What are some basic cat tricks I can teach my kittens?

What are some basic cat tricks I can teach my kittens? Can we teach them to shake hands like dogs do? or jump and roll over? What are some tricks that you were able to teach your cat?

 

Oh, I would love to hear back from you, if you actually manage to teach your kitten any of these tricks. The closest one of our cats gets to shaking hands is batting at our hand with her paw. This really means she is ready to pounce and attack - a big beware due to sharp claws! If we are playing with either of our cats with a toy on a string, they might roll over to attack it, but this is a far cry from teaching a dog to roll over. In another thread, we are talking about cats and sign language. So, I am not ruling out the possibility that you could teach your kitten these tricks, just never seen it done.

 

To be honest I haven't been able to teach Bob anything, you have to know that training cats to do tricks is very hard, isn't like with dogs. With cats is super hard, is like trying to teach some manners to a really stubborn kid who think he is waaaaay smarter than you (who, most of the time, also has a huge entitlement feeling). Hehehe!

 

I'll check out that sign language thread maybe I could teach them a thing or two now that they are still kittens. I was thinking of some kind of trick or behavior that I could train or condition them to do right before every meal but I guess I would have better luck with sign language!

 

Trellum described cats behavior perfectly. Well, at least from my personal experience. They have this disposition of being stubborn combined with a huge entitlement. We often laugh in amazement at our house to the levels they reach in their "prissiness" lol Nevertheless, you have a better chance of conditioning your cats because still a kitty. If you are interested in using for as a positive re-enforcer, I would suggest a cat treat. Or you could try cat nip. Cat's go crazy with interest with either of these choices. It would be interesting to find out if others have been successful in this area of training their cats to do a trick!
P.S. The sign language thread stemmed from an article another member posted. Quite an interesting read.