Enjoy The Antics Of Your Kitten

You’ve just brought home your first kitten and this adorable bundle of energy has enchanted the entire family. But wait is that teeth I see, look her claws are out – ouch the poor old dog just got a swat. That adorable little kitten isn’t looking quite as adorable. Not to worry enjoy the antics of your kitten, they truly will be short lived!

Too often people get concerned when they see the more aggressive side of their kitten. Even the youngest kitten can sound and act quite menacing at times. Not to worry your little tiger is simply testing the waters. And many of those protective skills and hunting skills are instinctual.

Every kitten is really a miniature tiger; after all they are directly related to their larger relatives like the tiger, panther, and lion. And even though you’ve brought a domestic cat home those natural instincts are very strong and have never been bread out of cats.

Your cat’s natural instinct is to hunt so don’t ignore these instincts. You can provide your baby with the best food that money can buy but that won’t chase away the instinct. Good news though, your kitten doesn’t necessarily prefer eating a mouse to that gourmet lunch, they just prefer the action.

You can very easily keep your kitten happy without having to provide a houseful of mice. Kitten toys will be suffice to keep your kitten amused and allow them to practice those skills. You can have a lot of fun running a toy mouse across the floor. Heck you don’t even need something that sophisticated just a piece of string will do.

While your kitten pounces, jumps, and twirls through the air enjoy her antics. This is quite a feat for such a small creature. At times she’ll appear almost weightless.

And then there are those clumsier moments where you suddenly understand where the phrase “nine lives” came from. As she launches herself from the top of the couch aiming for the dogs nose and old Rover suddenly turns, you see your little bundle of joys claws come straight out as she does a Garfield into the side of the window. Ouch! I bet that hurt! But not to worry, two second later she’s caught a ride on Rover’s back.

Now some of these instinctual characteristics should be stopped. For example scratching or swatting at you or your children isn’t acceptable, nor is using the furniture to sharpen her claws. A squirt bottle often gets the message across to these rambunctious characters.

Make sure you schedule play times for you and your kitten. These are best done during your kittens most energetic periods and can last anywhere from 5 minutes to 30 minutes. Your kitten will let you know when she’s had enough. Get her jumping, chasing, and running. It’s great fun to watch the antics and it’s good exercise for your kitten.

You can buy a terrific selection of cat toys online or at your local pet store. Kittens tend to get bored so buy a good selection of toys to keep her amused.

Always leave some toys out for your kitten to play with when you are gone. If she gets rambunctious when you aren’t home and you haven’t left anything out for her to amuse herself it’s your furniture and décor that could take a beating.

If your cat gets a little too aggressive and you are seeing too much hissing or too much swatting with the claws out, rather than slapping your cat, simply let out a loud screech followed by a loud No. Then ignore your kitten for 15 minutes. This usually works quite well. You can also resort to the squirt bottle if you have to. But never use physical punishment or your kitten will become fearful of you.

As kittens get older they begin to mellow, in fact some get downright lazy. So while your kitten is young and rambunctious and busy discovering a whole new world and what they are capable of enjoy their antics, because they will disappear.

Aura Mirchandani is the Editor and Publisher of Article Click. For more FREE articles for your ezine and websites visit ArticleClick.com. Article Click is a free content article directory.