Aggressive attacks in one area of the house

[teali]

Hi all! I have a neutered 1 year old indoor male cat (born to feral mom/found in a bin at 4 weeks). He is very affectionate however he has recently started leaping on and aggressively biting (not scratching) my legs.He doesn't bite hard enough to draw blood but it breaks skin and it hurts bad. 

This only occurs in one area of the house: when I am walking down the hallway past the kitchen. I think I understand the reason behind it (basically he has come to associate with me going into the kitchen = food/treats for him) so when I walk past instead of into the kitchen he shows his displeasure. As soon as I walk into the kitchen the attack stops. Unfortunately this has been reinforced from when he was a kitten but he has never been aggressive about it. In the past if I went in he would purr and follow, if not he would just go about his business.

The problem is how do I stop it. When he attacks he is biting with his eyes glazed and ears flattened (he doesn't hiss or growl), it also seems like hes puffing when he breathes.  I've tried saying NO! loudly and holding him down by the scruff of his neck until he seems to calm down but as soon as I let go he attacks again. I've also tried locking him in a room for 10 minutes as soon as he attacks. Diverting his attention with a toy worked for a while but not anymore. Also tried water spray but he didn't seem to mind it.

I really don't know what to do. He will leap and bite again and again with increasing aggression no matter how many times I yell NO or push him off me. 

 Now I simply walk into another room and close the door. 

Apart from these outbursts he is a very sweet loving cat.. any ideas?

 

[Ms. Freya]

Hi teali, welcome to TCS!

At one year old, it may actually be a game to him - especially if you used to be able to redirect him with a toy. You mention finding him very young, so it's likely he wasn't properly socialized and doesn't realise that aggressive play like this is not welcome. You could try making another loud noise when he jumps out - I found a hanful of coins in a tin can worked well as a deterrent - just give the can a really loud shake as he jumps out. It's clear he's not bothered by you yelling, so maybe a loud noise he's not familier with will work.

Hopefully soemone else will have some more ideas. I can tell you that all of my guys went through the "jump out at you" phase and all of them seemed to outgrow it by the time they were three.

 

[catspaw66]

You could also try hissing at him when he starts to grab. My cats will "ankle mug" me, but they never bite. They just grab and then run.

 

[cattleyas2]

Did you get this resolved? And was it only in that one part of the house? I'm asking because my four cats got along fine until this morning when a huge fight broke out over a toy. Even the dog was attacked. I've gotten to stop fighting but they all growl and hiss at the 8 month old kitten when they approach that 4 foot square area.