Quote:
Originally posted by warrrreagl
How do you discipline/train a cat?
My wife and I got two kittens in March (at the time, they were 6-week old brother and sister kittens), and they have turned into 5-month old holy terrors. We have raised many cats before, but they were always really, really good cats, and they all lived to ripe old ages.
But these guys, sheesh!
Scratching on furniture.
|
Sometimes you can't stop this behavior but what's worked for us was providing an alternative that they really liked - we got one of those cardboard scratching boxes filled with catnip. They haven't touched the furniture since. Our friends have also tried those glue-on claw caps. It's a humane alternative to declawing.
Quote:
|
Going outside the litterbox.
|
That's a hard one - most going outside the litterbox is because of some kind of protest. Have you tried giving them separate litterboxes? What are the other places they're using? Is it "logical" alternatives like plants, or are they just going wherever?
Quote:
|
Leaping onto furniture and knocking everything to the floor.
|
That one I'm afraid you're going to have to live with unless you're willing to "kitty proof" your belongings. There are products you can get to keep them from jumping on furniture - there's a little box that sits on your couch or whatever and emits a high pitched tone when it senses vibration, but you'd need one for every surface. You can try double-stick tape - they hate that, but it might only work as long as there is double-stick tape on your furniture.
Quote:
|
Chewing furniture (I thought only dogs did this).
|
OK, that's a new one on me! You can get "keep off" sprays like bitter apple that make the furniture taste bad. That's all I can think of.
Quote:
|
Opening kitchen cabinets and going inside.
|
Get cabinet locks.
Quote:
|
Climbing draperies. You name it!
|
That one I don't know about - the claw caps might help in that they won't be able to get a purchase on the draperies.
You might try some herbal sedation like Rescue Remedy or valerian root caps to calm them down, or try separating them since a lot of kitten play involves chasing each other around and being destructive. There are fixes for some of the behaviors but unfortunately cat behavior is not as easily "modified" as dogs, so there's a certain amount of restructuring you're going to need to do, like the cabinet locks and spraying your furniture. Or perhaps you could find these tykes a loving home and adopt an older, more sedate cat.