Hello! *Long Post Ahead*
As you can see by my username, I was fostering a cat named Poppy who came from Animal Control in my area. She was presumed to be a stray before that. She's only 1 year old, and she's a domestic shorthair. I decided to foster during COVID-19 because my roommate is displaced due to the virus back in her hometown and I am here alone. Long story short, I fell in love with Poppy after a week and decided to adopt her. It's now been 10 days and she has some behavior that really stresses me out. I've never owned a cat, so I'm hoping some of you wonderful cat lovers might have some tips.
The biggest issue at hand is that she bites. She's broken skin three times now, and other times she just leaves teeth marks. At first I thought it was petting aggression from overstimulation, but now it seems like she's biting whenever I stop petting her. It's kind of hard to tell at this point. This morning for example, she had been coming up and rubbing her face against mine while I was sleeping and meowing for attention. I ignored her until I was ready to get up (I read that this could discourage her from waking me up so much during the night). Once I started petting her, she seemed content, then when I stopped, she lunged at my forearm and bit me hard. I yelled "Ouch!" and she ran away, but then came back and bit me again with less force in the exact same place.
A smaller issue is that she gets up onto the stove and I don't want her there bc I don't want her to try this while I'm cooking. She doesn't respond to "no" and I can't pick her up without her latching her claws into me and biting. Tips for this?
I'm trying to be patient with her as I know that she had a rough life prior to this, and I've only had her 10 days, but the biting is very painful and extremely disheartening.
Please help!
As you can see by my username, I was fostering a cat named Poppy who came from Animal Control in my area. She was presumed to be a stray before that. She's only 1 year old, and she's a domestic shorthair. I decided to foster during COVID-19 because my roommate is displaced due to the virus back in her hometown and I am here alone. Long story short, I fell in love with Poppy after a week and decided to adopt her. It's now been 10 days and she has some behavior that really stresses me out. I've never owned a cat, so I'm hoping some of you wonderful cat lovers might have some tips.
The biggest issue at hand is that she bites. She's broken skin three times now, and other times she just leaves teeth marks. At first I thought it was petting aggression from overstimulation, but now it seems like she's biting whenever I stop petting her. It's kind of hard to tell at this point. This morning for example, she had been coming up and rubbing her face against mine while I was sleeping and meowing for attention. I ignored her until I was ready to get up (I read that this could discourage her from waking me up so much during the night). Once I started petting her, she seemed content, then when I stopped, she lunged at my forearm and bit me hard. I yelled "Ouch!" and she ran away, but then came back and bit me again with less force in the exact same place.
A smaller issue is that she gets up onto the stove and I don't want her there bc I don't want her to try this while I'm cooking. She doesn't respond to "no" and I can't pick her up without her latching her claws into me and biting. Tips for this?
I'm trying to be patient with her as I know that she had a rough life prior to this, and I've only had her 10 days, but the biting is very painful and extremely disheartening.
Please help!