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He hungers for human flesh... A kitten thread
BouwsT
Wanna come to a super soft birthday party?Registered User regular
Wanna come to a super soft birthday party?Registered User regular
My wife and I have bought a cat! His name is Hiro, and as is custom on this forum, here is his cute little mug.
That was him about 4 weeks ago. He's a bit bigger now, but his attitude is monstrous from where he was back then.
Classic kitten, he's like a light switch. Either passed out in your lap, or he's trying to attack anything that moves. Recently though, he's gotten a lot more aggressive, and is starting to bite REALLY hard when we pet him. We don't play with our hands, opting for string toys and other options, but he obviously prefers human flesh. This is my first cat, and my wife's first cat that she's actually attempted to raise / train as a pet (her parents handled their last pet). Does anyone have any tips for training out the hand biting? I don't know how to positively reinforce NOT biting my hands.
Directions to blogs, books and articles, as well as anecdotal stories and exorcisms are welcome.
That was him about 4 weeks ago. He's a bit bigger now, but his attitude is monstrous from where he was back then.
Classic kitten, he's like a light switch. Either passed out in your lap, or he's trying to attack anything that moves. Recently though, he's gotten a lot more aggressive, and is starting to bite REALLY hard when we pet him. We don't play with our hands, opting for string toys and other options, but he obviously prefers human flesh. This is my first cat, and my wife's first cat that she's actually attempted to raise / train as a pet (her parents handled their last pet). Does anyone have any tips for training out the hand biting? I don't know how to positively reinforce NOT biting my hands.
Directions to blogs, books and articles, as well as anecdotal stories and exorcisms are welcome.
Between you and me, Peggy, I smoked this Juul and it did UNTHINKABLE things to my mind and body...
BouwsT on
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http://www.humanesociety.org/animals/cats/tips/kitten_play.html
Biting while petting might NOT be a play response. Many cats have a threshold for continuous petting. Try to learn to pick up his signals like ear twitching and other signs of agitation and stop petting before he bites. Continuous grooming is more of a primate thing and some cats just view it as sexual harassment. Really, they find it arousing and bite because they get too excited and don't know what to do. Either way, when/if it happens say ouch, put him on the floor and ignore him
This is something I had never considered. We certainly don't pet him constantly, however it's really good to know that it isn't always a positive thing for the cat. I just figured that he was just playful and knew we were in the mood for physical play.
We've definitely been doing the "ouch" thing, we'll keep it up I guess.
I did find this super interesting. Thanks for sharing.
another good thing to do is let your hand/arm/whatever go limp when he bites, rather than pull away immediately. Pulling away quickly is what prey does, and activates all their pounce/chase/tear instincts, but if you just go limp they'll usually stop biting or w/e. Plus cats aren't really strong enough to hurt you unless you're cooperating by giving their claws and teeth something to pull against
that's why we call it the struggle, you're supposed to sweat
I've done the going limp thing, he just continues to gnaw without provocation. It's not even a moving body part he'll go after, he'll chomp on my bicep if I'm wearing a t-shirt, and this weekend I almost lost a nipple!
I'm working on removing him from whatever room we're in when he gets bitey, trying to let him cool off. I'm going to give it a week and see how he makes out. Thanks for the advice so far, everyone.
As long as you don't encourage the behavior you're doing it right. He should stop, but if he's teething you can try getting him some stiff fiber toys. They make little mice out of hemp, come in a 3 pack. They're small enough he can get his jaw open and bite on them.
To be fair, some cats are just assholes. I have two and one is nice and one is an asshole. For no reason. However, he's an asshole that doesn't bite.
Edit: Play with his feet a lot. Get him used to you putting him on his back and touching his paws. In a few months start nipping the very tips off his nails.
You'll be glad when he's older that he doesn't flip his shit when you touch his feet.
That's a good point, I hadn't really considered teething. I'll see what I can grab him, but he has a pet mouse-on-a-string he likes chewing on, maybe some more similar toys to this would be good for him. Also, he might be an asshole, but he's SO SWEET when he's tired.
Oh ya! The vet brought this up but we haven't been doing this because of the biting thing... I'll maybe have to start working on this again, maybe next week.
Hiro is probably the most aloof cat I've ever met, while not being actively MEAN. He basically never growls or swipes, and his bites are consistent but more like, "I could break skin if I wanted to, human" levels of pressure. He's silly, but he's quiet, and he sleeps on the pillow between my wife and I almost every night, never wakes up in the night, and he's just a really good cat? I wish he would sit with me on the couch while I game, but it's just not his thing, and I can respect that. He's also super smart, and I've trained him to do simple commands/tricks for treats (loves cheese).
About 2 years ago, we also rescued him a brother, Channing! We were hoping that they would become best friends, but it just is not happening.
The best I can describe is a tense co-existence. Hiro is learning to stand up for himself, and I think Channing is learning that Hiro DOES NOT do play-time (which is a shame). He's a dork cat, who wakes me up at 3AM for no reason at all, he gets "the zoomies" about 12x more than Hiro does. He also doesn't want love UNLESS I'm gaming, but if I'm on the computer, it's lap or desk. No breaks, no rest. He's not blessed with intellect like Hiro is, and would rather lick an ice cube than a cat treat. So that's cheap and convenient I guess. He's awesome for all sorts of different reasons than Hiro, so I guess that's good?
Anyway, thanks for helping me all those years ago with my pet. Sometimes the thing that needs to change is you, and not the animal. I appreciate all the advice, and help finding resources. I think it's made me a better pet owner.
If they're both neutered, that might help cut down on them trying to dominate territory (and would help to keep them from spraying on everything to mark territory and such).
I can has cheezburger, yes?
Ya, it's been like two years. I figure it is what it is. They're both definitely neutered and they don't mark territory at all, thankfully.
Channing (AKA: Jackie-Chan, Chubs, or Chan-Man) loves to lay on his side and sink his claws into the carpet staircase, and Hiro (AKA: Heero Yuy, Bubs, or Mr. Bitey of Hearthstone Fame) loves to scratch the carpet SPECIFICALLY at the foot of the closet where we keep the food, when he's hungry. That's the extent of their destruction, other than, you know, this classic misjudged leap to a railing or window sill, or launching off the arm of our leather sofa (claws is for traction, yes?).
(Alternatively, he just really wanted to have a minion, not a friend, given that he was the dominant cat of the two, and now he dominates the dog.)
But fuck you — no, fuck y'all, that's as blunt as it gets"
- Kendrick Lamar, "The Blacker the Berry"
My cats hate each other if we're watching. We find them grooming one another and eating from the same bowl if we sneak up on them. I have lots of pictures of them cuddling on the bed only for them to scramble when they realize I'm watching.
... I may have just found an excuse to get indoor cameras. Maybe my cats do love each-other and I didn't even know it! I sincerely doubt it, but I JUST WANT TO BELIEVE.
So it seems cats do sometimes compete for human attention
They 100% do. One of my cats is a big lazy lump that doesn't do much during the day, but once I get to bed it's his time for attention. If the other cat gets on the bed too that's fine, but I better not pay attention to him too or I'm gonna get 16 pounds of jealous cat in my face.
Yeah this is the same with our cats.
During the day they keep their distance to the point of flinching at each other if they happen to get to close but if you go out in the living room in the middle of the night they will be literally spooning and if they wake up because you came out into the living room in the middle of the night they will stare wide-eyed like they just got caught robbing a cookie jar.