who pretty much daily has a mad half hour where she darts through the whole house like a tazmanian devil, five mins later shes cuddling on my knee.


I can't really offer any more advice other than to be firm with him, any pics of the little fur baby?


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## dougal22 (Jun 18, 2010)

He sounds like a normal, playful kitten  I have three young cats ranging from 5 months to 16 months and they have a mad playtime every day, which involves racing around, using furniture like the 'wall of death', jumping on and over any human who's in their path etc. 
I understand your worry as when I had my first boy who's now 16 months, it was a bit disconcerting to see him running around going crazy, but now I have three, it's not unsettling. With hindsight, I should have had two (or three) together


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## lymorelynn (Oct 4, 2008)

My goodness we seem to have a spate of manic kitties and worried owners on here today 
Yes the charging around the room/house at a million miles an hour is quite normal and may or may not change at all. My 2 year old Siamese queen still does it usually at about 9pm, though she is a little quieter at the moment as we have kittens due in 3 weeks.
Biting and scratching needs to be dealt with by a firm 'no' and time out in isolation if possible. If not just ignoring your kitten ought to work.
And at 12 weeks he could be hitting puberty. Ask your vet about neutering.


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## buffie (May 31, 2010)

Hi welcome to the forum.As every one else has said it is all fairly normal kitten behaviour.When he bites,try to distract him with a toy,dont use physical or verbal punishment,kittens dont understand and will become either defensive or fearful.Walk away and ignore the kitten,avoid any eye contact then after a couple of minutes go back to what you were doing ,playing or what ever.You can also try "time out"putting the kitten in another room and leaving it for 5minutes(no longer) then allow it back in and resume what was happening before.Repeat everytime if neccessary kittens hate to be ignored so it shouldnt be long before he catches on.


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## kota (Jun 17, 2010)

You should use his energy in a positive way. Give him a toy or leave him alone at this moment . My cats are much more oldier but when I open all the windows and the balcony door to clean the air in the flat they begin to run madly and jump and struggle. They say that cats do so because they try to break bad energy in your room. I dont know whether its true, but the fact is that they do so!


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## arnie (Oct 8, 2010)

my new kittern does this,he will soon quieten down,the running away,is just playing,he pretends you are chasing him,i am in fits of laughter when he does this,i too had the bitting and scratching,he soon learn't,if you do this i don't play,i would pick him up and move him out of my way telling him no,he soon learn't


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