Disciplining Cats

[cowmuflage]

I dunno nose tapping has worked for me in the past with my old cat *shrug* It never hurt him.

[AdamSavage]

I dunno nose tapping has worked for me in the past with my old cat *shrug* It never hurt him.

I'm on the fence with this. If you tap them very lightly, it's not going to hurt the cat. So I don't know..

[Silivren]

I dunno nose tapping has worked for me in the past with my old cat *shrug* It never hurt him.

I'm on the fence with this. If you tap them very lightly, it's not going to hurt the cat. So I don't know..

It's fine if you gently tap them on the nose. It won't kill them. I did that with my kitty Momo when he was bad and he understood really quickly the behavior that I didn't want him to exhibit and he quit that quickly.

[Lupis]

In general, it's best to use positive reinforcement over negative, but sometimes it's just not an option. Tapping a cat on the nose won't scar them. Hitting them or striking them hard is completely different and not okay, but a little tap is just going to get their attention. Much like dogs, cats probably won't remember what they did so even if you show them what they did, they just won't understand. Punishing a cat or dog long after the fact will do nothing except confuse the animal. In general, you just have to catch them in the act if you want to try and punish them somehow.

People already mentioned it, but it may be a health problem, or the cat may not like the litter in the cat box. There are a bunch of different reasons that the cat might be acting like that. My cat recently had an incident with peeing everywhere, but it ended up being a health issue, and as soon as we changed his food, he stopped.

[AdamSavage]

She has only gone outside the litter box 2x on me, and has not sense then. It could be a littler box issue, as the first time was when I had to remove the litter box on the main floor. Then 2nd time, it could of just been that she didn't like the smell of either box.

[Miacoda]

I actually tap them on the noggin and hiss. That has always worked well for me and that's exactly how a momma cat does it. If I can't reach their head then I'll tap them on the rump. I always hiss though. They should know what a hiss means no matter what species makes the sound.
And I did all of this to my two adult cats so age shouldn't matter. I've gotten almost all bad behaviors gone though (except for my Persian who will sometimes jump on the table AFTER I LEAVE THE ROOM she's such a little shit lol but my male cat is a total mommas boy)

[Finduilas]

Since we have two cats with totally different personalities we had to find two ways of saying "no". For Nala the water bottle worked miracles when she started shredding my curtains. A sharp "no" along with some water and she was off as fast as lightning. Now if she does something bad it's enough to shake the water bottle - she'll shake herself and take off even bevore you sprayed her. Flora instead is very fond of water and loves playing in the bath tub or the sink. For her we had to try almost everything: water - nope didn't work, just a sharp "no" - nope, she just continued, hissing - finally something that worked. The best results we had with a loud "no" followed by a hiss. And she follows when you say "down" and point your finger to the floor (for example when you catch her sitting on the table).

[Tahlian]

For both our cats, we use either the "psssht!" sound or a quick blast in their vicinity - not at/on them - with the canned air, if extra emphasis is needed. They respond better to the "pssht" noise now than they do the can, really, so mostly we just use that, with an occasional "no" or "ah-ah."