Taming your kittens play activities can be the first step in training your kitten to be a great well behaved cat. It’s not uncommon for kittens to play aggressively – that is their nature. It’s up to you to teach them the correct behavior for play time.
Motivated aggressive behaviors for play is common in kittens when cats play the have a variety of behaviors that they share in their play. Exploratory, predatory, and instigative play provides a kitten the opportunity to practice these skills. All of these skills are normal need for survival. Kittens will explore new thing that moves. They like to bounce, bite, and swing at objects that are great to play with.
Kittens learn to bite from the mother and offspring. If you take a kitten from their mother to soon, it can have adverse effects of rough playing. The kitten does not have time to spend with the family to learn rough playing with out the hurting.
Do not let the kitten play with your hand or feet, as this will allow the behavior to be a positive behavior. You will need to teach your kitten that this type of behavior is not acceptable.
Train your kitten with the correct behaviors for rough play. Have toys that will intrigue the kitten to play with, pull toys, put a small stuff toy on a string, and pull the toy. Allow the kitten to pounce, bite, or chase the toy. Allow the cat to rough play with a larger toy; this will help to stimulate the aggression behavior that is natural in a kitten.
You will want to set up daily sessions, with the kitten a day for this type of activity. This is let the kitten know that this is ok to do, with the toys or items that you have let them play with. This only gives a cat the signal that it is ok for the cat to use the object for rough play.
When your kitten is playing rough and does use an object to play rough, play with you will want to say “NO” in a stern voice. Do not yell or scream at the kitten, as they really do not understand you and sure do not at this time understand the word meaning. Say no, the kitten’s name, and the behavior he is doing. “NO tabby, you can not play rough with my hand.”
If this does not work, you can try using the spray bottle method to distract the attention from the rough play of the object. Cats do not like the spray in the face and will turn from what they are doing, you might have to repeat yourself for a few times, but tabby will get the hint soon. Try not to spray the fur or coat as this will mat the fur, and when grooming comes, it will not be a great experience for your or your kitten.
If you want the cat not to claw or sit on furniture or articles, you should put uncomfortable things on them so the cat does not feel the comfort to sit or claw on them. Such things as a net, should be placed over the couch for discomfort. When the cat starts to claw, they will get their claws snagged and they do not like that. Therefore, the cat will learn that it is not a comfort zone for them to be sitting or lying on.
When the kitten is playing correctly you will want to have small treats, bite size as a reward for the kitten, this will assure the kitten that when doing good rough playing is done that some things special is coming. Once you see that behavior for this is under control at this time you can decrease the treat until you are not to do that. You can use this special one when you want to just to let the kitten know they are doing a great job.
Never tap hit or flick your kitten for rough play, this will not work your kitten will fear you and or that this is great rough play and try to continue. In addition, never harm your cat or kitten for any reason.
There a lot of toys, scratch post, and other items that you will be able to purchase for your cat. Learn more about the different toys and items on the internet by searching for toys for cats.