Baby in the near future with Playful/Aggressive F3

[MorganDax]

A 7 lb DSH can do plenty of damage with teeth and claws. I have never allowed any of my cats to view our hands as toys. It is one thing for me to say "No!" if it gets too rough.....but what about when my little niece comes to visit? Do I want her in harm's way? When my brother brought home a kitten, I quickly intervened when my nephew started rough housing and laughed when the kitten sunk his claws into his hand. It may be cute when a small kitten does it but dangerous when a full grown cat does it. It is the same thing as people that encourage their little yap dogs to bark at everything when it is a puppy. Cute little yips become annoying as heck when it goes on and on and on when they become dogs. Just saying......

I understand what you're saying.

 

[tdbradin]

I do hear and understand the concern. I have my first grandchild due in July and I do not have a fear at all. Of course, as with any animal she won't be left alone with them.
My nephew, who is 6 and a little hyper (ADHD) came over to spend the weekend with his cool uncle (I'm so proud ) and Venus just sat in his lap and chilled out everytime he was sitting still.
Not to say there is no risk, cause there is with any creature. But I have more faith in my animals behaviors around little ones than I do some humans!

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[Brigitte Cowell]

I think that you are right to be concerned about your cat, as it should not be the case that your cat thinks you are a human scratching pad or wrestle toy. I understand you not liking the term "normal behavior" but it is not the norm for a cat to treat their owner like that. And it is a concern when you think about bringing a baby into the household...so good to think about it now, before the baby is there!

I agree with others that recommended Marilyn the Cat Coach. We in Savannah Rescue know many many cases where she has been of benefit. A professional has many more tricks in their bag when it comes to personalizing a plan that works for your home.... we can suggest some things but a feline behavior therapist is probably the best recourse.

I have a 18 month old toddler now, so it wasn't that long ago that I had a newborn in my home. That went fine, cats in general just avoid a screaming newborn.... it was when Lola started crawling that we had some issues, especially with one of my F1s that took exception to this creature that stared fixedly at her, attempted to hiss back and then crawl madly towards her! Constant supervision is a must. And planning on spending time making sure your kitty still feels special and gets plenty of play is also important.

I've not had to deal with this particular issue, all of ours were discouraged from using teeth and claws with humans from the get-go, so am not sure how hard a habit this is to break. I don't know how intensively you have tried to date to get it to stop. I do agree with the idea that a playmate for her to wrestle with is a good tactic... some cats really do need to be able to wrestle with another cat...she likely would accept a kitten best of course so that would be the easiest route to take imho...

 

[tdbradin]

I didn't mean it to sound like clawing and biting is acceptable if it came across that way. It is indeed discouraged with Venus. I was just stating that while I "wrestled" with her at first as a young kitten, she did use her claws and left some marks. As she learned acceptable behavior for our playtime the claws do not come out any more. She simply tackles my hand and pinns it down, then runs off for the next round.
I agree that biting and clawing of any part of a human is not acceptable behavior and should not be encouraged.

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[MorganDax]

I just figure if you want to own any animal, be it a hamster, dog, cat, or whatever, you need to understand and accept that it will sometimes act like.. well, an animal. Even with the best training sometimes animals act erratically.

I certainly understand why people would want to teach their pet not to bite or scratch people, especially if they have babies or small children around, but I don't have kids and don't plan on having any, so I guess this just isn't a concern for me.

Best of luck with the new baby and training Feather! Savannahs are very smart and I'm sure you could teach one to be more gentle, even at 3 years old.

 

[Theo & Shady's Mommy]

I have a 18 month old toddler now, so it wasn't that long ago that I had a newborn in my home. That went fine, cats in general just avoid a screaming newborn.... it was when Lola started crawling that we had some issues, especially with one of my F1s that took exception to this creature that stared fixedly at her, attempted to hiss back and then crawl madly towards her! Constant supervision is a must.

Did you have any issues with your cats getting into the crib or bassinet? Our 20 pound F2 and DSH both sleep in our bed every night. I don't want to lock them out of our room when we have a baby in a bassinet sleeping in our room (they would be so sad ), but I've heard horror stories of cats wanting to snuggle baby and suffocating it.

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

Did you have any issues with your cats getting into the crib or bassinet? Our 20 pound F2 and DSH both sleep in our bed every night. I don't want to lock them out of our room when we have a baby in a bassinet sleeping in our room (they would be so sad ), but I've heard horror stories of cats wanting to snuggle baby and suffocating it.

That's such an old wives' tale! When your cats snuggle with you do they hug your nose so that you cannot breathe? If I had a cat that insisted on laying over my head I might wonder, but otherwise why would this happen? I remember someone (I think it was Trish of AllEarz) doing some research into the origins of this story and it dates back to some ancient case where a magistrate ruled that a cat had "stolen the breath of a baby" as it was found sitting by a dead child licking it. The cat likely was trying to wake the baby up...but it was blamed for the death...and hence now we have generations of parents terrified of leaving a cat near a baby.


Now I needed to check my baby all the time anyways, as I was more afraid of SIDS than my cats...so had baby cameras set up and we ended up cosleeping. The bassinet ended up our F1 Nina's cat bed...a rather expensive one...

Lola now sleeps in her own room (and crib) and we shut the cats out, but only so that she sleeps peacefully and not for any perceived danger. Our cats will go in and out of our room, and we can ignore that...but the baby's sleep is precious and we try to avoid any situations that might lead to her waking earlier in the morning, LOL!

 

[Theo & Shady's Mommy]

That's such an old wives' tale! When your cats snuggle with you do they hug your nose so that you cannot breathe? If I had a cat that insisted on laying over my head I might wonder, but otherwise why would this happen? I remember someone (I think it was Trish of AllEarz) doing some research into the origins of this story and it dates back to some ancient case where a magistrate ruled that a cat had "stolen the breath of a baby" as it was found sitting by a dead child licking it. The cat likely was trying to wake the baby up...but it was blamed for the death...and hence now we have generations of parents terrified of leaving a cat near a baby.

My SV does snuggle my head sometimes in bed - but I can always breathe! Yeah I figured it was an old wives tale, there is so much paranoia on the internet about babies and pregnancy, it's rather sickening. I was considering getting one of these bassinets with a net on it just in case, but they are so ugly LOL...eventually our baby will also be its own room with a crib that we will keep the cats out of at night, so it is really just the first few months I am thinking about

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

Maybe it depends on the cat and how they react to baby. Most of mine kept a safe distance for the first weeks, all the crying and flailing of arms really put them off. Zari was the one that was cuddliest and she always was cuddling where the soft blankie was... and the others ended up being the same, they didn't want to be near the screaming end...

I tend to think that net thingy would be a pain. The noise of zipping or unzipping it would likely be disturbing. And you would be zipping and unzipping ALL the time if you have the baby I did that when napping mostly stirred every 10-20 minutes. I suspect one might use this and then start leaving unzipped more and more....

 

[Carykd7kau]

Anna. Both of my kids ( now grown and adult ) were snuggled by our cats. Granted, they were not Savannahs...the breed had not yet been conceived, but Siamese, which we were told were baby killers. We watched the first night. and when my son cried, the cat meowed at my wife and demanded she check the baby. As has been said, it is an old wives tale, and so much untruth.