Thread: Help - Psycho Kitty

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

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

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

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 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 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

Welcome to the forum.

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.

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