Help me with my Sbt Savannah. Please?

[Brandy DW]

I'd say she and I are just bonding more.

She was never really bad, bad. I mean you read about stories between owner and pet (and I'm not just talking savannah's here) where the cat or dog are just mean and attack their people. Sabriel has never gotten to that level. Her issues were little issues, and I think with time that she'll know not to nibble at all, along with the other stuff. It's a learning process and she's still a kitten.

 

[karenleigh]

Hi Brandy,

I'm glad you two are bonding more. Savannahs are very much people cats, at least mine are. I did want to share that I have had 2 domestics with mine and they both do wonderful. My cat Panther was older (14) when I got my savannahs as kittens and they all did wonderful together. Currently I have Abu who I got at a shelter and as a kitten. He did end up being sick the first year of his life but neither my savannahs or my chausie reacted to anything he had and they are the best of friends. They are all, including Abu, very active. I do have to play with all of them at least a hour daily. If I miss a day they are fine, even a few days, but they do get bored, and that's normal, they are active cats and I knew that when I got them and adjusted my life accordingly. They would rather have that play time with me than any of the walkways, cat trees, or toys I could buy them. Their play time is mandatory on my daily to dos, no matter what else is going on, but I love it that way. My cat Simba nibbles to show love. He usually goes for my knees and I just make sure it's covered

 

[Brandy DW]

I do have to wonder if Sabriel's nibble's are affectionate nibbles in her mind. Because she'll be licking me and purring and the next thing I know she'll try to nibble a little in which I then say "no" or "ouch". I don't want her to get into the habit of nibbling or biting, because even though it doesn't hurt much now (most of the time) I'm sure it could hurt if she got into the habit of it and just stopped thinking of how much different my skin is from hers. There are other times though like with my socks, where I can tell she's doing it out of play behavior. But yeah that one time with my face where she was licking and then bit down (let me tell you that hurt even though it didn't leave a mark) I don't let her lick my face for long periods of time anymore. For the longest time I didn't let her near my face when I picked her up, but now she'll get a lick or two in on my nose or chin. Then also on my knee or leg, she'll be licking a little and then start to nibble and then I'm like "no" (and I don't say it in an overly loud voice) and she'll either stop entirely or go back to licking. Anyway, I'm still not going to encourage the nibbling.. hopefully she'll find a different way to get her affections across if the nibbling really is part of her showing affection...

 

[Brandy DW]

Tried putting a harness on her for the first time today... Didn't go well. The first time it was too tight and she looked like she could barely breathe, so I got it off of her as fast as I could. Remarkably she didn't run off but kept pawing at the harness. So I made it bigger and tried again, then even though i'm pretty sure it was loose enough, she kept trying to attack it and kept falling over sideways because she was trying to get at it. So i took it off of her again and I won't be putting it on her again until she's calmed down from this one - so in about a month. After that she still let me pick her up, and I snuggled my face into her, which she allowed. Then I played da bird with her and gave her a treat when she was worn out. She bit at me when the harness was on but not hard. She at least doesn't seem to have sore feelings over it which is nice. I still feel bad about the first time where it looked like it was choking her... :/

 

[Patti]

I do have to wonder if Sabriel's nibble's are affectionate nibbles in her mind.

This is very common behavior for some cats, I call them love nips.

 

[Patti]

Tried putting a harness on her for the first time today... Didn't go well. The first time it was too tight and she looked like she could barely breathe, so I got it off of her as fast as I could. Remarkably she didn't run off but kept pawing at the harness. So I made it bigger and tried again, then even though i'm pretty sure it was loose enough, she kept trying to attack it and kept falling over sideways because she was trying to get at it. So i took it off of her again and I won't be putting it on her again until she's calmed down from this one - so in about a month. After that she still let me pick her up, and I snuggled my face into her, which she allowed. Then I played da bird with her and gave her a treat when she was worn out. She bit at me when the harness was on but not hard. She at least doesn't seem to have sore feelings over it which is nice. I still feel bad about the first time where it looked like it was choking her... :/

This is very normal behavior for the first time in a harness. You might want to wait until she completely trusting of you, but next time you put it on, leave it on for at least an hour or so. You will be surprised to see how quickly she will forget it is there.

You might want to watch these vids to give you a better idea of what to expect:

 

[Brigitte Cowell]

Patti is right, this is very normal the first time you put on a walking jacket or harness... and the more you do it at an earlier age, the quicker they will adapt.

If you can give her a bit of time to flop about then you can try to distract her with a wand toy...most of my kittens will then want to play and quickly forget the walking jacket is on.

 

[Brandy DW]

Okay first off it's not a walking jacket, it's not a jacket, it's thin. It looks like this only slightly different color. I got it at petco. That metal thing goes up, it's where you attach the leash.

Anyway I got home today, and after putting groceries away, went down and held Sabriel for a bit, petting her and such. Straight away before playing with her, before I got her too wound up, I tried the harness again. This time I listened to Brigitte's idea about distracting her with a toy afterward. Now I won't like I did get a tiny scratch on my arm that didn't bleed, and I got nipped a bit on my hands - but those didn't bleed either. She didn't nip hard. I had to take it off of her the first time I put it on because I made it too lose and she was getting the front stuck in her mouth, that's when I got the nips mostly. Then the second time I got it on her, it was still pretty loose but not too badly - so I started playing with da bird with her. She was running all over and jumping and pretty much forgot about the harness. She still let me pet her. I only kept it on her for about 20 minutes though, I want to ease her into it.

Though I am tempted to put it on her one time before bed, and make sure she can't get her mouth or something stuck on it - or be choked with it - and then let her get used to it at night... But I don't think that would be fair or nice...

So I'll slowly ease her into it.

Thing is after I took it off she was slightly afraid of me. She'd still let me play toys with her but she wouldn't let me near her to pick her up or even pet her without a toy. So I went and got her food ready and got her a few treats and she's eating now.

Tonight I'll just play her catnip mouse toys with her, and hopefully I'll get her to come couch and calm down. Well actually eating right now she's calming down. I think/hope when I go down there in a bit (like 30 minutes or so) that she'll let me pick her up again and nuzzle into her like I've been doing...

Oh also no pooh today, she had that one day last week where she had a poo incident but that was when I drastically changed her food schedule. Since then no issues and before then it'd been close to a week. I'm changing her litter box entirely tonight (I scoop it nightly), and I'm thinking of putting baking soda in there with her litter too but not sure yet.

 

[Dantes]

That's a kitten training harness. I used it on my boys too. It's definitely not strong or sturdy enough to be used as a regular harness, to walk her.

I didn't have quite the fight to get it on my boys when they were babies, but maybe if you scruff her while you're putting it on, then give her treats and positive enforcement once she's got it on? I mean, if she's putting up such a big fight for the harness, I can only imagine where you'll be when you try to clip her nails....

 

[Brandy DW]

Omg, I had to take her to the vet to get her claws trimmed. The vet called them daggers, very sharp daggers. But at least she doesn't scratch me with them, not on purpose at least. She also doesn't claw up the furniture.

But as I said once I got her her playing with her toy she was better with it, so I think it'll just take time.

Neka had a blue harness similar to that, but shaped differently. She never was able to get out of it and I took her to the vet with it on and to petco (although I only did that once because she almost got bit by a dog!). I was tempted to use the same harness for Sabriel but it was just too hard..