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My cat is a 4 month old Himalayan rag doll. We got her when she was 2 months old. She was cute, nice and gentle. But now she keeps destroying so many things whenever we're not there.
She would also scratch and bite us sometimes. She would occasionally attack us as well
We tried spraying her with water, yelling at her, and flicking her nose, and nothing seems to work. What should I do?
Usually when animals become destructive it's due to a lack of appropriate ways to take out their energy.
The article I've linked above lists these four reasons for primary destructive behavior:
Try playing more with your cat to tire here down. If you can't commit any more time than you already are, I'd recommend looking into interactive toys (toys that move or make noise without you operating them) that can keep her entertained while you are busy.
When it comes to how to discipline cats, that's a little more difficult. Instead of focusing on how to react negatively to teach her a lesson, focus on providing her the alternative routes to playing positively and hopefully this will lessen her need to act out.
But now she keeps destroying so many things whenever we're not there.
Cats have a habit of scratching and playing with things. It's important to understand that this is an urge that they get. It's an instinct, not a willful decision.
The general rule is that you cannot stop an urge, but you can steer it.
She would also scratch and bite us sometimes. She would occasionally attack us as well.
If the cat engages with you (as opposed to an inanimate object), that's generally a sign that they want you to interact with them. Especially when they're being (playfully) aggressive, the fact that they choose to engage a living object (who can retaliate) as opposed to an inanimate one highly suggests that they want interactive playing.
Provide your cat with ample toys, both those that it can use to play by itself (mice, balls) and those that require you to play with them (laser pointer, fishing rod). If the former isn't fulfilling her needs, and she still engages you, then play with her using the latter.
My cat is a 4 month old Himalayan rag doll.
This may be a wrong inference on my part, but fluffy cats such as the ragdoll are often assumed to be lazy cats (due to their fluffy and chubby nature) that prefer to lounge or sleep.
This is not a given. Though different breeds of cat will have different overall characters, that doesn't make it impossible for your cat to be unusually playful (compared to their breed's average playfulness).
On top of that, it's only 4 months old. I would expect nearly any cat to be playful for the first 12-18 months of its life.
We got her when she was 2 months old. She was cute, nice and gentle. But now ...
It's perfectly possible that the cat was initially out of her comfort zone with you, in a way that you were the center of her attention.
It's possible that your cat was always very playful, but it initially didn't feel at home in its new surroundings and therefore didn't feel as playful. Now that it feels more confident, it might start behaving more like itself again (including playfulness).
We tried spraying her with water, yelling at her, and flicking her nose, and nothing seems to work.
Those are all negative feedback options. What are the positive feedback options?
If you only give her negative feedback, she will eventually start seeing you as the problem. Make sure that her experiences with you are predominantly positive.
Whenever you see young children rebelling against their parents (saying things like "I hate you"), it's often caused by a succession of negative interactions between the child and their parent. The negative feedback may be justified for every encounter (e.g. the child actually misbehaving); but if the child exclusively encounters negative feedback, it eventually starts feeling that the negative feedback is inevitable (and subsequently stops caring about it).
Negative feedback only works if your cat knows that what it did was wrong. If your cat does something that it thinks is perfectly fine, and then gets punished by you, it won't understand that the punishment is related to its behavior. You need to make that clear to them.
As a rule, I try to reserve negative feedback for cases where the cat willfully opposed my rule. E.g. when told to get away from the food, it moves faster in an attempt to steal it anyway. Or when I tell it to stop scratching something and it immediately continues when I turn my back.
I would also suggest an escalation pattern, that starts off mildly instead of immediately resorting to relatively aggressive responses (like the spraying). Something like this:
The idea is simple: stop with what you're doing, or I'll escalate. Whenever the cat ignores your request, escalate again.
Some tips:
There's a reason for this progression of steps. Over time, the cat will learn to avoid a bigger consequence by complying with an earlier step. Chronologically, it will learn these steps, one by one:
Eventually, a "No", or even just stating their name will be enough for them to understand the consequences of ignoring your verbal cues.
After about 6 weeks now, our youngest (7mo) is now at the point where he knows that he's doing something he's not allowed to. He generally backs off when I state his name, even for new things that he hasn't been told off for yet. He clearly takes my verbal cues to heart, even though his playful nature still gets the better of him at times.
I would suggest you don't flick your cat's nose. Personally, I find it a bit aggressive, it's the equivalent of shoving a dog's nose in his urine if he went inside the house. It's much too aggressive (negative for your relationship) for too little gains (not guaranteed to actually teach them anything).
Since flicking is something that only humans are capable of doing, I would expect a cat to eventually realize that only humans can flick their nose, which may impact their opinion of humans negatively.
E.g. if a human gets bitten by a dog, they can develop a dislike of dogs (possibly even a fear) but not necessarily of other animals. Similarly, if a cat gets flicked by a human, that can trigger a similar response.
Most cats seem to notice that you are the source of any reinforcement. They might be trained when there's a witness, but they will often go back to their regular behavior when no one is there. Therefore, using redirection, that is, getting them to prefer some appropriate alternative, is more effective.
