Advice to deter 8-month old cat from attacking my hair?

[meggers8806]

Please let me know if this isn't the appropriate place for this post, I wasn't sure where would be the best place.

My kitten attacks my hair constantly. I have relatively long hair, but I almost always keep it in a ponytail or bun. Over the last month or two, my cat has started attacking my hair. I'll be sitting on the couch, and she sneaks up behind me and starts swatting at my bun or the baby hair at the nape of my neck. I've tried ignoring it/her, as this is what worked to stop her from biting and scratching my hands. This hasn't stopped the hair attacking. I've tried redirecting her attention to a toy, which doesn't work. I thought maybe she was trying to get my attention because she needed water or her litter needed cleaning, but again this is not the case. I play with her multiple times a day, sometimes for upwards of 30 minutes at a time. This hasn't deterred the behavior at all. It's bad enough that now I pretty much can't be in my house without a hat or a hood on my head, covering my hair. I haven't changed shampoos or other hair products, so I don't know why she suddenly loves to bat at my hair. Does anyone have any advice? I won't spray her with water or declaw her, so please don't suggest that. Also, I've had people tell me to just cut my hair, but I think that's a little ridiculous to ask of me. I've been growing my hair out for 10 years, I'm not going to cut 12+ inches of hair just to appease my cat. Thanks for any advice


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[catlover73]

How old is your kitten?  What type of toys have you used to try to re-direct this behavior?  The reason I am asking this is because when I adopted my now 10 year old female Starbuck as a 6 week old kitten she went through a phase where she would swat my hair or chew on it.  Sometimes she would forget to retract her nails and get tangled in my hair.  Other times she would chew on my hair and end up chomping my head in the process.  She eventually outgrew this behavior on her own.  I had some success giving her a stuffed animal to play with instead.  I don't remember how long this phase lasted since it was 10 years ago.  I hope this will help you.

 

[meggers8806]

How old is your kitten?  What type of toys have you used to try to re-direct this behavior?  The reason I am asking this is because when I adopted my now 10 year old female Starbuck as a 6 week old kitten she went through a phase where she would swat my hair or chew on it.  Sometimes she would forget to retract her nails and get tangled in my hair.  Other times she would chew on my hair and end up chomping my head in the process.  She eventually outgrew this behavior on her own.  I had some success giving her a stuffed animal to play with instead.  I don't remember how long this phase lasted since it was 10 years ago.  I hope this will help you.

She's 8 months old. I've tried many types of toys: small toy mice, stuffed animals, balls, drinking straws (she really loves those and they have helped with her biting tremendously), the toy on a pole type of toys, more interactive toys like balls on a track, literally I've tried every toy that I own for her. Including catnip. The toy that has worked the best is the pole type of toy, but I'm thinking using this may have backfired. Since it's a toy I can't leave out for her, she only gets to play with it if I'm involved. I think that using this toy may have reinforced her behavior instead of deterring her. It's like she's learned that if she starts attacking my hair, I'll stop what I'm doing and play with her using one of those pole toys. Which is why I think the frequency of the hair attacks has increased. Using a stuffed animal was helpful in getting her to learn that hands, arms, legs, and feet aren't toys- when she'd latch on to my arm while petting, I'd gently replace my arm with a stuffed animal that she could claw and bite and bunny kick instead of me. Unfortunately, the stuffed animals haven't seems to be very helpful in the current situation. I will keep trying with her toys to see if anything stands out as more useful than the others, thank you

 

[betsygee]

My cat Zoe also went through this as a kitten.  Annoying to say the least.  

      I'd have to hide under the sheets to keep her from mangling my hair during the night.  All I can say is that she grew out of it.  

 

[meggers8806]

My cat Zoe also went through this as a kitten.  Annoying to say the least.  

      I'd have to hide under the sheets to keep her from mangling my hair during the night.  All I can say is that she grew out of it.  

How old was she when she grew out of it? My cat doesn't sleep with me (I'm a very light sleeper and having a cat in the bed with me would just keep me up all night) so luckily I don't have to deal with it while I'm sleeping. I figured it's something she'll grow out of, I'm just hoping there's something I can do to make that process happen a little faster. Thanks


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[tabbytom]

My boy went through this phase when he was 4 months old and shortly he stopped.

I think your cat is bored and wants attention. Try playing with him more and please him more. Once he gets what he wants, the good things of course, he'll forget about your hair.

 

[betsygee]

 

 
My cat Zoe also went through this as a kitten.  Annoying to say the least.  

      I'd have to hide under the sheets to keep her from mangling my hair during the night.  All I can say is that she grew out of it.  

How old was she when she grew out of it? My cat doesn't sleep with me (I'm a very light sleeper and having a cat in the bed with me would just keep me up all night) so luckily I don't have to deal with it while I'm sleeping. I figured it's something she'll grow out of, I'm just hoping there's something I can do to make that process happen a little faster. Thanks

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Oh, boy, I'm not sure about the age.  She's seven now and she was just a 'kid' when she was going after my hair.  She hasn't done it for years now, it was just a kitten thing with her.