Q: I’ve just about had it with my kitten’s behavior. She is always being bad. She scratches at the furniture, chews on cords and uses my plants as a bathroom. I don’t want to get rid of her, because the kids are attached, but my house is being ruined by this ill-mannered kitten. People said that kittens are easier than puppies because you don’t have to do much with them, but that certainly isn’t the case with this little beast. Help!

A: I’m sorry that you were wrongly informed about how easy having a kitten would be. Any time you bring an animal into a household there is a certain amount of training that will have to happen. Perhaps you will be a little more patient with this kitty if you first understand the behavior, and then you can work to gradually change it.

Your kitten isn’t being “bad;” she’s just being a cat. Cats scratch to shed the sheaths on their claws and sharpen them. Kittens chew because they are losing baby teeth and growing adult teeth. They teethe just like a human baby and chew to relieve their gums and help break the new teeth through. Cats naturally like to dig in soft substances to relieve themselves and will naturally gravitate to dirt beneath plants until taught more appropriate places to go. Your kitten doesn’t know that your prized houseplants are not supposed to be used as a toilet. It’s up to you to kindly teach this little baby what is and isn’t allowed in a human house. Right now she’s just doing what cats do naturally.

You have a baby in the house, so you need to baby-proof just like you would with a human baby. Cover cords with plastic tubing. You can easily get this at a hardware store (fountain area) and cut along the length with a knife. Then open it up and slide it over any exposed cords. There are sprays that have a nasty taste to also help discourage animals from chewing on inappropriate items.

Be sure to have plenty of cat scratches around the house. Put them near the areas the cat is already scratching, like a couch arm. Sprinkle cat nip and hook some fun toys on the cat scratch to help redirect the cat to these items instead of the furniture. You may want to get some double-sided sticky tape to put on the furniture during this training process. It may not look great but it will keep the cat from scratching those areas while she is learning where to scratch. Once the cat learns to scratch on the scratching post, you can slowly move the cat scratch away from the furniture and into a more attractive area of the house. Move it slowly, inch-by-inch, each day, so it’s not a sudden change.

Put tin foil over the dirt in potted plants. Place more cat boxes around the house. Keep the cat boxes clean (I scoop mine twice a day). If the cat isn’t using the boxes at all, try another type of cat litter. Some cats don’t like plastic cat tray liners, so if you are using one of those, take it out. Other cats don’t like tops on their litter box, so you can take that off and see if it makes a difference. Most likely once the potted plants aren’t available the cat will start to use the box more, but you need to make sure the box is easy to get to. Cat boxes all the way down in the basement may be too far away for a young kitten to get to quickly enough. Just like with the cat scratch, you can move the cat boxes slowly to where you prefer them to be once the cat learns to use the boxes on a regular basis. 

Understanding our animal’s behavior is the first step to changing it. Many times we feel that our animals are doing something “bad” when they are just doing what comes naturally to them. We have asked our animals to move into our houses where the rules are different than what they would naturally do in the wild. It’s up to us to be patient and teach our animals about the rules of living in a human house to help everyone live a happy and harmonious life together.