Play Aggression Help For An Active Spoiled Cat

[skaisnotdead]

I have a two-year-old very co-dependent cat. I adopted him about 8 months ago from a shelter. He follows me everywhere I go and is basically my baby.

He can be aggressive when he plays or when he wants to play. My legs look like I walked through a rose bush. I play with my him a ton. In the air, on the ground, different toys 3-4 times for 10ish minutes a day. He doesn't usually hide and attack me, he comes out of nowhere. I'll be sitting at the computer or watching tv and he decides he wants attention and bites or scratches me. He will also come up and lightly try to bit me when I'm not paying attention, when he gets caught he flops on his belly. I know it's for attention but I can't seem to drain his energy.
He's not home much by himself, only for a few hours a couple of days a week since I work from home a lot. We've thought about getting a 2nd cat to play with but the shelter he came from said he was surrendered from a house with a few other cats because they didn't get along after they took him off the streets. I also suspect he was abandoned as a kitten so he wasn't specialized properly. I realise there could be many reasons for the issues he had with the other cats (territory issues, not introducing them properly, not enough space for many cats) so it may not be that he doesn't like other cats.
He has a vet appointment tomorrow to get his shots updated and I plan on asking them as well. I'm also going to get a bird feeder and try putting it outside the window to keep him a little more entertained. Basically, he's spoiled.
I feel like I'm doing everything right but he still attacks me. He doesn't respond to water if I spray it at him and I'm really tired of getting scratched. Help?

 

[dahli6]

My blind cat is like this. He is 3 years old and I didn't realize until this year that he wasn't communicating with the other cats in the house. He didn't know the difference between play and aggression and because he can't see he was in the middle of every cat fight because he thought the growling and meows were directed at him. Once I realized the problem and learned to diffuse the situation he became a different animal. He chases me around the house, plays with my legs and is always pouncing me.
With Petie I was able to use diversions to get him to give me a break. He needed to learn how to play by himself. He gets very excited by sounds and usually crinkling parchment baking paper into a ball and throwing it across the floor keeps him engaged for a while. I also started just throwing empty boxes, cereal boxes, cracker boxes, frozen food boxes(within reason)onto the floor. Cats love to attack boxes and bags. Your pal just needs to learn to play by himself.
Maybe a motion sensitive toy that chirps. My daughter also had a similar problem, she got her cat a stuffed animal that resembled herself, the cat not my daughter, and Kimba played with that. If offered and available cats will play with baby dolls and stuffed animals.

 

[skaisnotdead]

He has some toys he plays with by himself sometimes and I think a chirping toy is a great idea! He has a few stuffed animals because he found a box of my small plushies and took some of them. He seems to like my Chinese knock-off Pokemon plushies. I'd love to get him one of those automated string toys but I know he'll break it. So far I think he's murdered every toy I've given him! Which is ok, I don't spend a ton of money on them for that reason.

Thanks!

 

[susanm9006]

It's a game he is playing and he doesn't know it's inappropriate, so you have to retrain him. When he bites or scratches, tell him no and then pick him up and put him in away from you or in a different room.

 

[danteshuman]

I would try distracting him with toys when he stalks you, 3 play sessions throughout the day and if necessary a whistle that is LOUD. Blow on the whistle or shout 'NO!' along with clapping your hands every time he puts a paw or claw on your leg. Or carry a penny can and shake it loudly while saying no when he goes for your legs. It takes time to train them you are not a toy but it is doable. My grey punk still gets most of his play in with things tossed or on a wand because he is to grabby with his claws. Also if he scratches me, uses his claws I say "OW!" and then ignore him, quitting the play time.

 

[Ceracera]

Do you play with him as soon as he scratches you? Please dont do that- its like training him to scratch for attention.

I had a friend whod wave a wand toy as soon as her kitten latched onto her leg. Well... guess what the cat did every time he wanted his favourite toy.

Ignore him when he scratches you and only play with him when he's calm.

 

[sargon]

Age helps. Freya is finally biting less, now that she's hit the 1 year mark, but for play biting, I've always found a ver gentle admonition works best.

Freya will get excited and lightly bite me, and I say in a clam voice "are we biting?" and she'll get a guilty puppy dog look and stop (if she's too amped up she'll only stop for a couple of seconds, but kittens are like that.) I prefer the very mild, gentle reproach for light play aggression biting, because, while I want Freya to know she shouldn't bite, I also know that she's biting me out of affection and love, not aggression, so I don't want to push her too hard, lest she come to believe that i get angry when she tries to interact with me.

For the more aggressive stuff, like biting you until you do what your cat wants, the most effective has been a 3 minute time out. Freya utterly hates being separated from me for even a second, so she doesn't like it, but it also calms her down and stops the behavior. it works better when I'm not the one to do it, generally, however.