Can you talk about why bottle babies are known for being evil/mean/angry and how to prevent that? I currently have one and want to make sure she becomes someone's perfect pet :)
Typically the behavioral issues that stem from bottle babies boils down to not having a queen’s influence and possibly not having litter mates, depending on the situation.
Queens will teach kittens how to hunt, that leads them to having more successful stalk-chase-pounce-kill hunting sequences once they’re older. While keeping these bottle babies alive and thriving for foster parents can be incredibly difficult, there’s subtle nuances of that natural interaction that we can’t perfectly replace.
In addition, a kitten in a litter will learn how to play in a healthy, non-destructive way. They’ll learn not to use their claws too much. They’ll learn that their litter mates don’t like being bitten. This translates directly to how they interact with people later in their lives.
The first step is trying to get the cat with another cat or kitten similar in age. However, with the threat of spreading diseases, or not having another animal or litter available, there are always stipulations. In an ideal world, we’d be able to put these poor kittens with another litter and the queen would just take over. But in a perfect world, diseases like panleukopenia don’t exist. The safety of the litter outweigh the behavior of one.
Making sure the cat, once they become mobile and begin play, has plenty of toy options is pretty ideal. Preferably softer toys to start out with, both for safety and to give them that feeling of sinking their claws and teeth into something.
But it’s imperative from day one, that fingers, feet, what have you, are never to be bitten. If a kitten bites the queen while she’s nursing, the queen will get up and leave. So it’s important to mirror that queen’s behavior.
Another important thing is socialization. If you’re not planning on keeping the kitten, you want the kitten to come in contact with as many different people as possible, so long as they adhere to strict rules about no playing with fingers/toes, and keeping themselves clean for the kitten’s safety (and possibly their own cats, if the kitten has something that hasn’t cropped up yet).Handling from as young as 2 weeks will help the kittens meet and socialize with new people. Even someone new handling them for 15 minutes per day helps.
Essentially it boils down to kittens not learning proper cat social cues. They don’t see how they should respond when they’re scared. They don’t experience how to tell someone they’re playing too rough. They don’t know how to track, hunt, and kill prey. So creating these experiences can help them a lot. Using wand toys to mimic wounded prey, just like the queen would bring back to the litter to start teaching them to hunt. Getting up, ignoring the kitten, or disengaging when they bite or claw you too hard. Drawing their attention to toys when they’re super playful instead of you. Making sure they meet many different people from a young age. These are some of the things that will help the kitten grow more well rounded, and into a better pet for their forever family.
