Friday, July 31, 2009

Kitty/Scratching?

I probably should have been more firm when bringing my kitty up, but I didn't really teach her not to scratch the sofa, or for that matter not to play with people's hands and stuff. Now she's about 6 months old. How do I train her retroactively? My previous roommate didn't care; my new one does.
Answers:
Hi there.your kitten at 6 months is still young enough to be retrained. First begin by having more than one scratching post next to areas she likes to scratch. Consider putting double-sided sticky tape on surfaces she scratches as a deterrent. Cats dislike the sensation of getting stuck to the tape. If you can catch her before she claws inappropriately pick her up nicely and move her to the scratching post and immediately offer her one kitty treat (something that is special and not her usual kibble). Consider keeping a small jar of the treats near each scratching post. The idea is to reward her for using the posts and not the furniture or any place unacceptable. Eventually in time she will learn to associate those posts are worth scratching as she gets paid with delicious treats for doing it ONLY there.

For biting, it's best to try and not encourage the behaviour in any way shape or form. Squirting with water or tapping the kitty in the face only increases the aggressive behaviour. Generally what is recommended is to cease all movement, move the cat away from the person being attacked and ignore them. Cats live for attention and when you do this it she will feel neglected and it's a humane way to punish the bad behaviour. When she calms down then offer her a pet and treat. The biting will decrease over time as it requires to be mindful on the humans part to break her of the habit.
it's not to late to teach her.
Try softclaws, these are little caps you put on your cats claws. You can purchase them in one of the larger petstores. Many people prefer these over declawing, it's more humane.
Give her a kitty scratcher with catnip on it.

Use a water spritzer on her everytime U see her scatching something else.

She'll learn..

good luck to U

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