Conference misery::feline_v1

    I would suggest giving her something which she is allowed to scratch, a
    scratching post or even her own bit of wall !, at the same time make
    sure she knows that scratching anything else is out, you could use a
    spray bottle to get this message across. I found with mine that once
    they were going outside they didn't seem to need anything in the house
    to scratch.
    
    
    M.
    

    Is she chewing on the walls?  The reason I ask is that she is 5 months
    old and that is the age that kittens get their adult teeth.  She may be
    trying to relieve the teething pain by chewing on the wallboard.  
    
    I suggest giving her lots of kitten toys, soft stuffed mousies and
    things that she can really sink her teeth into.  That might help. 
    Also, don't allow her access to any room that she has already started a
    spot on while you are not there to correct her.  When you see her doing
    it, nail her with a squirt from the spray bottle and tell her NO! Then
    distract her with a toy.
    
    You can lock her in a bathroom during the day, or a basement.  Give her
    food, water, a litterpan and some toys.  A nice soft cat bed would be a
    good idea too.  Kittens generally sleep all day, so she would be quite
    comfortable in a smaller room while you are gone.  The idea here is
    behavior modification while this habit is developing.  If you dont'
    stop it now it will be a habit that she may continue for the rest of
    her life.
    
    Jo

    I believe that the drywall may actually be dangerous for her.  I
    recollect hearing of a cat that died after inhaling a lot of drywall
    dust during some house remodeling.  I would do a couple of things
    right away:  take her to the vet for a checkup to see if she has
    some nutritional deficiency or somesuch (make such teh vet knows about
    the walls), get (perhaps several) scratching posts (large and
    stable-heavy enough so that they won't tip over when she uses them) and
    put them about the house, play with her more (this might be boredom --
    five months is a peak energy time and it also gets her attention,
    albiet the negative time), and fix the walls so that she can't get at
    the loose edges.
    

    I'm going to buy a spray bottle and try that approach.  I just have to
    think of somewhere to put her during the day.  My one bathroom is
    wallpapered so I don't want to risk putting her in there.  The other
    one is an awkward shape to put in a bed, little box, etc.  I could put
    her in the basement as that's where her litter is - the only problem
    with that is if the other cat is in I can't shut her out of the
    basement and the cats don't particularly get along so I don't want to
    shut them together.  Oh well, I'm sure I can come up with someplace...
    
    I don't think scratching posts will help - she's not scratching the
    wall - she bites at it.  I doubt if she's bored - with three kids
    playing with her constantly (while they're home) she's not bored.  She
    does this while we're at home, not so much while we're away from the
    house.
    
    I need to take her to the vet for her final FeLeuk shot so I'll mention
    it to him then.  My sister-in-law went through the same thing with one
    of her cats and he told her to put the cat in a cage while she wasn't
    home.  She ended up putting the cat to sleep as nothing she tried
    worked and the the cat was destroying her rented condo. (She had to do all
    kinds of artful furniture arrangements when the landlord came
    over!)
    
    I really want to try with this kitten.  She's really very cute in many
    ways and my kids love her.  I don't want to let her out until
    after she's spayed so that's a few more months.  Hopefully, something
    will work before she ends up destroying the house (my husband is FAR
    from in love with this kitten so if she does much more damage.....)
    
    I'll let you know what works - has anyone else been through this?
    
    Thanks, 
    
    Linda

    Also,  someone mentioned fixing the walls.  Well, she's going after
    perfectly good, smooth walls with NO loose material, gouges, etc. on
    them.  Fortunately, she hasn't started on any of the wallpapered walls
    - that could mean war!  It's like she started with one gouge in the
    wall, got a taste for the stuff and is addicted!  She doesn't bother
    with the area she started with although she could do alot more damage
    to that section if she felt like it.
    
    

    This may sound a little far fetched - but could there be some thing
    behind the walls - perhaps she hears some thing and is trying to get at
    it.  Any mice problems?
    
    Giudi

    Wish that was it but my other cat is quite the hunter so any problems
    like that are long gone!
    
    Thanks for the thought though!

    Don't want to discourage, but we never did divert Miss Flea from turning
    the door jams into relief maps of the Alps.  If your other cat's a good
    mouser, could it have brought in one for the kitten to play with and it
    got away?  Miss Moffet does this all the time.  (I wonder what the
    aerobic value of a 3:00am mouse hunt is?)  This best success at
    behavior modification was with the spray bottle, placed on stream.  If
    you have access to one, get a large cage/carry box and place her in
    this when she starts on the walls.   Other than this, how do you feel
    about wainscotting?
    

    Well,  the kids and I went out and bought a scratching post, Catnip
    spray for it and a furry mouse toy.  I haven't noticed any more walls
    being attacked so I HOPE this was just a stage!  She's still a crazy
    cat but she should be getting spayed soon and then I can start letting
    her out.  Maybe that will calm her down!
    
    We do "mouth checks" on Tinkerbell whenever we let her in - she ALMOST
    slipped a cute little baby mouse by me the other night but I got it
    away from her (poor thing was already dead).  So, Dude is just a brat
    with a bad habit!  I am going to pick up a spray bottle this weekend
    (we had been using a water pistol on her but the kids got too carried
    away with it!).