Help - Psycho Kitty

Hi all,

So my MC arrived a week and a half ago and she's the most precious creature in the world - my allergy-ridden hubby is besotted with her and she's quickly taken over the house. She's arrived fully litter trained so we've only had one accident and that was on her second night; she only sinks her claws into her scratching posts, unless she's playing or trying to get onto furniture that she's too small to jump on. Absolutely cannot complain in any way.

But anytime after 8.45 in the evening (every evening), she turns into PsychoKitty; she tears around the house like a kitten possessed, and swings between skittish to aggressive - the only way to calm her down is to put her somewhere quite, and it might take 3 or 4 goes before this approach works.

Yesterday was her first day in the house on her own all day, and she was absolutely mental last night when I got home. She did this weird thing behind her scratching post - she had her paws wrapped around it and kept 'peeking' out either side of it to stare at me, before she charged at me across the room from about 8 feet away. She then sat at the bottom of the stairs and swished her whole tail from left to right and then charged up the stairs towards me/ at me.

I can't work out if she's angry with me, psychotic, dislikes me, or if it's natural kitten play. When she's not behaving that way, she follows me from room to room and seems to like to know where I am. She also rubs round my legs, licks my fingers and nose and curls up on my lap where she falls so deeply asleep she snores, twitches and wakes herself up.

She's my first kitten and I have no idea if this is normal or not - any thoughts? The peekaboo thing was quite unsettling!

Hello to you and your new kitten! How old is she?

In my experience, young kittens tend to be have great spurts of activity at certain points during the day, during which they play absolutely madly. Our MCs certainly all like to play peekaboo, and the tail swishing is very normal for them to do when they are preparing to "attack." While they will do the tail swishing whether they are playing or angry (this is how we can tell when one of our girls has had enough grooming and a swat is not far off), it sounds to me like yours is engaging in quite normal kitten play. I am also not surprised that she was especially active after her first day alone.

Kittens can play quite roughly--you should see how they play with each other! Biting is probably the biggest problem. It takes kittens a while to figure out what is acceptable and what is not, and you need to help train them by stopping play when they bite (or at least not allowing them to continue biting). You may want to start trimming the front nails to avoid scratches.

Hello and welcome, we too are new to Maine Coons but loving every moment of them! If you think one is bad having a mad half hour try two of them!!! I always thought cats were light on their feet but was I ever wrong, they sound like a pair of charging hippo's when they chase each other around and up and down the stairs:rofl:

Welcome to the forum.... sounds to me like you have a very normal kitten there...

Our tonk is like that... will race madly around the house. But my mc Gryfn is a lot quieter... though he does get into a lot of mischief.

Can't wait to see some pics of your kitten

Sounds about right to me.

Zack has periods of complete madness - the only difference is he chases and attacks the other 2 and they chase him back and as above I get the loud beating of large feet clomping round and round the house. Luckily they do sometimes run up and down outside in the catrun and leave me in peace.

I am not amused when it happens in the night and they use the bed as part of play and jump on me as they jump over the bed.

Hi and welcome to the forum:smile:

I agree with the other comments from everyone else. When my coonies were babies they would play peekaboo with the most sinister little looks on their faces!!! And more to the point at 20 months old they still act like crazy cats when they want to!!! They always wag their tails when they are in attack mode and mine love to do this when the post comes through the door- just like dogs:satisfied:

They do love to play and I can never belive how much energy they have! We have natural floorboards on the stairs and in the hallway and wow do they make a noise on this!!! A herd of elephants is the closest way to describe it:smile: If we have guests over they cannot believe the noise...

Can't wait to see the pics of your new MC kitty.

I'd say she sounds very normal too. Simba had moments when he was younger when he looked quite wild. He'd wait at the bottom of the stairs and flatten his ears if he saw you at the top, then if you hid he would charge up after you. I think my two sons made this worse as they enjoyed it and often played along with him, getting scratched along the way. I know what you mean by un-nerving though but it is just play. Hunting is a natural instinct and kittens practice this through play. I learnt it was best to ignore Simba when he was in one of his mad moods cos you just got scratched or bitten if you tried to stroke him :LOL: He also had mad fits around the house and ran up and down the curtains. Other times though he is calm and sweet. This happens less now, mostly because he gets rid of his energy in the garden. I've seen him run around like a mad thing out there, he ambushes the dogs, attacks any flying insects and he has even started running up - yes running up- the trees. After a day outside he sleeps like a baby all evening and I think (cos I don't hear him) all night.

To be honest though after getting through two large dogs as puppies, Simba is a breeze:rofl:

Welcome to the forum.

:rofl: yes Gryfn goes flying up the posts in the cat run!

But they're good boys and sleep all night!

Thank you so much for your comments - I don't know anyone with a Maine Coon except the Breeder and it's so reassuring to hear it's normal! And as for the noise - when Freyja's in PsychoKitty mode, it's like living with a herd of wilde beast... and that's with just one MC and carpets! It is hilarious watching her on the tiled floor in the kitchen, she keeps overshooting rag cat when she takes a flying leap at him.

Having read about your experiences, I felt a lot more relaxed this evening and we've had a great time hanging out; my hair's not stood on end, I've not lost any flesh, she's purred like a pneumatic drill all evening, and now she's flaked out inside a cardboard box filled with shredded paper.

I'm getting Freedom Fence installed in the garden in the next few weeks and once she's been neutered and is used to a collar, I can give her supervised access out there. It's not huge but there's enough things to hide in, climb up and chew!

Any suggestions for what I could get to keep her amused when I'm at work? She's got a Tigga Tower in the kitchen that's a meter and a half tall and she shins up that at a rate of knotts, but I wondered about some of those brain-training type toys to keep her stimulated mentally when she's on her own - anyone tried them?

I've tried to upload some pics but appear to have only managed it in the gallery and then loaded the same one twice!

Thanks again for taking the time to reply.:nod:

I've found the best thing to keep them busy while you're at work is another kitten... :rofl:

Quote:

---

Any suggestions for what I could get to keep her amused when I'm at work?

---

A bird feeder close to an easily accessible window. Hours of fun for kitties. We actually have a couple of the small plastic ones that stick to the windows. The cats love to stalk the feeding birds and then periodically pounce and scare them off.

I worked from home the other day and did not see my lot hardly at all because they spent all day ASLEEP.

Besides that Zack likes to play with little toys like fake mice, rolled up paper etc and they are scattered around the house. He picks them up and bats them around for ages.

Toys for them to play with whilst you are at work...
Empty yoghurt pots, turned upside down with a cat treat underneath them. Hide a few around the house and they soon get into the habit of hunting them out :)

ping pong balls are good too.... the cats love to chase them around the hhouse and because they're light they don't cause any damage.

Plastic drinking straws are good for keeping kittens amused.

Chester is a kitten and he has moments of absolute loopy-ness! He not only peeks from the scratching post, but he wraps all 4 paws around it and climbs up it like a monkey would up a tree! Kittens tend to have outbursts to expend their energy and then they get sleepy. Nothing to worry about, and fun to watch.

Thanks for the ideas all - it's been reassuring to know she's doing exactly what she should and the advice has made feel much more relaxed about it! The ping pong balls worked a treat, as did the drinking straws (I never would have guessed Starbucks extra long drinking straws would ultimately protect my feet...) and I now make sure the first thing I do when I get in from work is 'hang' with Freyja for 15 minutes with her favourite toys. I've also got a couple of toys that she can play with on her own and keep her brain busy - the CATIT senses ball and track has gone down quite well, as has the activity board. I can also recommend ice cubes in this hot weather - Freyja will chase them around the kitchen floor and get quite puzzled when they vanish into thin air! It does, however, leave the kitchen floor looking like the washing machine broke!