Hi everyone,

I'm from South Africa and new to this forum - came across it earlier today when I was doing some research on my kitten.

We recently adopted a gorgeous little black female kitten from the SPCA, she is about 3 months old now. We got her when she was just under 2 months old. We also have an older male cat, called Bono, that we adopted as a kitten about 2 years ago.

She is extremely sweet and affectionate, when she wants to be ... ... BUT she does a couple of things that seem really strange, and I'm sure we're probably over reacting and it's probably completely normal kitten behavious, but some advice would be greatly appreciated!

1. She is such a strong willed little girl, if she doesnt get her own way she will growl at one of us, or like last night try to swat me through the face with her claws out. This is a real concern for me, because its just not acceptable that she gets so aggressive. I try not to get upset with her when she gets so aggressive but its very difficult. What is the correct way to deal with this without breaking her spirit?
2. We recently let her out of the room we were keeping her in initially so she can roam the rest of the house and get used to her surroundings. Now she runs up and down the passage chasing her shadows, and she is really REALLY hyper. I suppose this is normal and she will grow out of it?
3. We now have both the cats sleeping with us on our bed at night. As you can imagine this is not really condusive to the greatest amount of rest ... Bono has always slept with us, and he is very chilled when he sleeps with us, but now that Kylie is also sleeping with us (and she sleeps in between us at our heads) it is just a bit much. She wakes up at about 04h00 in the morning and starts biting and scratching me, and swatting at my face. What would be the best solution to this - get them both to start sleeping elsewhere in the house?
4. My last question ... for now ... ... we have started taking Kylie outside to the garden for supervised play time. Yes, she has been stuck in the tree numerous times now and we've had to rescue her. How long before I let her out on her own supervised? I'm just scared I let her out soon and then she dissapears or gets lost ... with her little personality she is bound to get herself into trouble.

Any advice will be very much appreciated!

Thanks everyone

Most of what you describe is normal kitten behaviour

As far as your sleeping arrangements go, yes time to keep them out of the bedroom if you want a better nights sleep

As far as letting her outside is concerned, I personally would not be taking her out (even supervised) for a long while yet. There is so much that can happen (like getting stuck up a tree) even when supervised, I just wouldn't risk it personally. Once she is old enough to be spayed (though technically she is old enough now if your vet does early neutering) and you think she can handle herself outside, then go ahead. I reckon about 6months old is the youngest I would even think about it. Though my kitties are indoors only so I'm going by past experience when we had moggies years ago.


A couple of things you can do to help her burn off some of that lovely kitten energy (helping to calm your interaction with her at the same time) is toys, and lots of them! Plus the best thing you can do with the really bitey scratchy stuff is to ignore if possible. She is at the age where if she had still been with her mum, she would have taught her these things are not acceptable, which is one of the reasons why pedigree breeders don't let their kitties go before the age of 12-13 weeks. You might be lucky and find that your older cat will step into that breach and put her in line so to speak.

Welcome to PF, and have a good search through the different cat forums for more advice and ideas. There is plenty around

Hi there,

Our kittens are much more chilled and cuddley after play sessions with us. The laser dot toy is great because you can send them dashing at high speed all around the room for ages without having to move from the sofa!

The kittens only are allowed to sleep on the bed with us at weekends as they start play pouncing on us at around 5am. We just close the bedroom door on weekdays and they chose to sleep on a chair outside.

Can't help on the other questions as our cats don't go outdoors.

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