A cat that bite the hand that feeds?

[littleangel7700]

I currently have 2 cats, a 13 y.o. spayed female (Kara), and a 2 y.o. neutered male (Sandy).  We got Sandy when he was about 6 mos old.  The two get along very well; they play together and never have had any big fights.  Our cats are meal fed, both dry and canned food, twice a day.  Kara is on prescription kidney food with meds crushed in it, so we separate the two cats for meals.  Sandy has always pretty much claimed the bedroom, and he loves to hang out in there, so we give him his food in the bedroom, while Kara stays in the living room.  Meal time routine goes something like this: I pick up the food empty food bowls, the kitties follow me into the kitchen while meowing and purring and rubbing against my legs, I wash the bowls, fill Sandy's bowl, take it into the bedroom (he happily trots along side and walks right in), close the door, fill Kara's bowl, and give it to her.  We give them a half hour to eat (which is almost always more than enough time), then we open the door so Sandy can come out.  Sometimes he does, and sometimes he stays curled up in one of his sleepy spots in there taking an after-dinner nap.  The routine was easy to establish, and it has worked very well for us.  Everyone seems happy with it. 

However, within the past 3 months, Sandy has started biting me when I feed him.  Not every time, but at least 80% of the time.  And he NEVER bites my husband when he feeds them, only me. He'll give me one good bite, either while I'm washing their dishes or while I'm preparing his food, and as soon as he's bitten, he runs away and hides under the dining room table or a chair.  He bites whatever part of me he can reach, be it my arm, hand, stomach, knee, thigh, or whatever.  And he bites hard.  Not hard enough to break the skin, but hard enough to leave pretty decent indentations, red marks, and even bruises.  This is not the same as his "love nips" he occasionally gives both of us while being petted, nor is it the same as his bites when he's playing and gets too wound up.  This looks and feels more like aggression.  There is no growling or dilating pupils or anything prior to the bite, but his ears will flatten fractions of a second before he bites.  That's the only warning I have.  (And since I'm usually concentrating on preparing the food, I often miss that one.)  He completely leaves Kara alone, and she is in no way involved in this that I have been able to determine.

My husband says I need to do something to deter him from biting me (such as squirt him with a water bottle--that seems to be pretty effective for him).  But it's difficult when he bites and runs.  I don't want to chase him around the house trying to squirt him.  I don't think that would help anything.  And since he hides after biting, it almost seems as though he knows he's not supposed to do that.  (Maybe I'm giving him too much credit here?)  We have an open floor plan, so I can't close him out of the kitchen while I'm getting the food ready.  I tried putting him in the bedroom early, but he wouldn't come on his own for treats or toys.  Last night I tried to carry him in, but then he pulled a new trick and bit my face when we started walking there.  (Luckily I wear glasses, so he mostly bit the frames and didn't do serious damage to my cheek.)  He still goes in the bedroom happily on his own to eat, and I don't want that to become an unpleasant place for him where he feels he is being punished.  He went to the vet for his yearly check up a few weeks after this started and got a clean bill of health.  (I didn't mention it to the vet at the time, because it had only happened a couple of times at that point, and I didn't know it would be an ongoing problem.)  I thought about using Bitter Apple to deter him, but since he doesn't always bite the same place, I don't want to bathe in the stuff.  And at all other times, he is completely loving and cuddly, and shows absolutely no aggression towards me whatsoever.  In fact, I can handle him, clip his claws, clean his ears and eyes, and even check his teeth very easily.  I've had many cats throughout my life, and I worked with cats at a vet clinic for several years.  I can read cats pretty well, and I am very familiar with cat behavior, but this is just completely puzzling me.  Does anyone have ANY ideas why he's doing this or how to make it stop?!  Thanks in advance.

Jessica

 

[red top rescue]

I have one who used to do that.  She is very high strung, and she gets a little crazy and frantic when she is ready for food and none is forthcoming.  I have taken to putting her on the porch if she starts that.  She no longer bites but just meows and does serpent maneuvers through my legs which is annoying and could trip me.  There are lots of places I can put her (laundry room, bathroom, porch etc.) so I just do it before I start making up their dishes. 

I have found that a really good way of preventing those attacks is a can of the compressed air that I use to clean the computer.  Just the hiss of it is enough to make her back off, and if she were to bite, I would no doubt chase her around with the compressed air and zap her with it a few times so she would have a negative experience of biting.  You can't really let her get away with it or she will continue it.  I did have another rescue cat that would bite whenever I would do something she didn't like, moving her off my desk chair for instance, and we always ended up on the floor with my sitting on her, holding her scruff, and saying YOU ARE NOT GOING TO BITE ME.  We would stay that way until she surrendered.  We no longer have those battles because I was more alpha cat than she was, and mostly I start petting her and rubbing her ears before attempting to move her, so she relaxes and lets me.  But it did take some time beccause she had been in a shelter for 1 1/2 years and was used to getting away with it.  That's why she never got adopted!

 

[jcat]

When we first got our cat from the shelter he would get so excited at meal times that he'd scratch up my legs. That's the reason why I started clicker training, and the first command he learned was "sit".

[article="30493"][/article]

He had to sit before getting a treat and quickly learned to sit when I was getting his food ready. He automatically does it now.

There are lots of clicker training videos on YouTube. It might be worth a try.

 

[littleangel7700]

Hmm.  Clicker training may work with him.  He's a very smart cat.  (He figured out how to play fetch in about 15 minutes, and it's now his favorite game--he's better at it than my mom's dog!)  And he learned very quickly not to bite our toes under the covers and that squirt bottles are bad.  (We just show him one and he stops what he's doing, no spray needed anymore!  A can of compressed air might work as a deterrent for him too.)  I hadn't thought of clicker training in this situation though.  Not an immediate solution, but if it works, it would be a better long-term solution than chasing him around.  That's a really good idea, thank you.