Expert: Karen Craft - 4/15/2007

Question
Dear Karen,

  Hi!  My family and I purchased 2 wonderful, lovable male flame point
Balinese kittens from a breeder back in November (they were 9 weeks old
when we got them; they are now 7 months old).  The problem is that they are
constantly trying to chew electrical cords, books, magazines--pretty much
anything they can get their mouths around.  I know that they are teething--
we've found little kitten teeth on the floor--but my concern is that they might
chew on things even when they are older.  We have covered up our exposed
cords with plastic tubing, which has deterred them, but there are parts of the
cords that are still exposed that they still go after.  We have put bitter apple
on these parts, but once it wears off, they go after the areas until we reapply
it.  Their chewing also extends to metal objects such as door stoppers.  
Again, we use the bitter apple, but I am afraid they will break their teeth.  
Another problem is that they try to eat anything that is small enough to be
swallowed (especially lint).  They have done this since we got them at 9 weeks
old, but I would have expected that at 7 months old they would be acting
more like cats and not vacuum cleaners!  They also climb on desks, counters,
and other high places.  Once there, they try to eat any papers and chew any
cords they find, not to mention knocking things over by sniffing or bumping
them.  Other times, they will climb on curtain rods (they usually fall off and
we can't always get there in time to catch them).
   When we first brought them home, the breeder recommended keeping
them in a bathroom when they could not be supervised for the first two
weeks.  Because of these behaviors, we STILL have to keep them in the
bathroom when we cannot watch them for fear that they will either destroy
something or be killed in an accident.  They are let out for 2 hours at a time,
then go back for 3 hours.  They sleep in the bathroom at night.  I cannot
imagine that their chewing and getting into things could be due to boredom,
as they have just about every cat toy there is, a climbing tree on each floor of
the house, are constantly played with and have each other.  We are in the
process of kitten-proofing our home top to bottom so that they can finally
start living like normal cats (hopefully!) and we can have our lives back.  Is all
this normal kitten behavior?  Will we ever be able to give them run of the
house without having to worry about them killing themselves?  These are our
first kittens.  We got our previous cat, also a male flame point Balinese, when
he was 3 years old, and we never had to worry about him chewing on or
getting into things.  Sorry to go on and on, but please say there will be an
end to this!  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Kind regards,

Zack  

Answer
Hi Zack,

What you are doing is good to try to stop them from chewing. I can give a couple of other tips. Try them and see if they help. They may be going through a teething episode so they might stop when they get older. The best way to stop them from chewing the bad stuff is to give them good stuff to chew. Try using wool mice. An old leather glove is good. I read about a really good substitute. Give them plastic drinking straws. It gives them the texture and form that they like. There is a product on the market that you can also try. It's called SssCat! http://www.ssscat.com/repellent/home.html This looks like it might help you. Try these things and see how they work. Good luck and let me know what happens.

Ciao, Karen