Cat Wants to Wrestle With my Arm

[ZimPyre]

I've been having some trouble with one of my cats for a while now and I'm hoping maybe you guys can help. I've had him since he was a kitten (he's about 2-3 years old rn) and I had no clue what I was doing when I first got him, so I used to play with him a lot by letting him wrestle with my arm while I had a jacket on so that it wouldn't hurt. It wasn't much of an issue at the time because he was small enough that he didn't really have the force to get through my jacket sleeve. But he's gotten a lot bigger and stronger now (he's about 14 pounds or so), so he's got enough strength to do some damage even if I'm wearing a fairly thick jacket.

I've been working with him for the last year or so breaking old habits and teaching him how to play nice, but I haven't been able to break the habit of him wanting to wrestle with me no matter what I do. He'll play with toys just fine and we'll be having a great time until at some point, something flips and he just wants to wrestle. No matter how much I try to redirect him (I even have a few bigger wrestle toys I bought for him), he's deadset on going for my arm or my leg. At that point, the only thing I've been able to do to get him to stop is to put him in his crate for a couple minutes to calm down. Otherwise, he just keeps trying to really aggressively wrestle with either my arm or leg. I usually get a little scratched up in the process of putting him in his crate since he's still trying to latch onto my arm.

I considered buying a pair of those really thick gloves they use to capture/handle stray cats so that I could let him wrestle with my arm without getting scratched up, but I'm not sure if that's a good idea. I'm worried that might just reinforce the habit and he'll keep going for it when I don't have the gloves on.

Any tips on what I can do? I've tried redirecting him with a wrestle toy once he starts acting like he wants to wrestle, but he completely ignores it and won't take his eyes off my arm. I've also tried putting catnip on the wrestle toy to get him to play with it on his own, but all he does is snuggle with it for a minute or two and then pretend it doesn't exist. I'm kinda at a loss for what to do here.

 

[maggie101]

Start playing with wand toys so you don't have to be near him, even seeing you move your arms will get him interested so be careful. A ripple rug is another option. The one I had isn't sold anymore. Amazon has bundles of chew toys that would be great for hide and seek I also use trixxie puzzles

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=ripple+rug+cat+toy&crid=LEUX20XJ81EP&sprefix=Ripple+ru,aps,157&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_3_9&tag=thecatsite
Have you clicker trained?

 

[fionasmom]

I had this problem with my Jamie, who I rescued as a four week old abandoned kitten. He had never been with his mother or his siblings long enough to have been taught by them that rough play is unacceptable. Like you, I indulged him at first, because he was so tiny, but it created very bad habit, and I was going to work with shredded arms and coworkers were asking me what happened.

I agree that your cat needs to be distracted with toys that do not involve wrestling or using your arms or legs. Wands are a good idea and there are lots of other cat toys out there that might appeal to him if you take a look at them.

As for the use of gloves, while it is not a good idea, I did resort to it with Jamie. If you decide to do this as an interim intervention, your cat has to understand that you can only play the wrestling game when you were wearing the gloves. if he approaches you when you do not have the gloves, let out a high-pitched yelp or something that he may recognize as a sign that he would have gotten from his littermates. Jamie has outgrown the wrestling game now, but he did learn that the only time that we could play it was when I had the gloves on.

 

[Kris107]

Some cats can get over-stimulated. So sometimes it's better to stop play before he gets wild. So many times people say tire them out, but sometimes has to be done with shorter sessions with some cats. Also, when you yelp, make it unpleasant. My husband actually gets mad/annoyed when I do mine bc it is LOUD and high.

 

[Alldara]

Some cats need to get out their wrestle energy.
A high pitched "eeep!" sound will help. The first few times you might have to go "eep eep eep!" It's a similar sound that cats would make at one another.

Another thing I would suggest, rather than a capture glove is a thick, colourful ovenmitt. It is less hand-shaped AND its going to act more as protection. He still can't go too hard on you without you eeeping, so he won't learn bad habits and get too rough with other cats.

For me, I found that Nobel, Magnus and Calcifer have become gentler cats because of my oven mitt method. They also stopped ankle biting/wrestling and hand attacking quickly, because they had that outlet. Calcifer is now 2.5 and still loves to do this and will sometimes bring me the mitt from the basket. Magnus outgrew it quickly and prefers to play wrestle with a kicker toy now.

I got these from Etsy: Kicker Toys The seller is kind and I also bought two beds from her. My cats love them and they are durable. They use the kickers daily and none have broken. You can ask her not to put the ribbons on the bottom.

I also got these: Rabbit fur kicker I just cut the tassels off. My cats, especially Magnus LOVES Bothwell pets.

 

[ZimPyre]

Start playing with wand toys so you don't have to be near him, even seeing you move your arms will get him interested so be careful. A ripple rug is another option. The one I had isn't sold anymore. Amazon has bundles of chew toys that would be great for hide and seek I also use trixxie puzzles
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=ripple+rug+cat+toy&crid=LEUX20XJ81EP&sprefix=Ripple+ru,aps,157&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_3_9&tag=thecatsite
Have you clicker trained?

I have a wand toy that I use with him from time to time, but he's really weird about it. He has to be in a specific mood to want to play with it and even then, he'll only play with it for a little while. I used to have a different kind that he liked more but it broke and I couldn't find the same kind. I might look on amazon and see if I can maybe find a better wand toy for him to play with. And I'll definitely look into getting a ripple rug! I used to have one of the tunnels and he loved it, so I'm sure he'd love the rug too.
And I've considered clicker training, but I'm just not sure where to start haha

Some cats need to get out their wrestle energy.
A high pitched "eeep!" sound will help. The first few times you might have to go "eep eep eep!" It's a similar sound that cats would make at one another.
Another thing I would suggest, rather than a capture glove is a thick, colourful ovenmitt. It is less hand-shaped AND its going to act more as protection. He still can't go too hard on you without you eeeping, so he won't learn bad habits and get too rough with other cats.

I think I'll probably take your advice with the oven mitt for now. He's a pretty playful cat and I have a good amount of toys I play with him with, so I don't think that it's a situation where he just isn't getting enough attention. I think it is just like you said and he just needs to get out his wrestle energy, so an oven mitt would a great option for that. I have another cat and she's not a very big fan of wrestling with him (he's learned to mostly leave her alone at this point), so I guess he just sees me as his next best option for wrestling since I used to do it with him a bunch as a kitten.