Let's say they are climbing on furniture that you don't want them on. Try a cat tree and play with them on that. Maybe you hide a little bit of their kibble for them to find. You don't want to overfeed them. But you can hide some of that to attract them to that area. Perhaps you have a toy that's their favorite toy that you put at the top, and you have the kitten go chase and find it. There is a product that has them scratch on surfaces that you want and not on surfaces that you don't. It's made by FeliWay called FeliAttract. And so you put that on the appropriate scratching area, and it attracts them to that.

Play with them. Play, play, play. Give kittens lots of things to do. Especially if it's an indoor kitty, you have to play with them because they don't have a lot of that natural environmental stimulation. If you think about all the sights, sounds, noises, and smells that an outdoor cat experiences, and then you've placed them inside, their senses aren't fully being stimulated. They can do things and behavior that you don't want. By playing with them a lot, that can give them natural endorphins when they exercise, and it makes them tired because you've played with them a lot.

I guess I would question: are they aggressive, or are they having normal behavior? Yes, some kittens are aggressive because they're scared. They're fearful. That's that fight or flight behavior, and so they may feel threatened. And that could be one reason they could be aggressive. They may be aggressive because that's their normal play and behavior. Biting and chewing can look like aggression or biting and scratching, but it's normal play that has not been directed in the right ways.

It's a great question. Often, kittens are vocal when they're attention-seeking, and that can be because, hey, they slept all day while you were at work, and they're ready to play. Why are you sleeping? That could be one thing. They could either be hungry or think that they're hungry. Depending on how you respond, you are actually reinforcing certain behaviors. As long as they are safe and not hurt, then probably ignoring that behavior would be the first and best thing. But if you get up, even if you don't think you are, you might be positively reinforcing that by interacting with them, and so they're getting attention. Or if you feed them, then be prepared to do that in the future.

That can be many different reasons. Probably one of the most common reasons we see is because the litter box is dirty. They don't like to go in a dirty litter box. And that might mean that you didn't scoop it today, or you didn't scoop it all week. That's probably the number one thing to look for, or that they share a litter box with another cat. And as I mentioned earlier, the correct number of litter boxes is one litter box per cat plus one. So, depending on how many cats you have in the household, that will total how many litter boxes you should have. Sometimes it's the type of litter box. You might have it covered, and then they don't want to go in the cover or under the cover. Or you might have a non-covered, and their rear end is hanging over. There can be many different reasons for that. But I would say, number one, make sure you're scooping that litter box all the time.

That's a great question. That's hard to answer. My one answer would be a lot. That is the way they play. That is the way they explore their environment. There's a lot of things going on when they're biting and scratching. Sometimes, that can be a sign that they're overstimulated or scared or fearful if they're doing that. And then other times, it can just be sheer play. If you have ever seen kittens interact, you know that they sort of kick with those back feet, and they're biting around the neck and things like that. And then you will hear one of the kittens tell that other kitten that enough's enough. And so sometimes they do that to us, and we don't give those appropriate signals to say when enough is enough. That communication can be a problem, but providing them with the appropriate areas to scratch and toys they love can help. Toys that are interactive or that you are interactive with them can get them to move and chase. That's that normal predator behavior. Fostering that in an appropriate way versus them doing that on you or surfaces that you don't want can help to make everyone happy. Sometimes they see your feet under the covers. They come by, they see the foot move, and they pounce on it. A lot of that is "normal behavior," but we want to foster it into what we want them to do when they're a 10-pound cat with big teeth.

A couple of things. Humans don’t like to eat the same food every day, and then we try to project that on our pets. You don't need to change their food because you can create a picky eater. And a lot of our picky eaters are overweight pets. That's a big issue that we see, which goes against their health and causes some medical problems. But in general, if they're on good quality food, they can eat that same food consistently. And then also in regards to table food, again, we can develop bad habits early if we're starting that. And then they can start to beg for our food that we eat, and most of the time, it is not as well balanced as kitten food. If we're replacing their calories or their daily intake with certain things that we eat, they're not getting the proper nutrition they need.