Daughter playing rough with kitten

rising_from_the_ashes

hethmar wrote: »

If necessary find a a new home for the kitten and explain to her why you have.

I know someone that's in the process of having to do this for exactly the same reason (also a 2 yo girl who leaves the adult cats alone but will not leave the kitten alone for some reason).

viktory

djbum_syd wrote: »

The thing is, she is under close supervision - as I am always with her in the living room/garden. She'll go over to the kitten, give it a kiss and then just grab it and run.

I can't separate them otherwise the kitten would never see any one if she was locked away in the kitchen. She isn't afraid of my daughter, quite the opposite - follows my daughter every where. They're never left alone together, as soon as I see my daughter being rough (or even going close to being rough) I straight away tell her off and whatever else I need to. She just doesn't seem to learn. :-/

Sounds like your child and a kitten don't make a good mix. Perhaps you should have waited until you had a little more control over your child before subjecting a kitten to this sort of behaviour.

You say you have told your child off, given her time out etc...have you actually sat with her and shown her to handle the kitten, how to stroke it nicely and play with it gently or do you just yell and get cross?

Poor kitten. I feel so sorry for it.

Dave101t

have you tried carrying your daughter by the neck to show how it feels?

viktory

Dave101t wrote: »

have you tried carrying your daughter by the neck to show how it feels?

That made me laugh. A tad extreme, I think though.

Luciferswench

meritaten wrote: »

I may be shot down for this - but kittens are used to 'rough' treatment from their litter mates! and the kitten may well see your daughter as a litter mate! The kitten obviously loves your daughter - so I would work on getting her to treat the kitten more kindly. praise her when she handles the kitten correctly - remove the kitten if she is is too rough.

I second this, just keep them supervised together at all times. Your daughter just needs to be shown how to handle the kitten in a safer manner. And everyone will get along fine together.
Have you seen how children handle baby dolls which they love :eek:
My daughter currently picks up our kitten all the time im sick of telling her to put him down shes always mithering him. When shes at her dads though the kitten pines for her :rotfl:sits and cries outside her bedroom door or waits in front of the front door for her to come home then hides :rotfl:

zaksmum

I feel sorry for the poor kitten. The child must not be allowed to mistreat it like this.

spike7451

I think the problem stems from the child may be used to seeing bigger,fully grown mogs & sees the kitten more as a 'living dolly or teddy bear',(Does she carry her dolls/teddies by the neck area?...) so she has connected the kitten to her toys/dolls ect.
My niece used to do that which is where I'm coming from,but with her it was a puppy.

djbum_syd

If anybody commenting about how she doesn't know how to treat a cat had bothered to read my original post, it says I have 2 other cats and she treats them very gently - so she knows how to behave with cats. So, no, I don't think I should have waited before "subjecting the kitten to her".

Yes, she has had the fear of God put into her - she gets punished every time, and more often than not she is in tears because of it.

The kitten will not grow up to be scared of people - the kitten follows me and my daughter around everywhere and is always cuddling up to us. My daughter can be gently with the kitten, she just gets rough with it when she gets carried away. The kitten is very happy here, thanks - even if when my daughter plays rough.

Somebody asked about her dolls? She doesn't carry them around by the throat or anything, she holds them like a normal baby - as we've shown her how to do it.

Carry the kitten by the throat isn't done to be cruel, she wants to pick the kitten up, but she loses grip.
I have told her not to, and she does get in trouble for not listening.

As for using something harder as punishment than what I am doing - sorry, but I will not smack my child. I don't agree with smacking, and that is my choice and opinion.

Guess, I wont be doing much else other than locking the child away in her room.

zaksmum

Problem is that if she does hurt the kitten, it could turn on her and she could end up getting hurt. If I had concerns that a 2 year old was being unduly rough with any animal, I'd keep them apart until the child realised that animals mustn't be manhandled.

I don't see that "locking the child away in her room" is the answer though.

Person_one

You've told her off and reduced her to tears but it hasn't worked, have you had proper discussions about the fact that kitten has feelings just like she does, tried to introduce a little empathy? Teach, don't just punish!