Expert: Becky - 8/2/2006

Question
I adopted a kitten about 1 month old from an animal center and he has a very strange behavior. He keeps on taking things like yarn or food, just anything he can get his paws on, and he       es it and puts it in his mouth and just starts growling. He is a VERY hyper kitten but if you tried to take out whatever he took in his mouth he would growl, hiss, and scratch people. Finally he would let something go after a while and sniff very hard to find something but im not sure what he is looking for. Then after a while he finds something else and does the same thing. If he doesn't have anything in his mouth he would just bite and scratch, What is going onnn?

Answer
Hi Sarah,

Your kitten is displaying dominance and is doing what cats in the wild would do.... protecting their "prey" they have captured. I am sure this is just temporary and is really nothing to be alarmed about.  Sometimes kittens will bite and scratch as a part of play, and a firm NO to show them it is not acceptable will usually do the trick.  Don't ever hit a cat, it does not work, in fact it makes it worse.  Usually, you can let them know by the tone of yor voice what is or is not acceptable.  


God bless,
Becky