help with my cat

[Katica]

We found a kitty back in August. She had just been born and abandoned by her mother. She was still wet with the cord attached. I love cats but I was 8 months pregnant and it was extremely hard to care for a newborn kitten. It was a miracle that she survived and now she is 4 months old.

The problem is she is very violent. She bites, scratches and is generally not a friendly cat. Ds is 3.5 years old and he is not nice with her no matter what we do. We`ve been trying to teach Ds to be gentle with her but to no avail. Our only solution so far has been to keep the cat in a separate room but then she is always alone.

I`m not sure what to do. Is there a way to teach a cat to behave?? If this continues we will have to give her away. But to who? Nobody wants a wild cat. I appreciate any help I can get..

[racheepoo]

Feral cats are very challenging, but usually if you raise one from birth you can gentle them. Is she biting/not nice because of your son getting at her all the time, or is she always like that no matter who is around?

[greenmagick]

you can train cats. They tend to respond well to clicker training. There are several books on the market it....I know Patricia McConnells site had links to some she suggested, and Karen Pryor has one on clicker training for cats.

Also, you have a bit more of a battle as since this was an orphan kitty it didnt learn a lot of social skills etc from its mother and siblings.

[Katica]

Thank you
I`ve only dared touching her while she is eating and she loves that. Other than that she`ll jump up and bite you out of the blue and take apart everything in the garbage can. Just a real pain in the butt I think much of her bad behavior stems from the rough play with DS. And, you are right greenmagick, she does not have a cat "family" to learn from.
Thank you for the recommendation. I think I`ve found a good book to read about cat behavior. I don`t want to have to give her up but how she acts is dangerous.

[MaWhit]

It's odd to me that a hand-raised kitten would act that way. She's not feral if she was a hand-raised bottle baby.

Keeping DS from tormenting her is #1, even if it means she is alone.

4-month old kittens have tons of energy and need a healthy outlet for it, or you will see destructive behavior. Offer lots and lots of toys. Some she can play with on her own, and some that involve a human on the other end (fishing pole-type toys, laser light, etc). Aim for at least 15 minutes a day of interactive play time (DS can help!).

Make sure she has scratching posts of varying texture (some carpet, some sisal, some wood). Also, try offering catnip from time to time, but pay attention to her reaction--it will mellow some hyper cats, but it will make some cats more frisky. It could be beneficial to her. If it works, don't leave it out every day, because constant exposure to catnip will weaken its effects.

Do you free-feed? Or does she get meals only at certain times of the day? Sometimes its helpful to switch it up if ehavior is an issue. Although I prefer to free-feed dry and have certain times for wet food, especially for kittens her age.

Our motto with rehabbing aggressive cats is, "Leave them wanting more." Anytime they accept some loving, stop before they are done enjoying it. This will mke them more likely to accept it the next time. However, if you love on them until they are done and leave or lash out, they will remember their annoyance instead of their desire for more and it takes longer. Once they are less agressive, you can "fill them up" as often as they want it.

[SeattleRain]

We adopted a feral cat from a shelter and he was quite skittish when we got him. My husband taught him to take treats out of his hand which was the first start. We started seeing that he was biting all the time and we were able to trace it back to my husband being rough with him. We stopped being rough with him and introduced new toys and that REALLY helped. We love toys like this: http://www.petco.com/product/105907/...tSupplies_Toys and they're great for teaching kids to interact with animals... from a distance. We've even had our 2 year old nephew do it, it's so cute watching him run around with the stick and the cat following after him like the Pied Piper! Try that and see if it helps.