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- Nov 12, 2014
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My cat Snickers is 7 months old now and he has just started biting when we try to touch him. He used to be a wonderful kitten and he loved to be cuddled, sometimes he'd get completely obsessed with cuddle time and demand my love and affection all day long. Now a couple of days ago I've seen him bite my boyfriend for no visible reason when he tried to pet him and it was very unexpected since he is such a sweetheart normally. Then a day later he bit me when I touched him and now he goes into full defensive mode almost anytime anyone wants to pet him.
We got him checked by the vet and he has no health issue, he's getting high quality food with 97% protein and he has all he needs including his own cat house where he can hide, elevated sitting sports over the walls so that he can see the rooms from above, cat trees, toys and playtime every day. So I was wondering where that aggressive behaviors could come from and noticed that my boyfriend plays with him pretty roughly using his hands. The cat seems to like playing rough but u can see him snapping at and scratching my boyfriends hands while they play, which he tolerates. So I assume that this must be the source of his aggression. He had simply learned that hands are fine to be attacked.
He won't understand that biting and scratching sometimes can be tolerated and sometimes it's not, so I told my boyfriend to stop playing roughly with him and to not use his hands anymore during playtime. I've thought of rubbing hands my with lemon juice and intentionally seek out a situation where he might bite, without provoking the bite of course. He is not supposed to think that people are bad but rather that biting isn't nice, for him, because cats care most about what's good for them. Then when he does let you pet me without biting I can be really positive about it and show him that I like the way he's behaving. I'd also thought of playing with him as a reward instead of treats. Or make him work for his treats by hiding them inside a toy for example.
If anyone has any advice for me I'd be grateful
We got him checked by the vet and he has no health issue, he's getting high quality food with 97% protein and he has all he needs including his own cat house where he can hide, elevated sitting sports over the walls so that he can see the rooms from above, cat trees, toys and playtime every day. So I was wondering where that aggressive behaviors could come from and noticed that my boyfriend plays with him pretty roughly using his hands. The cat seems to like playing rough but u can see him snapping at and scratching my boyfriends hands while they play, which he tolerates. So I assume that this must be the source of his aggression. He had simply learned that hands are fine to be attacked.
He won't understand that biting and scratching sometimes can be tolerated and sometimes it's not, so I told my boyfriend to stop playing roughly with him and to not use his hands anymore during playtime. I've thought of rubbing hands my with lemon juice and intentionally seek out a situation where he might bite, without provoking the bite of course. He is not supposed to think that people are bad but rather that biting isn't nice, for him, because cats care most about what's good for them. Then when he does let you pet me without biting I can be really positive about it and show him that I like the way he's behaving. I'd also thought of playing with him as a reward instead of treats. Or make him work for his treats by hiding them inside a toy for example.
If anyone has any advice for me I'd be grateful
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