Please help....feral cat

Hello. 2 1/2 years ago I wanted to get my dad a cat for Christmas. Mom went to the animal shelter and brought home "Bruce Willis". He was 2 years old and found in an abandoned barn where he appeared to have lived since birth. I didn't know anything (and still don't know much) about feral cats, but I thought we could love him enough to make him our new kitty. We give him all the love he allows us to, but he continues to attack our feet quite aggressively at times. He will allow you to pet him, but only as long as he wants then he bites. Hard. I was recently diagnosed with diabetes and I can no longer tolerate the bites/scratches to my feet. We have tried since we got him to break him of this habit, with no success. I would like to try everything possible to help him so we can keep him, but I'm at my wits end. When he bites, he draws blood. Is there any hope for Brucie?? Thank-you in advance for any advice.

LeAnne, I'm sorry to hear about your problem. My cat Libby is almost 13 months and she acts very similar. I just found out she was born from a feral mother. We've had her for a little over two weeks (this week is going on 3) and it's been an adjustment.

We're still in the learning stage so we're trying things to see if we can stop the behavior. We think it's playtime induced aggression, although when she wants to play she will also nip us on the legs. I'm trying to figure out how to avert this.

If I were you I'd buy the plug in feliway. They're expensive in the stores (where I am at PetCo $42 a plug in), but this has helped quite a bit. We have two of them. We are also employing the ouch technique, whenever she tries to bite we say "NO". We've been moving away which has put her in attack mode which we know is not the right thing. So we're going to freeze, say no, stop paying attention to her, and give her a timeout in the bathroom for 5 minutes.

We also only pet her when we are giving her a treat, that's the only time she doesn't try to bite us. As soon as the treat is finished, we stop immediately. We also only play with her using toys on a string so that she associates playtime with those things, not our body parts.

I would also head over to the Feral area, there is a lot of good advice there as well!