I adopted a 1 year old Male cat back in May, and ever since we have had him he has always had a biting problem and many times he gives no warning and just BITES! Hard too! We understand him a bit more to know what makes him angry bite and have been able to avoid those, but we cannot fix his rough play. We have toys on sticks ( alot actually... he always tries to eat the sticks and they break so much we buy them bulk at dollar store now!) But a lot of the times he will ignore the bells and feathers and go straight for the hand holding it. He also likes to run and jump on to my legs when I walk through the hallway and only does that to me, never my boyfriend. I have read many articles online but he just does not seem to react to any of the solutions. I play with him a lot and I've tried to ignore him and leave when he plays too rough and he will just continue to attack me and if I isolate myself I still hear him having a hay day with all his toys. I understand he is a cat and cats just do this but he is so aggressive he has bit me and broke my skin several times and I have always washer out the wounds and one of the times I near had to go to doctor because my finger had swollen very nasty and painful. I'm not sure what to do, he has not responded to anything I've tried. I thought maybe he just had too much energy and I should get him a kitty girlfriend to play with but just want to see what others think. I've owned many cats in my childhood and have never had a cat that would use his claws and teeth so hard.
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My Cat Is Too Agressive During Play, Help!
- Thread starter Foxfia
- Start Date
Hello and welcome to TCS. Sorry it's your cat's aggressive behaviour that brought you here. Do you know his history? Is it possible he was a former feral/semi feral?
You may have already read these, but TCS has the following articles that might be helpful:
Cat Aggression Toward People
Why Do Cats Attack?
How To Stop Playtime Aggression In Cats
You may have already read these, but TCS has the following articles that might be helpful:
Cat Aggression Toward People
Why Do Cats Attack?
How To Stop Playtime Aggression In Cats
- Thread Starter Thread Starter
- #3
Thanks for responding! The humane society did not have any info on why he was there, he was transferred from another place. I have a feeling he must have been in a shelter all his life because he was scared of everything, cars, the outdoors, even our windows scared him at first when we brought him home . He is very loving and cuddly with me sometimes so it's not like he hates us! Its definetly a play agression thing and I know he used to play with other cats at the shelter. We have bought him all sorts of different things like a big cat tower, a tunnel, various types of toys, and he loves them and is always playing with them, but still gets so rough with us when we try to play with him. Starting to think that adopting a second cat would be our last option now ! I had brought him to my parents once to meet their 2 cats and he really wanted to play with them but they would not stop hissing at him but he still would follow them around hoping they would play!
My male cat is the same way. He didn't always necessarily try to be aggressive but I think he always took it too far. We put him on Prozac a couple of years ago and it has helped him a lot. He was FEARLESS has a little kitten but over the years he got really bad anxiety and he is scared of everything, even now he is a big scaredy cat, but it's so much better now, he's not as aggressive. He will hide or be needy when he's scared but not lash out. I'm not necessarily an advocate of putting them on drugs if it can be avoided, and I tried not to, but eventually I felt we had no choice and it has really helped him. It's topical once a day and it makes all our lives much better. It takes longer for him to get to a point of being aggressive when playing and we can spot it coming and walk away before it comes so he doesn't get encouraged. Hopefully you can find another solution, but maybe it could be something you can look into, at least as a temporary solution to help you with some behavior modification training and can ween him off of it.
I think that some cats do not have an ability to parse play from fighting. Probably did not have sibling kittens that allowed him to develop play/fightng skills. One can actually see that in children too. Kids with a lot of brothers (typically) are more refined at escalating play/fighting so no one really gets hurt. Probably nothing you can do except reduce his play. Don't worry, he won't get bored. That's a myth. If he initiates the play go with it but do not escalate. See if that helps.
PS: 70% isopropyl alcohol with a pin prick through the foil inner seal is the right solution for scratches and bites from an indoor domestic cat. Squirt it on immediately washing out the scratch even if it doesn't break the Dermis (second layer), no soap and water or towels except toilet paper as needed to stop bleeding. I haven't had an infected scratch in 20 years despite lots of aggressive play.
PS: 70% isopropyl alcohol with a pin prick through the foil inner seal is the right solution for scratches and bites from an indoor domestic cat. Squirt it on immediately washing out the scratch even if it doesn't break the Dermis (second layer), no soap and water or towels except toilet paper as needed to stop bleeding. I haven't had an infected scratch in 20 years despite lots of aggressive play.
