Help me before I kill this cat!

[crayon]

Ok... so I will not kill my cat- but lets just say I have reached THE END! we got a kitten at x-mas. Life was great- normal kitten stuff. Now we have reached the point where I fear for my kids at night. I honestly fear for them all day. My sweet 4 year old had a puncture wound just below her eye- from the cat. He wakes my other daughter up by biting her- last night I had to take him off of my 4 year old 8 times for biting her feet and I have a scratch across my hand from him pouncing on me last night. He has also woke me up by biting my feet in the middle of the night.

He is fixed and we have 2 other cats. Should I just let him go outside at night? I am not sure I am comfortable with him being outside at night- honestly he has only been outside a total of 4 hours in his life.

Should I get a kennel? Should I put him in the basement? I just don't know what to do with him. He is a great, loving and sweet cat in the day time but it is like he is possessed at night. People are going to think I am abusing my kids- and it is the CAT!


I should ETA: I am afraid to lock him out of the room- he scratches at the doors and will dig under them ripping up the carpet- we live in a beautiful rental (an old Victorian) and HE CAN NOT mess up things. So just shutting all the doors does and will not work. Nor will locking him in the laundry room where his food and litter is, because of the same reason- he will scratch and rip carpet to get out.

[SquishyKitty]

Have you tried crating him at night? Not ideal, but it might help in the short term until you can figure out a more permanent solution.

[gumby74]

A friend of mine had the same problem with her cat. She ended up taking him to the vet for a full workup, at which they determined nothing physically is wrong. So....now the cat is on prozac and goes outside during the day. Although the cat is not perfect......these two things together seem to have helped. Honestly, I didn't believe how bad it was until I saw the cat attack one of her children in front of me. Needless to say that when you say it's bad.....I believe you!

[reneeisorym]

My cat is just hyper at night. She wants to play (aka bite!) at night. We just close the door to the hall so she can't get back to the bedrooms. I know you said this wouldn't work in your situation, but I do have a couple of other ideas. We started playing with her and then feeding her right before bed. It made her sleepy and less active for a while.

The kitten will grow up and calm down. If you can weather the kitten age, she'll get lazy after about 2 years old.

[phatchristy]

One question, how old was the kitten when you got it? That still seems a bit overly bite-y to me. I'm wondering if it was removed from mom/siblings too early.

Otherwise, you need to keep those nails clipped weekly. Kitten claws can grow to be razor sharp super quick. Definitely getting them used to being trimmed when they're young makes it easy when they're older too.

I would close the doors, leave him/her plenty of toys. You could also confine the cat to a small room overnight if need be.

Age will definitely moderate their energy level somewhat.

[MaWhit]

We started playing with her and then feeding her right before bed. It made her sleepy and less active for a while.

This is exactly what I was going to suggest.

[gumby74]

[QUOTE:The kitten will grow up and calm down. If you can weather the kitten age, she'll get lazy after about 2 years old.[/QUOTE]

great idea!

[susyg]

Wow,
I didn't think that was hard at all. When a cat bites a kid the cat goes to the pound.
OK, flame away. But that's what I did.

[gumby74]

Originally Posted by susyg

Wow,
I didn't think that was hard at all. When a cat bites a kid the cat goes to the pound.
OK, flame away. But that's what I did.

You must not have really cared about the cat or you would have tried harder. The OP obviously cares enough about the cat to post on here for helpful suggestions before abandoning the cat. Volunteer at the humane society for a couple of hours and you will quickly learn that humans are notorious for expecting perfection from animals. If only the world was perfect

[Katica]

We always had cats when I was growing up. We had a kitten that could bite, kick and scratch all at the same time. We loved the little guy though.

If you are concerned about the doors can you cover them with cardboard or something?

[greenmagick]

Originally Posted by susyg

Wow,
I didn't think that was hard at all. When a cat bites a kid the cat goes to the pound.
OK, flame away. But that's what I did.

If it was a CAT actually aggressively biting, I could see rehoming being an option. However, in this case, we are talking about a KITTEN, a baby, who really is just playing too rough.

[SunShineSally]

My one cat bites little nibbles when he wants attention he is purring and rubbing on you before he bites and when he sees that you are not petting or paying attention to him he nibbles on you maybe all this little one wants is some loving??

If not try getting a small litter box and put the little bugger in the bathroom at night before bed?? We do that with kittens until they get bigger because we are just weird and we want them to get used to the sounds and space and they are all teeny tiny and do not want them to roam at night

[AlumofUF]

I have a similar issue but is with an adult cat.......I got him some soft claws and that has helped tremendously.....I got mine at Petsmart but next time I will buy them online.....the online ones are/can be colored and I can see them better...the ones I got at the store are clear and a couple have fallen and is hard to see them...anyway my problem is during the day because my toddler goes crazy and is a bit rough so the cat strikes back so I have been working to keep my toddler away or show him to be nice....anyway hope that helps

[SunShineSally]

Originally Posted by AlumofUF

I have a similar issue but is with an adult cat.......I got him some soft claws and that has helped tremendously.....I got mine at Petsmart but next time I will buy them online.....the online ones are/can be colored and I can see them better...the ones I got at the store are clear and a couple have fallen and is hard to see them...anyway my problem is during the day because my toddler goes crazy and is a bit rough so the cat strikes back so I have been working to keep my toddler away or show him to be nice....anyway hope that helps

we used softpaws for my cats until my one who scratched all the time passed. They were awsome and soooo cute to