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I have a cat that is about 6 months old, male, has been neutered and was a stray but has been an indoor cat since he was barely old enough to leave his mother.
He has toys that he can chew. He has a scratching post. He's just too violent.
It's gotten to the point that my wife is ready to give him away. I don't want that.
Hatrack, please help me...
Posts: 995 | Registered: May 2003
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Peterh, There was a sad case of this in our town. An elderly woman was being attacked by her own cat, and she had to get rid of it. I have no idea what to tell you, excpet give it its own room if you can, until you figure it out. How sad and scary for you!
Posts: 10890 | Registered: May 2003
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He doesn't do it ALL the time, but it's enough to drive the Mrs. nuts. He isn't violent about it, and doesn't really try to hurt you. I think it's a weird power thing for him, but I don't know how to break him of it.
Posts: 995 | Registered: May 2003
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I have no idea if it would work for cats, but for dogs, it's recommended to keep a spray bottle and squirt them when they start getting too rough.
Posts: 3493 | Registered: Jul 2001
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If you only have the one cat, he is probably trying to play rough with you the way he would with another cat. Keep his nails trimmed, and consider getting him a playmate. OR, get a squirtgun or spray bottle. Squirt him with water every time he gets out of hand, it really does work well on cats. Mine calms down instantly.
Posts: 1990 | Registered: Feb 2001
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Well, I don't know if I can help, seeing as my cats aren't that violent, besides one, but she doesn't attack anyone (well, at least not me), just growls all the time, but I think I may be able to help.
Whenever my cats are getting too rough (especially the year-olds) I simply immobile them. I know, it sounds cruel, but it's really not. Just hold the front paws together in one hand (out of the reach of the mouth, this is very important) and hold them tight. They usually relax very soon. If that doesn't work, you could always grab onto the scruff, but I don't prefer to do that. However, it does usually immobilize them. But that can be cruel. Hope this helps!
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When our cats start getting attitude, it usually means their claws are getting sharp. Trim the claws! If you're not comfortable doing it, ask your vet to show you how to do it without injuring the cat.
It sounds like it needs to play rough. Put a couple of tube socks on your arm and play rough with it at a certain time every day (like right when you get home). If it acts up at an improper time, or attacks bare skin, flick or (gently) bite its ears like a mother cat would. They don't like it but it establishes who's boss.
I can have our younger cat so worked up she's yowling and rabbit-kicking me, but my wife can reach in and pet her and she'll calm right down and purr. Then she attacks me with renewed vigor.
The cat, not my wife.
Posts: 173 | Registered: Jun 2002
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Stray cats, even those that have been with humans for a good while, don't always remember that humans don't like to play rough. We had one that we rescued after being notified by an elderly neighbor that a stray cat was bothering hers. This cat lived with us for years and years--yet never really learned that clawing was a problem. Fortunately it eventually trailed off, but it never really stopped.
Posts: 1114 | Registered: Mar 2004
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our cat has always bit us, and a lot...whenever she gets out of hand and actually starts biting mean we usually just pin her in some way so that she can't bite us and tell her off...and then put her down and ignore her for a while...it works for us...
Posts: 1158 | Registered: Feb 2004
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Hugging my cat tightly works about 40% of the time but using the spray bottle works 100% of the time when I make myself use it.
Posts: 1990 | Registered: Feb 2001
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Do they make spray bottle holsters? I'd get pretty darn tired of carrying one around everywhere.
I really think it's a rough form of play, not an anger or meanness things. Most of the time he's very nice and likes to be around us. I've had cat's before that we mean, but stayed to themselved. This one is just another deal altogether.
Posts: 995 | Registered: May 2003
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And more importantly, why has there been no response from you regarding our get together? hhhmmmMMMMM???
Posts: 6367 | Registered: Aug 2003
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Biting can be a sign of affection, rather than aggression. Many kittens are rambunctious. Sometimes little kids bite other people when they are really happy...cats do the same thing.
I would say just hang in there and give the cat time to learn. Another easy disciplining option that works fairly well for cats is to make a loud noise when they do something. Like, yelling. Cats hate loud noises and this will normally drive the point across as well or better than a water bottle. To be honest, I am ambivalent about spraying the cat in this instance. I'm afraid it would send a mixed message at the cat's tender age. For instance, the cat might get the idea that it might just be better to stay away from *you* altogether.....
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I just think spraying the cat is more like a slap in the face, whereas yelling when the cat bites too hard just alerts the cat in language it can understand that you're in pain. I'm not saying to carry on like a banshee for five minutes, silly person.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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The cat is indeed playing with you; trouble is, he's playing the way he would with his littermates, which means he's trying to establish dominance over you. And if do your natural human response of stopping playing with him and walking away, you're actually encouraging it--a human child would be sad that you stopped paying attention to him, but to the cat that means he's won the encounter, and it's positive reinforcement for the behavior. Do you perchance "hand wrestle" with him? If you do, you need to stop it cold turkey. Believe me, I know how hard it is to resist doing that when they're tiny and it's just cute, but they'll keep on doing it after they're bigger and it starts to hurt you. So if you're doing that, stop. Other than that, I recommend either saying "NO!" loudly and squirting him with a spray bottle, or if you have the time, a five-minute timeout in a bathroom or other small room. I've never tried the immobilization thing a couple of other people have mentioned, but that sounds like it could work if it's done gently. Finally (wow, this got kinda long), it probably is largely due to kittenish rambunctiousness, and with patience and proper training, he'll grow out of it.
Posts: 957 | Registered: Aug 2002
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I have to agree with Storm Saxon. Making loud noises to stop unwanted behaviour is something I have tried with great success.
When we bought our house from my mother in law, a huge black cat with several bad habits came along with the house. He would scratch at furniture whenever he wanted to go outside or wanted more food. He would also jump on tables and steal food when no one was looking, and sometimes go to sleep there afterwards! I wasn’t very happy about taking care of the cat, thinking our new couch would have a very short life, and foreseeing a life with black hairs and bite marks on the cheese (and everywhere else).
We started making loud noises such as clapping hands or banging the wall or table, often with a loud NO, whenever we caught him doing things we didn’t like. If we knew he wanted something from us, we wouldn’t comply until he tried meowing. It’s only been a couple of months, but his behaviour has changed radically. Meowing is now his first option when he wants something, and as far as I can tell, he no longer jumps on tables.
After a while we realized that the furniture scratching was something he had adopted out of necessity. My mother in law is half way deaf and refuses to wear a hearing aid. She simply hadn’t heard him when he tried to tell her what he wanted. And she thought he was cute when he was sleeping on the table and would pet him…
It’s a little bit funny to hear him meow. His voice is very weak, maybe from not using it at all for three years, so this awesome cat that looks like a small panther can only produce a tiny “Mee..”
I don’t know if loud noises will work on your cat, but it could be worth trying?
Posts: 99 | Registered: Apr 2003
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As Stray said -- it is just playing with you like it would with another cat at this age -- learning skills most would at that age. Most of our cats go through this phase, but have other cats to expend their energy on.
However, we had one cat (female) we had to raise inside that had this very problem. Ivygirl was finally able to pretty much get the attitude stopped though, with firm handling, so I will have to ask her to post to this thread tonight about how she did it (she is much more a cat person than me).
And it was partly our own fault. Raising it in the house, we DID do a lot of "hand wrestling" when it was very young, because it was an orphan and we knew that if it had littermates, it would have had this type of stimulation. However, then when she got older, our hands took a beating because we had allowed her to play this way...
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In line with the "loud noise" deterrent to bad behavior, I've had great success by making the "hissing" noise that cats make when they are ticked. From watching my own cats, I'm pretty convinced it is Cat-ese for "Get away from me", "You're getting too rough", and for a general purpose "NO!". At any rate, when I make this noise, it pretty much stops my cats in their tracks. The disadvantage of this over a water bottle is that the cat always knows the hissing comes from you. I think the water bottle is a better habit breaker because if you keep some distance when using it, the cat associates the water with the behavior and not with you as the squirter.
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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the worst part about having a cat is that when you get a stiffy and walk around with it... it realy HATES that.
Look, man.. I've had plenty O' Cats. It's six months old and attacking? Tell your wife to be patient. It's in it's young years... it's PLAYING... attacking means it loves you. Seriously, tell your wife to put a sock in it and wait another..... ohhh.... 5 months.
Posts: 529 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Quite a bit of the advice here has been really good, and I even learned something! I didn't know that about flicking the ears, and I've had cats all my life.
Another thing that you could try would be the cat phermone spray that are available in various pet supply stores. Supposedly cats find them very soothing. I've never had to resort this, though, so I can't personally vouch for its effectiveness.
I accidentally broke my current cat of getting onto the kitchen counters shortly after we adopted her. We were having mouse problems, and had sticky traps up on the kitchen counters in various strategic locations. Our cat leapt up, apparently landing squarely in one of them, flailed around trying to free herself, and ended up knocking herself, several traps, and a block of knives onto the floor with a tremendous crash. She was unhurt, happily, but it was weeks before she'd even enter the kitchen, and now, a year and one house later, she still has an aversion to kitchen counters.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Is the cat playbiting/attacking or is it really attacking? Is its behavior directed at one particular person?
I ask this because we had a sad and strange problem with one of our cats when I was younger. It had a sort of "mental problem" in that it identified me as prey. Even though I was the person that cared for him (so he was literally biting the hand that fed him), he would sometimes (at least daily) get this weird look in his eyes and attack me (and basically nothing would deter him, other than another person forcibly removing him from my presence and locking him in another room). It was the strangest thing, but the vet said that he would never change. Something had gone terribly wrong in his little kitty mind when it came to me. But, since his behavior was directed only at me, so we were able to give him to someone else and he could live out a long and happy life.
I'm hoping your problem is that the kitten is playing with you, not knowing he's hurting you. When one of my cats gets playing too rough, it's usually enough to yell a loud "Ouch!!" and then either push them off the couch or bed or go in another room. I would bet the spray bottle would also work quite well. We've used one in the past successfully to train our kitties.
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Make a high pitched yelp whenever your kitty does that. That's how kittens let eachother know that the play is too rough.
Posts: 7085 | Registered: Apr 2001
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My female cat was like this; we were intending to have her stay inside, but she was just too wild. Now, she comes and goes as she pleases and is much more friendly.
I'm sorry if that's not an option, but it seemed to work for us...
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote: How funny is it to me that the most thought out response comes from the poster named "Stray"?
Glad to be of service. Lots of good suggestions from everyone else too, I hope you find something that works.
Posts: 957 | Registered: Aug 2002
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Our cat is irredeemably and unconscionably neurotic, with bursts of violent psychosis which tend to be directed at strangers who make the egregious error of daring to interact with him.
People do not believe me when I tell them this. They NEVER believe me. EVER.
And then I'm removing a claw from someone's lower lip while Christy runs for the bactine.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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My brother's cat is the same way. Anyone besides my brother and his wife can ONLY pet the cat for brief moments on the head before risking The Mandibles of Doom. Keeping in mind, this cat is a Maine Coon, which means it's about the size of a volkswagon.
Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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Someone should post the 'I smell brains' link for the newbies, and for those of us who haven't seen it in a while. Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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Yeah, usually if you make some kind of high pitched noise like a yelp of a cry or something, if they're just playing, they'll stop. Sometimes they'll even proceed to purr and lick the spot the were attacking. My cat Simon.... i really miss him... had this finger fetish. It got to where Naomi and I had to ball our hands up at night and while watching T.V. or something because he nibbles our fingers. The way we got him to quit was one day we dipped our fingers in Vinegar. Man he HATED that... I don't know if it worked. We moved to San Angelo a month later and we couldn't find him so we had to leave without him...
A really funny yet cruel (but still hilarious) thing to do to a cat is put tape on it's paws and tape back it's ears and watch the hilarity commence.
Posts: 529 | Registered: Jul 2004
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I'm permanently scarred by the "funny yet cruel" stories my mom used to tell me about things boys did to cats back in the 50's. Posts: 11017 | Registered: Apr 2003
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USED to? No no no no no. STILL DO. hah. My personal favorite is hiding Ex Lax in your neighbors cats food bowl. HILARIOUS. Cuz.. you know... the cat can't get outside fast enough and... heh... I'll leave it up to your imaginations. Posts: 529 | Registered: Jul 2004
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Doing cruel things to animals for laughes is about in the category of taking a blind person's cane away in the crosswalk. Sure, they'll get scared and stumble around but you have a distinct advantage over them. It's a sort of bully-type thing to do.
That said, I'm well aware that little boys often do "funny" things to animals, but I'd consider it immature indeed to continue to do it beyond the age of twelve.
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quote: I've had great success by making the "hissing" noise that cats make when they are ticked. From watching my own cats, I'm pretty convinced it is Cat-ese for "Get away from me", "You're getting too rough", and for a general purpose "NO!".
That's actually brilliant. Gotta think like a cat.
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who said I ever got past the age of twelve mentally? Me and my grandparents ALWAYS argue about this. "It's not right for a man like you to act the way you do!" grandma says at the dinner table "What about honoring your grandparents?" "What about letting me be the way I wanna be. YOU are the ones that are always saying that the things people wear and the way people live just to impress other people is stupid. How is this different?" But still they argu and argue and argue. And i just sit there and eat my mashed potatoes.... And watch Invader Zim all the time.
Now, you do have a point, PSI. I can think up all these ways to torture animals and laugh while doing it. But have I since i was 8? No. The last cruel thing I ever did to an animal was i had to spank Katy because she cratched my face. Granted, it was my fault that she did it, but i was mad and so i swatted here haunches.. back end.. whatever... but i immediately felt bad, okies?
Posts: 529 | Registered: Jul 2004
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We do the hissing thing at my house, too. Though, I seem to recall the rationale for it being something about cats not liking snakes or something and inherently moving away from that sound.
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The cat I mentioned before had a peculiar hatred for men. (We think it had been beaten up...) I helped out in rescuing her, which apparently made me acceptable, but any other man who tried to hold or pet her was attacked. Fortunately, just to get away, not to do any more damage than necessary.
I must admit I once had the cruel idea of offering the cat to a male visitor to hold....
Posts: 1114 | Registered: Mar 2004
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quote: Though, I seem to recall the rationale for it being something about cats not liking snakes or something
excuse me? Cats find snakes fascinating -- and tasty. They will kill a snake (I'm talking the garden-snake variety, not exotic pet) in a heartbeat and will chew it's head off.
Yep, I've got pictures. Seen in happen many times.
But of course, these are more feral "barn" cats -- many pampered house cats wouldn't do that..
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