Why is my cat so hyper
Living with a HYPERACTIVE CAT OR KITTEN!!
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well
hello my cat mojo friends it is i
jackson galaxy your cat daddy
and today we go back into the wide world
and when i say wide world i mean outside
of the cat cave
and get the questions that you guys have
been asking the most and i
pick questions uh since we get a lot of
them i usually pick the ones that get
the asked
of me a number of times over so today's
question comes from shilpa
in ottawa canada i asked me a question
about her young friend
simba and when you hear the question i'm
sure there's a lot of you guys that will
go
oh yeah let's check in with shilpa
hi jackson this is shilpa i wanted to
talk to you about
my cat his name is simba he is
four months old and this is my first
time with with a cat
but he's biting he's biting a lot and i
don't know what to do like i try not to
play with my hand
like whenever he i'm not even playing
with my hand i just play with the toy
with the wand or something
you can see it in the video i'm just
sitting and he'll just attack on my hand
what i do usually i just pick him up and
give him a toy but then also he just get
distracted again and then just attack on
my feet or on my hand this biting thing
i
i just wanted to be sure from the expert
that it's not bad
or if it is bad what should i do thanks
bye-bye
and there we have it and she'll put just
so you know this is a very common
question
folks like you who are taking that first
plunge
into cat guardianship uh especially who
get kittens to begin with
are asking that question because at that
age kittens
are just one big toy-seeking missile
they're just looking for fun and
sometimes in all the wrong places
and if we look at simba's behavior
you'll see
it's all about the hunt and let's let's
just take a look at this one little
moment here see it's a literal game
of cat and mouse you get it cat and
mouse because it's a computer mouse
anyway
so that's what he's doing you can see
the way your hand moves you're not
trying to play with him with your hands
but he sees it as a hunting target
anyway he's
learning what what hunting is about and
i think that that's the challenge at his
age to try to get him just sort of
reigned in while you're doing the whole
working from home that so many of us
have been doing over the past year and
trying to say well
this is when you play and this is when
you don't and try saying that to a four
month old kitten sometime it's
not easy but let me try to break it down
for you this part's a little bit of
heavy lifting because
kittens don't really adhere to a
circadian rhythm a body clock as i'm
sure you've found out by now
right now it's just a matter of sleeping
a little bit hey i'm up let's go let's
go
oh i'm sleeping oh i'm up i'm up and
it's not until about seven months old
that they
really settle into a rhythm to their day
i sleep at this point
and i eat and now i sleep and now i'm
crazy and i play and i sleep
that will be much more predictable as
time goes on but that's not to say
that you can't get simba into a rhythm
that that really just coalesces
with yours and how do we do that first
of all we feed them meals
instead of letting him free feed because
if you think about it a lot of that food
just converts into sugar in the body
and then he's off to the races if you
really get him into a feeding schedule
you can feed him three
four times a day as a growing boy he
needs that much food but at least it
happens at a specific time of day
so that then his sleeping and his crazy
energy will also fall in line with the
eating so
that's the first thing to do is to just
get him into a schedule as best you can
what will also help push simba into a
rhythm
uh and that's a schedule to his day is
play
and i know that you say that you're
playing with him shilpa but what you've
got to remember is that you're not
presenting an attractive enough toy for
him not to go after your fingers and
toes and ankles and arms and
arm bone connected to the whatever bone
right because
those things that you're presenting move
in a little bit more of an unpredictable
way a little fast a little slow you're
talking on the phone right i do this all
the time
cause i'm a hand talker shilpa i'm a
hand talker but as i'm talking on the
phone and i'm trying to make points
and maybe i'll put my hand down then
it's up again now i'm trying to make a
point right now now it's down again
or as you were doing working at the
computer where you're just moving your
hand around like that that might as well
be a great toy right there and if you
got a simba just in that moment where
he's a little crazy which he clearly is
in that video
then he's going to make a choice for
that so what do we do we get into
hunt catch kill eat first we're getting
him onto a mealtime schedule
if we can we're going to play with him
with that interactive toy that you were
just talking about and my favorite is
a wan toy feather at the end of it and
we just get that get him moving around
get him tired and if you want to take a
look at this video right here about my
technique called boil and simmer
great way to get him tired you know
because it's going to take a lot with a
kitten
and then after you're done playing and
you've got him tired that's when you do
the meal
that after you do your meal that's when
you go to work
you wake up in the morning you're
getting him into a rhythm uh
by waking up together now you go into a
little bit of play
and you go into a meal and now you're at
work and he
will snooze play and meal equals rhythm
and it coincides with your rhythm and
that's the way
to get simba going so it's all about
rhythm
it's about food it's about play so the
next thing i'd like you to think about
shilpa is
knowing simba's body language even at
his age he's not just all crazy all the
time
he is very much in touch with his raw
cat the the ancestral hunter
so i want you to take a look at this
little section right here
so here even though he's not moving he's
sending you tons of signals
his tail is squishing around and his
eyes
are planted firmly on his prey which is
your hand and the computer
mouse and you know it's coming so if you
know it's coming then you can stop it
from happening
one of the things you can do is have a
toy at the ready toys are not just about
interactive toys that's the main that's
your primary you want to make sure that
you've got as many wand type
toys as you could possibly get your
hands on and make sure that there's
variety that you're not always breaking
out the same toy
you always want to make sure that you're
putting those toys away so they're
special when they come out
but there's also remote toys remote toys
are the ones that that you've heard me
talk about that are
you know whether they're a ball or
whether they're the little
fuzzy mice or just a crinkled up piece
of paper anything that you can
show to simba and then chuck across the
room so when he's sort of zeroing in on
your hand or
or your computer mouse or both of them
you can show him something else
and just redirect him so you're not
setting yourself up for the dreaded
simba you know and then there's the
laser pointer i'm not a big fan of laser
pointers as a toy
by themselves but if you're in the
middle of work and you just need to sort
of guide him away from you a little bit
where you can point him
in another direction just to get him
doing something else
it'll keep him busy for a few minutes
and that's about what you can hope for
in in that moment before you can get
your interactive toy and play with him
but what i'm saying is he's giving you
hints he is getting down low he's doing
the little wiggle
his tail is going he's letting you know
that he's about to pounce so cut him off
at the pass
if you see that body language pull out a
toy throw it take the laser pointer
point it
just get him going in another direction
so that you're not winding up having to
say no to him all the time
i want you guys to be building a great
relationship and you
having to say no and picking him up and
putting him down and all those things
are doing by the way shilpa is putting
more air and more
energy into that kitten balloon you know
that's just setting both of you guys up
for failure so that's a great thing to
do
be proactive have those toys in your
pocket and be ready to pull out
that interactive toy and get the rest of
that cat energy out of his system but if
you're in the middle of work the best
thing you can do
is get him moving so one last thing
shilpa and and
you know i know you don't want to hear
this you just got your first kitten
and and you've got all this crazy energy
going on around you're trying to work
you're trying to live your life and
you've got
a kitten going after your fingers and
your toes and your ankles and your
computer mouse and the cable and
anything else that isn't nailed down and
probably some things that are nailed
down
but the best thing that i know when
you've got a really hyper kitten who's
in that hyper phase of life
is drumroll please
thank you get another kitten get another
kitten to
keep him company so the two of them are
playing teaching each other what are the
correct ways to play
kittens teach each other that we're
playing we're rolling around and then i
do it too hard i bite too hard and then
ow that hurt a lot now i'm smacking you
hard we fight now we're off in opposite
corners then we come back again and
we've learned a lesson we've learned how
to play with one another without going
too far
but also kittens wear each other out and
i i am just convinced of this
that as those two cats grow older they
have one another and cats being with
other cats is the most
natural thing to a cat more natural than
being with humans
when you think about it when they're
really young they're with their siblings
and their moms so it is the most
gratifying thing for a cat to grow up
with another cat they have one another
when you're working
they're together they snooze together
they groom one another
and this is the right age to do it at
just 16 weeks old
he will be very accepting of another 16
week older or a little younger
coming into his life so do that get
another kitten i'm telling you
shilpa check back in with me in a couple
of months when after you do that
you will be thanking me well not all the
time sometimes you're like these two
kittens are driving me crazy
but for the most part uh you'll thank me
about that one okay
so shilpa that's what i got to offer you
get simba into a rhythm you get
the most attractive toy that you can
possibly get don't set your boy up for
failure
you got to know his signals when he's
getting ready to go when his the energy
is
building up and all that air is getting
into the kitten itself and
you can bring that down before he pops
and
finally uh get another kitten two is
always better than one
and you'll be happier and so will simba
so that's it shilpa hopefully i was
helpful
your boy is adorable i'm so glad that
you
jumped into the world of cat
guardianship because we need more of you
first-timers out there and uh you'll
know as he grows older
that relationship will be priceless
between the two of you and i'm glad that
i could be
of any assistance along the way and for
the rest of you guys out there
ask me your questions just like shilpa
did it just a video
a question and then video your cat doing
what
you're questioning about and send it on
in to this address
right here and uh hopefully i'll be able
to answer that for you or at least get
you started in the right direction and
that's about what we could hope for you
know this is all about relationships and
family members and any of you guys you
know that family members are not
cookie cutter in any way so just getting
in the right direction
is a good direction all right enough
babbling
until next time you guys uh don't forget
to uh click the bell and subscribe to
all those fun little youtubey things
and uh pass this on to any friends that
you have that have kittens
until next we speak all light and all
love and all mojo to you
bye guys
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