Aggressiveness getting worse

Im starting yet another thread in the behaviour section! Those who know my cat won't be surprised

I posted months ago about how he attacks people, even when I first got him.
He is 10 months old and I got him at 3 weeks old off the street. I realise that he didn't have the proper upbringing with his siblings and mother and never had the discipline that is required to keep aggressiveness in check.

However he is just getting worse it seems.

This cat can not be played with, nor petted. Try and touch him and he lashes out immediately. Sometimes i can get a few strokes in unscathed, but that's usually after he has just woken up.

If I walk around with bare feet, he thinks thats a sign that he can hide until i walk past, then pounce out and attack my feet with such savageness that Im left bleeding. He literally attaches himself to you and its very hard to pull him off whilst his teeth are nestled in your skin.

He attacks everybody if they try and pet him, or just generally for no reason at all, eg if they walk past him. But the sudden pouncing/attack of the feet is 99% directed at me only.
I realise he thinks its a game, however Im having trouble getting the message through that its not. All I can do is push him away, and even this ends up messy as he lashes out at me with claws out anyway.

He doesnt usually scratch so much as bite. Scratching is generally reserved for when someone is trying to pull away from him. I would say it is the biting that is most ferocious.

I've read all the threads here about trying to alleviate these problems, but I feel my cat is an exception because nothing works and I mean nothing.

The vet could not even give him a blood test once because he was just too erratic.

Does my cat have mental problems?
I've learnt to live with it, but deep down I'd still love him to be a gentle, affectionate cat!

Sorry no advice- Radar seems to be calming down but still has these 'vicious' moments when desperate to play with either myself or Epona. He seems to be growing out of it but I just imagine that it is going to take time and hopefully a fellow cat to play with will help

Funny you mention that. I was soo tempted to buy this gorgeous white kitten over christmas, but there is no way I could risk putting it next to my cat with his behavioural issues.
I fear he does not know how to play and I honestly can't see him getting along with any other cats!

Longroad,

What happens if you play with him with toys? Does he enjoy it, or attack you instead?

He doesnt respond to toys much. He will chase a ball for a second, but if I actually hold a toy for him, he will treat the toy as an enemy and attack it, then attack me.

If you got him at three weeks old than you bottle fed him right? Has he been aggressive from the beginning of his weaning? Is he neutered? He is behaving from your description like a full feral cat. If he was bottle fed at three weeks old by you, he should have bonded with you, unless you accidentally either hurt him or scared him to make him leery of you.

He could also just have some sort of neurological damage. If your vet is wise to feral ways, he could draw blood from this cat and not the other way around. Here in the states, most vets have a special metal trap they put ferals in. Then they take this tool called fingers, and run it up the cage to back the cat into one corner. Once the cat can't move, they clamp the fingers down, draw blood, sedate kitty whatever it needs.

I wouldn't pet this cat period until he settles down, and he never may settle down. Sometimes they are just wired wrong. It is no one's fault except the fool who didn't get the mom cat fixed so she couldn't have kittens in the first place.

Oh I agree there.. I pity his siblings, some of whom died.

Yes, I bottle fed him from the start. He used to grab hold of me back then and dig his claws in. So this sort of instinctive agression seems to have been around since before I got him. Perhaps his mother did not pay him attention at all?
I definitely didn't hurt or scare him.

He is neutered. I thought he would calm down after that, but nope. The only thing that has changed is he is less active, but the aggression remains.
He is behaving completely feral. The only non-feral thing about him is that he never wanders out of the backyard, for which I am glad.

The vet eventually did get blood, but they said he has been their toughest ever client!
They also needed to make him vomit once when I thought he had eaten rat poison, but the stuff they gave him did nothing to him, he had a double dose and still didnt vomit. They had never seen anything like it!

But anyway, yes I just think something went terribly wrong in the first 3 weeks of his life and this is how he is.

Im not expecting a cure, I guess I just wanted to see if anyone has ever heard or owns a cat as badly behaved as mine.

My sister adopted a cat from a shelter back in 2001. He was a pretty average sized male black and white cat about 1 yr old. He had a cold and was on drugs when she met him. She wanted a fuzzy lap cat, and thought he was cute and cuddly. Well, as soon as she got him home and the drugs wore off, he showed himself to be very agressive. She would try to play with him and he would end up attacking her arms or her ankles. He'd attack her as she walked by, also he'd dig into her feet while she was sleeping. If she tried to pet him too much he'd go for her arms. She couldn't hold him down to clip his nails, so they got to be razor sharp. He was afraid of people, and hid when more than one person was present. Luckily for him, my sister was very patient with him and tried to socialize him.

Two years later, he didn't hide with three people in the room, he didn't attack anyone's ankles and you could actually pet him. However, to this day if you try to play with him, he can get worked up and still attacks your hands and arms. Also, if he doesn't want to get petted he will attack you. He usually doesn't give the typical body language of stress either, he just lashes out and grabs you with his claws and teeth. I've learned to avoid him, despite how cute he looks. My sister has learned to live with her arms full of scars and loves him despite his faults.

So there's hope for your rescue, but he may never be the cuddly lap cat you desire. Either he will grow out of it, or the behavior will decrease over time. It's up to you to decide how long you'll wait it out.

i've had a bit of aggression issues too. I've also had dante from a very young age and had to bottle feed him and he is also neutured. He will play with some toys, when he wants to but usually he prefers to attack me or my boyfriend. (usually my boyfriend). When he get really worked up and refuses to play with his toys and is really starting to hurt us, i grab a blanket and pick him up (he is still relatively small about 5 lbs) and i bring him into the bedroom and leave him there for about 20 minutes with the door closed. usually when i go back to him he is just sleeping or laying on the bed and is no longer overly aggressive.

I don't know if putting him into this type of 'time out' will help though in your case because he sounds more aggressive than dante, but its worth a shot....

is he always aggressive or is he sometimes calm and cuddly?

He is never cuddly, although there are occasional times i can pick him up and he wont attack, but he wants out of my arms after less than a minute.
Obviously he also loves me at feeding times, only at this time will he rub himself on me and be affectionate.

purefusion - that sounds exactly like my boy!

And yes I think that sort of time out can work. It gives them time to calm down.