Hey everyone, This is going to be a pretty long post so I’ll try to be as concise as possible.
To give a bit of context, we’ve had our cat Rocco since March of 2021, he’s an 11 year old orange tabby, and he’s what we call our “foster failure” (in the best possible way, I consider his adoption one of the best things we’ve ever done). According to the organization we got him from, he previously belonged to an old lady, who somewhat neglected him before we got him. We don’t know how long he was neglected for, or what exactly this entailed. When we got him, he was immediately friendly, but had what seemed like periods of depression where he would isolate a lot. These have mostly ended.
To get to the actual situation, he’s a wonderful cat, very curious, smart, clingy, cuddly, playful (and also very loud and demanding but that’s okay). The main issue we have with him is that he also gets very aggressive. This has been happening for a while, but lately it has become a daily occurrence.
Sometimes it will happen because he’s sleeping on me and I need to move him, sometimes it will happen because he wants to play (the classic leg attack), sometimes it may be caused by over stimulation during pets. And I wouldn’t mind a small warning bite (I’ve lived with cats before) but when he attacks he bites extremely hard, claws at me, and he won’t let go. And when I manage to push him off, he doesn’t just walk away, he almost always comes back for another attack, and another one sometimes too. Usually, the best solution is to pick him up when he lets his guard down and take him to another room to cool down. After a few minutes he’s usually calmed down.
This is obviously a pretty bad situation, it seems like his aggression is getting worse, and it’s getting triggered by increasingly mundane situations. He’s tried jumping at my face twice now and I’m completely at loss.
I’ve watched many videos and read many articles on cat aggression but I can’t seem to figure out what’s going on with him precisely. I play with him everyday (save for some times where I forget) and it’s active play, he has enrichments in the house, places to climb, places to hide, places to rest and a bit of cat TV by the window. He’s an indoor cat. His food is the best quality I could find. We’ve tried Feliway and catnip toys but they weren’t really useful I think. He’s also been to the vet several times (two different vets) this year and he has no apparent health issues.
Some pointers to what may be going wrong:
- Things he has lived in the past before we got him, unfortunately we’re kind of in the dark with this.
- When we got him, I was teleworking so I was home pretty much 24/7 for several months. We developed a very strong bond, and we were together all the time. Now I haven’t been home as much and I don’t have a regular schedule so it may be disturbing to him.
- We struggle with his feeding times, he only eats in very small quantities throughout the day so we never really know when to feed him regularly. He always has keebles, and I try to give him wet food every night though sometimes he hasn’t finished the can from last night.
- For some reason, I’m his main target. He attacks my boyfriend sometimes, but not as hard or as frequently. He doesn't really attack guests.
- When he attacks, we sometimes have to grab him pretty strongly to get him off me (sometimes we have no choice but to scruff him for him to let go). Of course we never hit him but I’m afraid that even just these interactions can maintain a vicious circle of aggression. Our vet suggested we take him with a towel when he does that, which is pretty effective but not always possible.
This is getting pretty long but I hope I gave all the necessary context to get appropriate help. I love him infinitely, but his aggression has been taking a toll on our relationship. We’re not perfect owners but we really do our best. Please help me mend this situation, so that we can have a peaceful relationship with him, and so that he’s the happiest he can be.
To give a bit of context, we’ve had our cat Rocco since March of 2021, he’s an 11 year old orange tabby, and he’s what we call our “foster failure” (in the best possible way, I consider his adoption one of the best things we’ve ever done). According to the organization we got him from, he previously belonged to an old lady, who somewhat neglected him before we got him. We don’t know how long he was neglected for, or what exactly this entailed. When we got him, he was immediately friendly, but had what seemed like periods of depression where he would isolate a lot. These have mostly ended.
To get to the actual situation, he’s a wonderful cat, very curious, smart, clingy, cuddly, playful (and also very loud and demanding but that’s okay). The main issue we have with him is that he also gets very aggressive. This has been happening for a while, but lately it has become a daily occurrence.
Sometimes it will happen because he’s sleeping on me and I need to move him, sometimes it will happen because he wants to play (the classic leg attack), sometimes it may be caused by over stimulation during pets. And I wouldn’t mind a small warning bite (I’ve lived with cats before) but when he attacks he bites extremely hard, claws at me, and he won’t let go. And when I manage to push him off, he doesn’t just walk away, he almost always comes back for another attack, and another one sometimes too. Usually, the best solution is to pick him up when he lets his guard down and take him to another room to cool down. After a few minutes he’s usually calmed down.
This is obviously a pretty bad situation, it seems like his aggression is getting worse, and it’s getting triggered by increasingly mundane situations. He’s tried jumping at my face twice now and I’m completely at loss.
I’ve watched many videos and read many articles on cat aggression but I can’t seem to figure out what’s going on with him precisely. I play with him everyday (save for some times where I forget) and it’s active play, he has enrichments in the house, places to climb, places to hide, places to rest and a bit of cat TV by the window. He’s an indoor cat. His food is the best quality I could find. We’ve tried Feliway and catnip toys but they weren’t really useful I think. He’s also been to the vet several times (two different vets) this year and he has no apparent health issues.
Some pointers to what may be going wrong:
- Things he has lived in the past before we got him, unfortunately we’re kind of in the dark with this.
- When we got him, I was teleworking so I was home pretty much 24/7 for several months. We developed a very strong bond, and we were together all the time. Now I haven’t been home as much and I don’t have a regular schedule so it may be disturbing to him.
- We struggle with his feeding times, he only eats in very small quantities throughout the day so we never really know when to feed him regularly. He always has keebles, and I try to give him wet food every night though sometimes he hasn’t finished the can from last night.
- For some reason, I’m his main target. He attacks my boyfriend sometimes, but not as hard or as frequently. He doesn't really attack guests.
- When he attacks, we sometimes have to grab him pretty strongly to get him off me (sometimes we have no choice but to scruff him for him to let go). Of course we never hit him but I’m afraid that even just these interactions can maintain a vicious circle of aggression. Our vet suggested we take him with a towel when he does that, which is pretty effective but not always possible.
This is getting pretty long but I hope I gave all the necessary context to get appropriate help. I love him infinitely, but his aggression has been taking a toll on our relationship. We’re not perfect owners but we really do our best. Please help me mend this situation, so that we can have a peaceful relationship with him, and so that he’s the happiest he can be.