Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is Mikey, she's half siamese. She is very cute, and a lot of fun, I really like her. But I'm having some behavior issues with her. She is now just about 7 months old.

Playful biting has barely slowed down and I've been working with her on this for a long time. I've stopped encouraging it, and anytime any of my friends/roomates encourage it I stop them, but she is still adimant about it. I've learned that when she fights, you just retract your hands and don't look at her and she'll usually stop. With me anyway...with others she'll go after them again and again and when they're startled she'll fight with their reaction. Does anyone else have any advice for this? Also I'm not willing to keep water bottles all over the place.

I think I've done my part in training her, she won't misbehave much at all with me, but she knows that with anyone else she can get away with anything until I intervene.

Her other problem is she is sneaky about the door. She is indoor only, and is constantly trying to escape when people come through the door. Again not with me, when I walk through she knows if she goes for it I'll grab her and hang on for a good few minutes (time out to calm down sort of thing). But again anytime friends/roomates come through the door, she's hiding behing anything nearby and waiting for them to slip so she can make a mad dash for the door.

She almost never scratches, and the play biting doesn't hurt so much...but it's just ridiculous! She shouldn't bite people all the time. A lot of the time she is very nice, and I really like her a lot...just now she climbed into my lap. But I must figure out these behavior issues as they're driving me nuts.

Also, she hasn't been spayed, and at only 7 months old it's possible her hormones are to blame? Maybe that will straighten her out a bit?

Spaying will indeed help that playful biting. Encourage the others who live with you to adopt the same method you did to discourage the bites. She sees you as alpha, but doesn't seem to recognize that the other people are going to be alphas too.

Unfortunately your roomates have to buy into this also. That could be harder than training the cat. Good luck!
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Smile, it will make them wonder what you are up to!

I'm no expert, but I do have a kitten in fact I had four until they were old enough to give away. Madame's advice is good (as I've discovered it usually is). But some other things that have worked in my experience is getting one of those feather at the end of a "fishing pole" type toys. Then play with the kitten and let her attack it. My kitten really seems to get her aggressions out with this toy.
Also, is it possible to get another kitten? My kittens didn't bite or scratch people because they had each other to fight with. A couple of the little guys we gave away are biting now but ours never has because she's always had another cat to play with. I don't know if that's something you're willing to do though. 6 months old is usually old enough to spay according to my vet, so you can probably do that soon and hope it helps. Good luck.

Most definitely the first thing you need to do is get Mikey spayed.
Also, keep in mind that, while she is probably physically mature (able to have kittens), she is still a kitten herself and has lots of kitten energy. Make sure she has a few toys of her own that can help her burn up some of that energy--you may need to experiment a little to see what she prefers to play with. Also, you might want to get one of those wand toys with feathers on the end. That way, when you and your roommates play with her, biting and scratching won't be a problem.

Good luck with your little girl--she's a real cutie pie!

Carol, Emily, & Eddie

>>This is Mikey, she's half siamese. She is very cute, and a lot of fun, I really like her. But I'm having some behavior issues with her. She is now just about 7 months old.
>>
>>Playful biting has barely slowed down and I've been working with her on this for a long time. I've stopped encouraging it, and anytime any of my friends/roomates encourage it I stop them, but she is still adimant about it. I've learned that when she fights, you just retract your hands and don't look at her and she'll usually stop. With me anyway...with others she'll go after them again and again and when they're startled she'll fight with their reaction. Does anyone else have any advice for this? Also I'm not willing to keep water bottles all over the place.
>>
>>I think I've done my part in training her, she won't misbehave much at all with me, but she knows that with anyone else she can get away with anything until I intervene.
>>
>>Her other problem is she is sneaky about the door. She is indoor only, and is constantly trying to escape when people come through the door. Again not with me, when I walk through she knows if she goes for it I'll grab her and hang on for a good few minutes (time out to calm down sort of thing). But again anytime friends/roomates come through the door, she's hiding behing anything nearby and waiting for them to slip so she can make a mad dash for the door.
>>
>>She almost never scratches, and the play biting doesn't hurt so much...but it's just ridiculous! She shouldn't bite people all the time. A lot of the time she is very nice, and I really like her a lot...just now she climbed into my lap. But I must figure out these behavior issues as they're driving me nuts.
>>
>>Also, she hasn't been spayed, and at only 7 months old it's possible her hormones are to blame? Maybe that will straighten her out a bit?
>>