Disciplining kitties

[RapidPad0]

We now have two kittens, one is 4 months old and belongs to my roommate and one is an itty bitty 5-7 week old kitten thats mine. I figured since ya'll own like 5 billion cats you could help me out.

Sasha (my kitty) is a little soon-to-be hellraiser. She tries to scale people with her awesome sharp claws, jumps up on tables and knocks shit over, and is pretty much a nuisance sometimes. There's those rare moments she's actually an affectionate little sweet heart, when no one else is looking of course.

She's very young, and I want to start her off right and teach her to not be a little biscuit head. So what I'm asking is, what is a good way to discipline a kitten? Spray bottle? Tap on the nose? Smack on the butt? All of the above?

And "NO!" doesn't seem to be very effective yet... :P

[Seanette]

I've found hissing effective. Mom cats use that one.

[AFpheonix]

Hmm...can't say as I've ever had to "discipline" Hammie or Chompie, although Hammie has a predilection for cheese paper....

They're pretty good kitties for having been feral...

[Crazyredhead]

Cats are independant creatures and smacking them on the butt doens't help. If popping them on the butt along with a sharp no doens't work try using a spray bottle. That will usually do the trick, but if they are stubborn like most cats are, then you can be the cat deterrant from the pet store. There was one deterrant that I will not buy, it smelled like straight up, rank as hell, piss. It kept the cats off the table, not to metion the rest of the family, too. No one wanted to go near the room cause it smelled horrible. Even Febreeze didn't work and I swear by that stuff.

My kitty Vasquez, very rarely will get up on the table, unless that is something really tasty that someone forgot and everyone leaves the room. She is a very good cat as long as hubby doesn't get to close to her, or she will hiss at him. She has been this way since she first came in the house around 4 years ago. I can understand the hostility, since at times, no one likes him very much.

I have never thought of hissing, either. I will have to try it sometime.

[protege]

Cats are independant creatures and smacking them on the butt doens't help.

It depends on the cat. Mine knows that if he bites someone, not only does he get a swat on the tail (not hard, just enough to startle him), but a stern "BAD KITTY!" as well. But, that only works if I'm home. For months, one of his favorite things to do was to curl up on the couch. Since it's a new couch, I didn't want him digging his claws into it or leaving furballs all over. Squirt guns didn't work, repellents didn't work...the only thing that did, was to put an old sheet over it, and tell him that he's only allowed on it with the sheet. Even now, he won't let me pet him on the couch when the sheet is off--if I try to put him on my lap, he wants down!

Then there are the various plants in the house. So far, he's left most of them alone...except for the palm tree. For some reason, he likes to dig in the pot...even though he ignored it for the first few months I had it. The only way to keep him out of there...was to wrap the entire pot in tinfoil. He doesn't like the noise the foil makes, so he avoids it.

Kitty does though, get a treat when he's been good. When he was still my grandmother's cat, he'd get a little 'extra' when he caught mice :)

[thegiraffe]

We trained our first rabbit to stay off the carpet (well...sorta. He still kinda tried to get on the carpet when we weren't looking) by a loud clap followed by a stern "NO" when he'd go on the carpet. He knew his name, William, so a stern "William!" was quite effective also. I swear - if they had IQ tests for rabbits, this one would score incedibly high. Anyhow - try that also. If anything, they won't like the loud noise, so it's classical conditioning. Just make sure to discipline RIGHT when the cat is doing what you don't want it to do. Waiting even up to 30 seconds after it did it doesn't work - the cat loses the associaton.
[/ psychologist mode]

[Iolanthe]

If you gently tap your kitten on their forehead while saying "no" firmly it usually gets them to stop doing whatever it is they are doing. It is something a mother cat will do as well. Cats also love being stroked there, so you can use it as a reward as well.

[MadMike]

We have several water bottles for when our cats are doing something or being somewhere they shouldn't be, although lately they've been getting on things we can't spray, like the top of the monitor or the stereo speakers.

One of the smarter ones actually managed to destroy one of the water bottles. I saw that the bottle had leaked all over the coffee table, and noticed two small puncture marks on the side, toward the bottom. Not sure how he did it, or how a cat was able to accomplish that type of logical thought process.

[IT Grunt]

Hissing at them does work well, except for one of our cats who will just look back at you and meow like she's sassing you. :lol:

Another trick we've used is the 'Wrathful gods of kittydom'. Toss a ball of crumpled up paper at them when they're not looking, so they don't know it came from you. Scares the daylights out of them. :D

[Strange Magic]

If the the kittens have overactive imaginations tell them that there will be no "Snoopy dancing" until furtur notice...:lol:

[kibbles]

If you spank them, that's cat abuse you know ;) hehehhehe *running out of post*

Kibbles

P.S. Just so everyone knows, the above comment is my way of poking fun at myself and some of my more "colorful" posts. For anyone who has been here a while, they'll get it :D :D :D