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My rommates cat is being a dick
matt7718
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Me and my roommate have a cat, Mr. Meow.
Mr. Meow has been a most excellent animal and pet, doing cute things at all times (read: tucking its paws under its front legs, sprawling/stretching, etc) and I have really liked him up until a month ago.
About a month ago Mr. Meow reached that kitty age where he decided to spray in my room. I kept my door closed so he wouldn't re-spray and a week or two after the incident Mr. Meow had his kitty balls removed. Since then he hasn't sprayed, but his behavior towards me has been TERRIBLE.
The cat constantly attacks me, out of the blue. It is 1:32pm, and as of 9am, he has attacked me with bites and claws at least 4 times. I try to distract it with toys and stuff, but after that, he goes back to attacking me.
He does not do this to my roommate. The only way the cat attacks my roommate is if kitty is already attacking me and he tried to intervene. Most of the time this behavior is unprovoked, I am not petting him or doing anything towards him when he starts his assault.
What can I do? I am starting to really hate the cat, and I am starting to get really really mad when he bites me and I don't want to abuse the poor thing.
Mr. Meow has been a most excellent animal and pet, doing cute things at all times (read: tucking its paws under its front legs, sprawling/stretching, etc) and I have really liked him up until a month ago.
About a month ago Mr. Meow reached that kitty age where he decided to spray in my room. I kept my door closed so he wouldn't re-spray and a week or two after the incident Mr. Meow had his kitty balls removed. Since then he hasn't sprayed, but his behavior towards me has been TERRIBLE.
The cat constantly attacks me, out of the blue. It is 1:32pm, and as of 9am, he has attacked me with bites and claws at least 4 times. I try to distract it with toys and stuff, but after that, he goes back to attacking me.
He does not do this to my roommate. The only way the cat attacks my roommate is if kitty is already attacking me and he tried to intervene. Most of the time this behavior is unprovoked, I am not petting him or doing anything towards him when he starts his assault.
What can I do? I am starting to really hate the cat, and I am starting to get really really mad when he bites me and I don't want to abuse the poor thing.
matt7718 on
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I have a dog, I used to punish him by yelling at him and if he was really bad by slapping him on the top of his head, it worked out fine and we get along great now.
My goal was to re-direct his aggression towards to towards the toy. But I bet you are right, he probably sees his attacks as a way to get me to play with him.
Another thing is how do I punish the cat? The spray bottle doesn't work, the cat likes water.
You might smell funny to him now for whatever reason, especially since it sounds like you haven't let him into your room for a while. Take some old dirty clothes, like a gym t-shirt or some socks, and throw them in his bed (or anywhere else he spends a lot of time). That way he gets re-acclimated to your scent.
Edit: if the cat doesn't respond to water, try scruffing him. (Firmly grip the loose skin at the back of the neck.) While scruffed, just yell a firm "no!"
the "no true scotch man" fallacy.
Soda can with a few coins in it works too, but you have to welcome the loud.
Tis true that some cats have a change in behavior after being fixed. He might just not like you.
A little smack is fine. Nothing abusive, mind you, just something to let the cat know that you are unhappy. A little smack and a firm "NO!" should do the trick.
seriously though-
• Teach the appropriate behaviour : One good way to stop a cat from behaving inappropriately is to teach the appropriate behaviour and reaction to any situation. Cats hate to be surprised. Thus, if your cats reacts negatively or badly you should instantly react in a way that will annoy them. The catch is to react instantly (as a reflex) or the damage cannot be prevented.
• Means to stop unfavourable reactions: Some means to stop unfavourable reactions in a cat include spraying them with a bottle, clapping, hissing, or other such sudden noises such as snapping, "No!".
I know I'd be more than a little spiteful if I thought someone was the reason I had my balls chopped off.
At any rate. I have a dog that was real bitch before we had her spayed (no pun intended), biting and growling at nothing was common. My parents went to our vet and bought a bottle of this solution that was like a very strong cinnamon, kinda like pepper spray but not nearly to the same extent. She hated the stuff, it got the point across very quickly that what she was doing would bring on the spray. So I'd go to a petsmart or your vet and see if you can find something like that since the water isn't working. One thing you'll have to figure out though is how to do this without confusing the hell out of the cat. If you've mistakenly trained him to attack you as a sign of it wanting to play spraying it when it wanted to play won't be a good outcome.
We have that every know and then when the cat goes crazy and parts lunging at our ankles or hands.
While, this is also bad behavior and we work to correct her, it never happens if she's been played with a decent amount.
I never figured out what the root cause for this behavior was - this is a cat that gets along well with most people and is never afraid of people - but I trained him out of it using the scariest device known to cats: a black umbrella! Like Kerbob said, cats hate surprises, and the sudden opening of a black umbrella towards the cat is pretty surprising. I'd give the umbrella to people who were intimidated by the cat, and all they had to do was open it once to establish their authority. He'd never bother them again. The weird part is that he never got used to the umbrella. Instead, he learned to avoid it so that eventually people didn't even need to open it; all he needed was to see the closed umbrella in someone's hand and he'd be on his best behavior. These days he never behaves aggressively towards people unless they make the terrible mistake of picking him up when he doesn't feel like cuddling.
I also used the umbrella to train him to stay off the kitchen table and to stop scratching furniture.
Then for the love of god, don't pet him!
Mr. Meow apparently hates getting hit by pillows! So i can just gently hit him with it and he runs for cover, so this way i am not hurting him and he gets a little discipline. Hopefully this system works, and if not, i shall try out the stuff you guys have said.
Thanks!