Cat Chat 2

[blazesong]

heya! any tips on training a rowdy kitten? she's rather feisty and really wild, and she eats and scratches everything. i'm using a spray bottle for now, and i'm out of money for cat toys. what do i do?

(here she is. my baby)

You need toys to get rid of that energy otherwise she will stay hyper and destroy stuff.

Noctis my boy is the same and before I got played I made wands from bamboo canes and string with feathers. Rolled up tin foil balls to play fetch and even got toys from friends ( I paid them back unless they gave them to me ). He know mostly sleeps unless Zero wakes him up at 3am in the morning.

You can not fix problems with out addressing the issue which sounds like to much energy if you can burn that of you will find she will calm down.

i have to agree with this, my kitten runs around like crazy , she has a cat (8) and a dog (1 and a half) who she plays with and still needs a good hunting play to calm down(and a good suckle on my blankets but thats just her thing)

toys can be made out of alot of things, im planing a few my self.
one of my cats loves kicking toys so ill be making him a kickaroo with old fabric i have and a broken wand toy one like this.
a small pringles can and some rope can be used to make a scratching toy(planning this one , need surplys ill let you know how it ends up)
i know someone who put and bell in a toilet roll and stapled the ends then glued feathers on to it to make a bell toy, hoping to make one like it my self but changed to fit my cat.
i even make pom pom balls for my cats but they can only be used once we get the cat run finished as my sheltie finds it fun to pull them apart.
My brother once was playing with my kittne with a foil ball we had after it came off are dinner ,my kitten and dogs played with it for a good hour before i took it off them.

i know how costley toys can be kickaroos here are $15, while if i make my own im using things i allready have in a sewing kit costing me nothing .
someone at the shelter makes the cats there toys out of pretty much anything she can get, old zippers and fabric,bottle caps , for a while they included plastic forks (not anymore, someone higher up must have pointed out how that just is a no(tiny side note: this person is older then me and sees me as less knowledgeable because of it))

[Sixx O'Clock]

It honestly isn't even really worth it to buy cat toys, really. From my experience, my cats would rather play with a piece of paper than a store-bought toy. My youngest cat is a biter, so I gave her a cardboard box and she chews the heck out of that thing when she's feeling rowdy. I give her bottle caps to play with too, she usually knocks them under the furniture after a while, but they do keep her entertained. I also recently went through some old toys I had packed away from when I was little, and gave her some of the little plushies. You could try some of these things, too.

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On a different topic, does anyone else have a cat that's obsessed with chewing on plastic? My "middle child", Wynnie, will go out of her way to find plastic things to chew on. Grocery bags, plastic wrapping from food, garbage bags, basically anything plastic. I give her a spritz with the water bottle whenever I catch her doing it, but it doesn't seem to be stopping her. I try to keep things like that out of her way as much as possible, also, but it's kind of unavoidable after grocery shopping.

[Gizmutt]

It honestly isn't even really worth it to buy cat toys, really. From my experience, my cats would rather play with a piece of paper than a store-bought toy. My youngest cat is a biter, so I gave her a cardboard box and she chews the heck out of that thing when she's feeling rowdy. I give her bottle caps to play with too, she usually knocks them under the furniture after a while, but they do keep her entertained. I also recently went through some old toys I had packed away from when I was little, and gave her some of the little plushies. You could try some of these things, too.

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On a different topic, does anyone else have a cat that's obsessed with chewing on plastic? My "middle child", Wynnie, will go out of her way to find plastic things to chew on. Grocery bags, plastic wrapping from food, garbage bags, basically anything plastic. I give her a spritz with the water bottle whenever I catch her doing it, but it doesn't seem to be stopping her. I try to keep things like that out of her way as much as possible, also, but it's kind of unavoidable after grocery shopping.

My older cat chews on plastic as well. the entire bottom of my shower curtain is demolished. Any plastic baggies I leave out over night, I can pretty much guarantee to have to throw it away in the morning. She also really like to chew on tape .... yeah. I dunno.

[Lunarsnow]

I find that plastic chewers typically like the sound and/or the texture. I know my boy likes plastic bags and since we've gotten him a kick toy that is crinkly on the inside, he's taken to chomp on it instead of bags for the most part (unless the bag had meat in it lol). So for him he likes the sound and the toy has curbed the random plastic chewing. If you can buy or make a safe toy that mimics the qualities of plastic they like, that can help them from shredding bags and such like how scratching posts help keep cats off the furniture. It gives them an okay place/way to do something they like. Just be sure to check it often to make sure they're not breaking pieces off and eating it!

Though if it's the flavor (either residual from food wrappers or just the plastic itself) that entices them, I'm not sure there's really a safe way to redirect that since it'll probably lead to ingesting whatever it is. To stop the chewing instead of redirecting it to appropriate toys, you'll probably want to get some citrus/bitterant sprays to spritz on plastic around the house that you can't put away (like the shower curtain mention) to make it taste bad. For the shopping bags after a trip issue, keep the spray handy and spritz the bags if you won't be able to keep an eye on the cat while you're unloading and storing things. Maybe specifically leave sprayed bags out to try to teach that plastic = bad taste/smell!

[Sixx O'Clock]

I read somewhere that some cats like to chew plastic because the most common types of plastics, like those used to make grocery bags, are made with fish oil, and the cats can taste it. I'm guessing that's why my cat likes to chew plastic, she's a fish fiend. I did buy a crinkle toy for my younger cat, because she chews on plastic sometimes just for the sound, but Wynnie wasn't interested in it. I'll have to try the citrus spray technique, maybe that'll put her off of it.

[waterparks.]

are there any bengal cat owners here? i own a two year old female bengal and i love her lots, she is so quirky!

[Paranoia]

Does anyone else's cat like fruit??
Like I understand cats can't exactly taste sweet but my cat has shown interest and tried eating mangos, peaches, pineapple, oranges, and I've found him with his head in a cup of juice on multiple occasions.
It doesn't make any sense to me since I have no idea what he gets out of it.

[Rainbow Dash]

are there any bengal cat owners here? i own a two year old female bengal and i love her lots, she is so quirky!

I used to have an ocicat, the non-wildcat blooded version! It's been several years since he passed and I miss him lots. He is immortalized in the CS stamp collection with this stamp though:

[Sixx O'Clock]

Does anyone else's cat like fruit??
Like I understand cats can't exactly taste sweet but my cat has shown interest and tried eating mangos, peaches, pineapple, oranges, and I've found him with his head in a cup of juice on multiple occasions.
It doesn't make any sense to me since I have no idea what he gets out of it.

My cats have shown interest in lots of weird things. Cats aren't supposed to like citrus, but my youngest tries to steal my mandarin oranges. My oldest cat likes the taste of apples. And of course, the middle cat likes to chew plastic.
Sometimes cats just try eating things like that because they see us eating them and they want to know what it is. It's important to keep in mind that cats shouldn't be fed fruits though, as they can't digest it properly and some fruits may be harmful to them.

[waterparks.]

are there any bengal cat owners here? i own a two year old female bengal and i love her lots, she is so quirky!

I used to have an ocicat, the non-wildcat blooded version! It's been several years since he passed and I miss him lots. He is immortalized in the CS stamp collection with this stamp though:

awww he is so cute <3 i'm sorry for your loss but that stamp is a very cute and unique way of honoring him!