What Do I do When My Kitten Attacks My 3 Year Old? Do I yell at it? Hit it? Tell it No!

Question

This kitten is beyond sane. I guess he is sane in the cat world but he seems to have a very personal vendetta against my toddler.

My toddler could just be sitting there reading her book, or playing, or walking, or standing and the kitten will run up on, put his claws in her skin, and then bear hug and gnaw at her skin.

He has jumped on her face, has bitten the nooks of her arms. He is very violent towards her.

I usually use a squirt bottle to stop his attacks but I do not always have a squirt bottle handy so what do I do to release him from attacking her? I tried scruffing her and placing her in a different area but he comes back for more. It is really scary because, he attacks just her, he occasinally gets the other members of the family but she is the main target.

No, I do not leave the two alone, and nor do I let my 3 year old tease and pester the kitten so I don't know why he is targeting her.

My daughter could easily have 7 scratches within 1 week, it's ridiculous, I can't take it, he is a monster.

He is a male 7 weeks, we got him at 4 weeks and I know that he was taken from his mother too early. I know that but what can I do?

What do I do? When he attacks her a firm NO! does not work, believe me.

Answer 1

A bop on the nose plus a firm no should help.  Enough of a bat to offend, but not to hurt.  Some kittens are just aggressive that way.  Does he have toys he can take his aggression out on?

Answer 2

Get it a play-mate...the kitten, I mean!

The kitten is seeing your toddler as it's litter-mate.  If you watch kittens play with one another, there's a lot of attacking and very rough playing.  This is why most shelters ALWAYS recommend adopting 2 kittens together if you don't already have a cat at home.  The attacking is your kitten playing with it's "litter-mate," which happens to be your toddler.

The same thing happend to me.  We had 2 old cats and adopted a kitten.  They didn't want anything to do with her.  Well, about a month after adopting her she started attacking me, drawing blood MANY times!

I went to an animal behavior specialist and she explained this to me.  We went and adopted a 4th cat close to the kitten's age and the attacking stopped.  She turned her energy on the new cat and they became best friends.  She's now 6 years old and gives me kisses.  I think she's trying to make up for the way she treated me.  The two of them are still the best of friends, too!

Trust me, 2 cats are better than 1!

By the way, DON'T DECLAW!  This is not needed!

Answer 3

With what you are describing, it sounds like this kitten is displaying very typical aggressive play behaviour. I would have guessed that he is trying to knock her into some kind of social order pecking, but he seems to be too young for something like that. The best thing to do is keep your squirt bottle handy at ALL TIMES and turn the setting onto a more dampening spray than a mist, perhaps a short water jet. Cats hate water very much - a short wet spray to the neck will make kitty back off very fast.

If he latches on, let him have it. With the squirt gun I mean - drench him. Also give him a very firm sharp loud "NO!" whenever he does something where you would have to use the spray. By the sounds of his age and past, he hasn't learned how to be a proper cat. Persist with the spray bottle punishment for now. Give it about two weeks, being as vigilant as you can.

If you trust your three year old enough and you believe she is old enough to comprehend the situation, you might like to educate her about the spray bottle and show her when and how to use it too. I would supervise this one however - sometimes three year olds can derive fun from spraying a cat and would just spray it whenever they feel like it.

Give it about two or three weeks. If kitty doesn't get the clue and associate his attacking with being sprayed, then you might want to look into rehoming him for a few months. He will grow out of his boisterous playful phase and mellow out as he grows older, but it will take some time.

I would also suggest getting him neutered. This calms cats down quite considerably.

Answer 4

dont hit it!  After a while the animals will become friends. I had a sorta mean cat,  and a puppy.  Soon they were sleeping on the same bed!  It was so cute!  And they once hated each other now they love each other.  And if it scratches your dog put the cat in another room.

Answer 5

one thing is for sure

YOU DONT FU*KING HIT OR ABUSE ANY ANIMALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 6

Either take a water bottle and pour water all over it or  grab it by the scruff and put it in another room. If that does'nt work I would recommend giving it away.

Answer 7

Hiting, spraying, or physcially harming the cat will make it disslike you, and screaming at it wont help. it will only make it think your attacking it, and make it more edgy and defensive, i would suggest-

if its a male, pick it up after it does it, poke its nose *they hate that, but it doesnt hurt them*  and firmly, say in a deep tone, no.  then put them on the ground., point the the child, and repeat maybe 3 times

if its female, pick her up, and tickle her stomach or poke the nose as well. only, dont say no in a low voice, say it in a normal tone, just in case in its later life your doign somthing with it, nd you use a low tone, it might get edgy

i hope it stops! good luck!

Answer 8

You need to find that poor kitten a good home and give up trying to have a pet for right now...

Answer 9

You started your question in a mode that shows you sort of believe there is a 'cat world.' Keep going. There is a little cat w/ adults who have really long boring legs. Also,there is a tiny little human that is at eye level and does interesting things. Kittens like to pounce.Obviously this kitten actually finds your child the most interesting person in your home. It is no vendetta.

Try de-clawing ASAP. I have heard there are 'kitten mitts" out there too. We bought a bouncy ball attached to a platform at Pet-Co  ($9)that helps keep our terrorist kitten entertained.

In ten years you will wish he would be more lively!