Cat keeps biting unprovoked - tonight she drew blood and I’m at my wit’s end.

[TubbyBubby]

I have already had to get on antibiotics once before because of my cat, Lavender biting me. She is a spayed almost 3 year old former feral cat (part of a TNR program, I adopted her from a rescue). Fully clawed and vetted. I’ve had her for six months. The first weekend I brought her home, she cheerfully walked up to me, rubbed against my arms and legs for a bit (I was sitting on the floor with her), and promptly sank her teeth into my bicep, leaving marks. It hurt and surprised me greatly. When I told the rescue what happened; they said they forgot to mention to me that she’s “a biter.” Great. Luckily; that time it didn’t draw blood. However, tonight marks the second time I’ve been bitten hard enough by her to draw blood. First time was on my hand. Second time - tonight I was sitting on the floor with her and she bit my upper arm so hard it drew blood. She was rubbing back and forth against me, and I wasn’t even petting her, she had literally zero reason to do this, but she did out of nowhere and she drew blood. She bit me on my hand a few months ago and within just a few hours my hand swelled up and I had to get on very strong antibiotics. If my arm gets infected tonight/this coming morning as a result of this, honestly I am strongly considering giving her back to the rescue. I have an older, senior cat who I am afraid to leave at home alone with her now in case lavender decides to do this to her. I have to tell anyone who comes to my house to watch out for her because she will come up and bite your toes and ankles just for standing still! I don’t know what her problem is and it truly breaks my heart because she might not be able to get adopted again because of this, but it’s not okay for me to not feel safe in my own home, on my bed or couch and worrying if I’m going to get bitten hard by her. She has all her own toys, beds, scratchers, litter box, she’s fully vetted, loves to play, and cuddle; but this biting has got to stop. I’ve had cats for going on twenty years now and Ive never experienced this. I’m just totally un equipped to deal with this. It was extremely expensive for me to rush to urgent care on such short notice last time this happened. I’m really hoping that because this bite was on my upper arm, and that it was like a surface level tooth “scratch” that hopefully my flushing the wound with water and betadine has helped enough.
What the heck do I do.

 

[TubbyBubby]

I should also note, every time she’s bitten me, I loudly say NO! And I walk away quickly to try and show her it hurt me and that she doesn’t get to hang out next to me and cuddle if she acts like that. It’s honestly just gotten worse considering she drew blood tonight completely unprovoked.

 

[ArtNJ]

It sounds like a cat that gives love bites abnormally hard. A loud "no!" is a good strategy, but nothing is guarrantied to work. Affection based behaviors can be very hard to get rid of if your not willing to risk driving a wedge between you and the cat. It *is* possible though -- I've finally got my cat to stop licking me. I think. If I just jinxed it, you'll pay lol!

The other good news is that your other cat should be safe. Cats have a lot more natural protection, and play bites rarely leave marks.

 

[TubbyBubby]

it’s been almost two hours and so far the area doesn’t seem to be worsening. I’m keeping my fingers crossed it stays that way. When she bit me on my hand months ago, it was a deep puncture wound that made my finger swell up like a huge bratwurst in less than three hours. At least this time the area is so far not deteriorating as quickly.

 

[Margot Lane]

Sounds like this might take patience. And long leather gloves. Gets me to wondering what basscat might advise. (TCS Bobcat owner extraordinaire). I can tell you that with my kitten Zorro (now aged) it took us 5-7 YEARS to get him to not be ‘slashy.’ (We think it was b/c he was the barn cat runt). But, he grew out of it, we knew he would, and now he is Mr. Softypants. If she was a feral, perhaps this was a survival technique, so, certainly saying “No!“ loudly can’t hurt, while rewarding her w/ verbal love when she is -in long stretches- kind.

 

[TubbyBubby]

I just wanted to leave an update, that Lavender is doing well and that she no longer bites me. She eventually learned that if she does that that I leave the room and the cuddles stop. Photo for cat tax)