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My cat is driving me CRAZY... kind of long
I have an approximately 6 month old kitten that loves to scratch and bite me. No matter what I do, it doesn't stop. Usually, she's worse when my FI is home, as if she doesn't receive enough attention. When he leaves for work, she stays wild and attacks for about 30-45 minutes and then decides to be my best friend.
I have tried nearly everything. I reward her for good behavior and ignore her during bad behavior. I move her away from me when she's being a jerk and she thinks it's a game and comes running back. I've grabbed her by the scuff of her neck and looked in her eyes and told her no. When she gets told no, she runs off and hides but comes back with a vengeance. We've tried spray bottles, to no avail. I work in a place where wounds must be covered because there's too much risk in catching something and I've never had a cat tear me apart as much as she does. Nor do I have enough band-aids. And, work aside, I'm just plain tired of constantly being attacked. I'm at a complete loss for how to stop her from biting or scratching.
If it's helpful, here's some back ground: She was abandoned as a baby and we adopted her when she was about 4 weeks old. She learned everything perfectly; eating, using the litter box, etc. She also has a heart murmur, which we were told would slow her down, but she is the most active cat I've ever met. She was spayed last week. Oh, and she's only like this to me. My FI never has a problem with her and when other people come around, she's a nice, happy kitty. The vet loves her, but she's also out of her element when she's visiting there. We have TONS of toys for her; mice, stuffed animals, balls, and the like and she doesn't care to play with them often. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Re: My cat is driving me CRAZY... kind of long
Thank you. She has a stuffed animal that she throws around quite frequently, but maybe that's not enough. I can't even count the number of mice and balls I have strewn about. It just seems that she gets bored with those and decides I am a better target. I never rough played with her, but my fiance did for a couple weeks until I managed to convince him not to. I know that didn't help, but at the same time, if he tells her no she leaves and finds something else to do.
I will definitely look up the Kong Kickaroo; thank you for the suggestion
Miles (6 year old Maine C00n mix), Boots (5 year old Lab mix), Darla (4 year old GSD/Collie mix), Frankie (1.5 year old DSH mix), Peanut (15 months old - 09/11), and Bean (arriving Feb 2013).
One of our cats was a huge PITA as a baby. What really worked for us was to literally leave the room when she played too rough. We would turn our back on her and ignore her for a few minutes. It is important to be consistent, and she eventually got the message.
In addition to the kong toy, make sure you have things for her to climb. You may also want to look into puzzle toys.
5 cats. 1 baby.