A few behaviors that need to go ...

[Alex]

1. Ever since I brought my F3 kitten home a few months ago (he's now 5 months), he has been fascinated with wool. By fascinated, I mean he loves to bite holes in my favorite wool sweaters and pull them out of my drawers (not to mention wool blankets). Any ideas how I can teach him to leave them alone?

2. Also, I have a foam pad on top of my mattress to make it more comfy, and he loves to chew on the edges of that - even to the point of putting holes in my sheet! I love having him sleep with me, but I'll wake up to find him at it yet again. How can I make him stop?

... It's not that he doesn't have anything else to chew on - I got him a parrot branch at the pet store he loves to gnaw on, and he's ripped open his wrestling teddy bear and is in the process of pulling all the stuffing out ... I've also picked up small rawhide dog bones, which he enjoys

3. Another issue is plastic grocery bags. Anytime I bring groceries home he's fast at work wrestling and tearing holes in them. Last night (girls will understand this ... but maybe not guys) I was deep conditioning my hair and tied a bag on my head with him beside me. Bad idea. Very bad idea. He jumped for it, and now I have a small rip in the top of my ear (don't worry ... I'm fine and it seems to be healing well). I'm not made at him, it wasn't his fault - it was mine for not training him to leave plastic bags alone. Any ideas on how to teach that lesson?

4. "Love bites" ... as you guys seem to be calling them. He will start licking me when he's really happy and content, then, suddenly he bites, and if I ignore it, he'll bite harder. I have been tapping his nose, and he'll let go, but, it's not enough of a deterrent to keep him from doing it again.

Thanks guys!

P.S. Oh ... and the fun "toy" called toilet paper? Well, I now keep mine in medicine cabinet

 

[Rafiki]

Hi Alex,

Welcome to savandalism.

Cats in general seem to love wool and down. I have not heard many success stories of servants that have managed to break savannahs of this. Keep the sweaters in completely closed drawers - you may soon find that if the drawer is not completely, and I do mean COMPLETELY closed, your cat will get a claw tip in there and work and work and work until he can snag the contents and your sweater is toast. They are persistent!

As far as the gnawing on the foam pad....toss him to the floor with a firm NO! And repeat. And repeat. And repeat. It took a while but Rafiki finally got it that the bed was for sleeping and not gnawing or playing. Of course, I am still working on convincing her that the sofa arm is not a chew toy. She will behave herself for weeks or even a month but if I am too busy and not paying enough attention to her, she is back at it!

It is my non-SV cat that loves plastic bags. I have had to pull part of one out of his bum but fortunately he did not require surgery for blockage. He is vertically challenged (bottom heavy!) so Rafiki will nicely go get the bags for him. All plastic bags are now locked up.

Love bites - yup, this is one that we are still working on. When she gets overstimulated by pets and cuddles, she goes for the nose. Seriously nothing on earth can possibly be more painful than a cat bite on the nose. And the joys of explaining the new facial decoration.....

 

[Carykd7kau]

Welcome to the life of a Savannah slave, Alex. ANd Welcome to the forum.
I find the last resort water spray bottle to work here, for most "No no"s
I keep MY T.P. hidden on a shelf. SO FAR so good.
They are just so darned into it all.
Good luck

 

[admin]

agree with what others have said...

ALL of my savannahs love plastic bags...they lick them, bite them, carry them around, etc...I have learned to just put them away in a cabinet or elsewhere so they cannot get to them...

 

[Hina]

The spray bottle was a disaster for us. Sasha thought it was a game and we would have a soaking wet cat playing peekaboo and jumping everywhere on the bed.
But he kind of recognizes my tone esp if it's a firm NO and being scruffed and put on the floor! He would stop that behavior and turn into my loving purring baby!
I guess all they want to do is just play and like all toddlers they tend to get all involved and carried away !

 

[Rafiki]

I am fortunate that while Rafiki is attracted to wool and down, she doesnt chew or pee on either one. When she was about 9 months old, we came home to find that she had dragged a standard pillow up a flight of stairs and brought it to the living room. At about a year old, she decided to try to bring a queen size wool blanket up the same stairs while I was away on a business trip. The blanket had been neatly folded on top of the laundry hamper in the guest bedroom. My husband caught her in the act. She was grabbing it from all different sides trying to get it up the stairs!

 

[NikkiA]

Our boys have shredded 2 mattresses to date.

TP they leave alone, but plastic bags are fair game.

At a certain point, it gets funny. They bring so much happiness into our day, unless they are going to hurt themselves, I kind of just go with it.

Imperfect house, perfectly happy life I guess

 

[admin]

I so agree Nikki! Sometimes I just shake my head, sometimes I get a tad aggravated, like when Zuri chews up my bills, but mostly I just have lots of smiles and love!!!

 

[DChap]

Tojo doesn't bother with plastic bags but he literally eats the shrink wrap that comes on bottled water and canned cat food cases. We have to be very diligent about tearing it off and tossing it.

 

[NikkiA]

I so agree Nikki! Sometimes I just shake my head, sometimes I get a tad aggravated, like when Zuri chews up my bills, but mostly I just have lots of smiles and love!!!

Ah the bills. Our boys ignore them, but Jarvis has a 6th sense for Mike's pay checks, and Mickey loovvveeesss to create NEW ones for us. Chew mommy's laptop? Check. Chew mommy's iPhone? Check. Eat mommy's coat buttons had have her panic and take me to emergency vet?? Double check. Eat mike's $900 earl's fairy wrasse (saltwater fish) after catching it in front of mommy? Check. Mickey is a Bill Creator. But a cute one
Ps don't tell Mike about the wrasse. Mommy covered for me and Mike thinks it "jumped".