# Kitten Help?



## kevinbacon (Sep 6, 2012)

Ok, so my fiance and I adopted a kitten from one of his' mothers' feral cats this weekend (the rest of the kittens are going to the animal shelter to find their forever homes soon). She is adorable! I will definitely be uploading pictures when I can get them off of my phone ^-^

Anyways, I need some help. Since she was born to a feral mom, and we didn't want her to adopt her momma's human fearing ways, we took her a little bit earlier than most people recommend that you should take a kitten (6 weeks). She's a complete sweetheart, but she's a bit of a handful, having to be watched constantly when she's out and about.

*The Problem:*
She likes to hide in one of the most dangerous places that a little baby could hide in - behind our couch.
How's it dangerous? Its one of the electric reclining couches. I'm afraid she's gonna get crushed, and because she's sparked an interest in wires recently, I'm afraid she might

1. Ruin the couch by chewing on the wires (which would make my fiance super upset; its an expensive set and was a house warming gift from his parents).
2. Get herself electrocuted (by chewing on the wires).
3. Again, get crushed if we go to recline and don't know she's back there.

I just think its a good idea if we deter this behavior. She has other safe places - over by the desk and underneath the bed - but I'm not quite sure how to convince her that its better to hide out there than underneath our couch.

Anyone have any suggestions? Tried googling some already, but everyones' responses were basically "its her safe spot, chill out." I would if it weren't so dangerous.

Also, she's not afraid of us by any means - she will sleep the day away cuddled up on my lap/chest, perfectly content. And she loves to play with us, and climb our bodies like she's a little gymnast. The problem is that her favorite game is hide and seek, and that's the best place for her to hide because we can't really get at her. She'll come out after fifteen minutes or so to find another hiding spot or bat at her toys, I just worry about her.


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## bettacrazygirl86 (Jan 21, 2013)

I've had loads of experience with kittens before, especially really young ones. 

A good thing you could do is get her a small cat tower. Petsmart has some small ones for about $30. It's basically a little hidey hole with a platform on top and a dangly toy to play with. My old cats loved it. You could possibly get her some toys (and/or catnip) to put inside it so she might spend more time in there.

You could also make some other safe hiding places she could hide in. If it's at all possible, make the couch inaccessible to her. Cats HATE double sided tape. If you put a strip of double sided tape blocking where she usually sneaks under the couch to get to her hiding spot, she'll touch the tape and likely won't cross it. I've seen that recommended plenty of places before for when cats start jumping on tables and couches. The owners put double sided tape down and the cats leave it alone.


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## kevinbacon (Sep 6, 2012)

Thank you for all of your help! We don't have any double sided tape at the moment, so we tried aluminum foil. She thinks that its a game though, to see how far she is able to leap over it to get behind the couch. 

The good news is that my fiance examined the mechanism that allows the couch to recline, and since it just moves up and down a bar, there's no danger of her getting crushed. So there's one worry put to rest.

I don't think her having a safe spot behind the couch will be much of a problem anymore. We made her her own "cat condo"... I brought home a cardboard box that is just her size from work, taped up the top, cut a hole in one of the sides, hung one of her favorite toys from the top of the box for her to swat at, and put a blanket in there that had cat nip sprinkled on it. It's become her new favorite nap spot.

But yeah... just wanted to give you an update. Thanks again for your help!


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## bettacrazygirl86 (Jan 21, 2013)

That's good.  Glad to know she has a safe place to hang out, and the not so safe place isn't so not so safe. She might be too little to really be affected by the cat nip. I'm not sure. It took my kitten a while to really get excited about it.


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## kevinbacon (Sep 6, 2012)

I think she appreciates the smell (she definitely prefers her catnip mice over her non-catnip mice) but you're right, I don't think it really "wows" her like it does the big kitties. lol


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## bettacrazygirl86 (Jan 21, 2013)

It will eventually.  How old is she now? I think my cat started really liking catnip around 2 months old.


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## kevinbacon (Sep 6, 2012)

Well, she is a bit young since we got her early... didn't want her to learn her momma's human fearing ways as she'll be a strictly indoor kitty... so she's seven weeks old. Quickly approaching her two month mark, so we'll soon see if the catnip has any effect on her I suppose! lol


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## bettacrazygirl86 (Jan 21, 2013)

Yeah. My kitten was about eight weeks when he started liking catnip, so it should be somewhere around there.


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