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- Feb 13, 2020
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Hi guys! This is my first post on this forum, and hopefully one that'll be really helpful. So I have a lovable little guy who came to me from unfortunate circumstances. I attached his pics below!
My kitten's name is Ollie, he is my first and only cat, and I got him when he was 6 weeks old from people that wanted to dump him. I have no idea what his background was, but he came to me malnourished, unsocialized, full of fleas, and with an URI. The only things I knew about his past was that he was the runt of the litter, and the people were hoarders -- he was basically out in the open unseparated from their many dogs and cats. I have no idea if he was physically abused or not (I suspect he was given his behaviour). I tackled his health problems quite aggressively and can say that he's now a big, long 6 month old teenager!
Ever since I got him though, he's had problems with biting. Sometimes it would be him trying to play with my hands, and other times it would be aggression that would come out of nowhere and he's left quite a few marks on my arms. It mostly occurs when I am sitting down, and sometimes happens when I am holding him. In the instances when I am holding him, he will act completely calm and purr and nuzzle and I know very well not to overstimulate him, but all of a sudden his head will perk up and he'll viciously bite. I tried just about everything to curb it --- I even went to the vet but he was completely unhelpful, and even would refuse to neuter him until just a week ago. I tried redirecting, giving him kitty timeouts, trying to cry and squeal "ow!" to tell him it hurt, even went as far as hissing and growling if he bit. All of it has been for naught. I've now been really persistent at trying to simply say "NO!" when he gets his aggressive episodes, and then quietly getting up and walking out of the room calmly and isolating myself from him for a good 5-30 minutes depending on the extent of his biting. It will work for a bit and he'll be perfectly demure and allow me to pet him, but within an hour he'll go right back to biting.
I dedicate about 1-2hrs average on playing with him, feed him a good quality diet (mostly wet food with dry food left out when I'm gone), he's the only cat in the apartment, and there are no loud neighbours or triggers I'm aware of for his episodes. If anyone could please offer me some advice, I'd deeply appreciate it!!
PS -- I had brought up adopting a second kitten with my landlord, but I am strictly only allowed the 1. I thought a second would help teach biting inhibition, but its not an option as far as my landlord is concerned.
My kitten's name is Ollie, he is my first and only cat, and I got him when he was 6 weeks old from people that wanted to dump him. I have no idea what his background was, but he came to me malnourished, unsocialized, full of fleas, and with an URI. The only things I knew about his past was that he was the runt of the litter, and the people were hoarders -- he was basically out in the open unseparated from their many dogs and cats. I have no idea if he was physically abused or not (I suspect he was given his behaviour). I tackled his health problems quite aggressively and can say that he's now a big, long 6 month old teenager!
Ever since I got him though, he's had problems with biting. Sometimes it would be him trying to play with my hands, and other times it would be aggression that would come out of nowhere and he's left quite a few marks on my arms. It mostly occurs when I am sitting down, and sometimes happens when I am holding him. In the instances when I am holding him, he will act completely calm and purr and nuzzle and I know very well not to overstimulate him, but all of a sudden his head will perk up and he'll viciously bite. I tried just about everything to curb it --- I even went to the vet but he was completely unhelpful, and even would refuse to neuter him until just a week ago. I tried redirecting, giving him kitty timeouts, trying to cry and squeal "ow!" to tell him it hurt, even went as far as hissing and growling if he bit. All of it has been for naught. I've now been really persistent at trying to simply say "NO!" when he gets his aggressive episodes, and then quietly getting up and walking out of the room calmly and isolating myself from him for a good 5-30 minutes depending on the extent of his biting. It will work for a bit and he'll be perfectly demure and allow me to pet him, but within an hour he'll go right back to biting.
I dedicate about 1-2hrs average on playing with him, feed him a good quality diet (mostly wet food with dry food left out when I'm gone), he's the only cat in the apartment, and there are no loud neighbours or triggers I'm aware of for his episodes. If anyone could please offer me some advice, I'd deeply appreciate it!!
PS -- I had brought up adopting a second kitten with my landlord, but I am strictly only allowed the 1. I thought a second would help teach biting inhibition, but its not an option as far as my landlord is concerned.
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