Lexi's progress learning not to bite

opilot

TCS Member
Thread starter
Super Cat
Joined
Oct 17, 2005
Messages
832
Purraise
4
Location
I live in the No. Va area near DC.
I thought I'd post this to encourage others who
have "strays" they "adopted" and wanted to re-home
but which had behavior problems.

In Lexi's case, her problem was biting when petting.

Lexi arrived by happenstance on Dec. 1 2004. When
I found her, I was in the process of trying to call
Maj. Grey (my feral) out of the sewer pipe to feed
on a cold, damp soon to rain night.

Lo and behold as I'm calling, out pops this little
black and white kitten and THROWS herself
at me, winding round my legs! I thought
she was someone's cat and that she was
a cutie! Then I became concerned as
she followed me home.

I knew the night would be cold and wet, and
I didn't want her out. So I thought I'd take
her in and release the next morning.

When I got her home inside, I had a shock.
she had no tail!! I had never seen a Manx
or tailess cat but that seemed to be
what she was!!! I laughed a bit, then put her on
the counter and opened a small can of
Fancy Feast to feed her. She was
in good condition, but she was
somewhat thin.

And that's when I knew she
was a stray/runaway. She ate like
she hadn't seen food in days. Growling
as I petted her!! After 2 cans of
food, she sort of burpped at me,
and jumped off counter.

Old senior cats were alarmed but
not excited. She survayed the
room, choose to get up on a chair in the corner
and went to sleep. Me and senior cats
sat in the other corner with an uneasy
sleep descending on all...

At 10 pm, I knew I'd have to get her away
from my other cats, and confine in the lower
level of the house. I made up a nice box
(lucky I have several!! and put food
down and water. Then I put her down
there.

come the morn, I went to visit and she
was sleeping on the pillow of the bed
down there, LOL! Definately NOT a feral
but a stray!!

I opened the slider doors to let her out.
She refused to go out!! And so I decided
to look for the owner.

i put up flyers, called shelters for 3 counties
around and West Va too! I even put ad
in paper!! Nada. So I knew it was time to
put her on Petfinder...and rehome.

All this took about 3 weeks. While this was
going on, she was getting more energetic -
it took about a week to 2 for her to
become more playful and not want to sleep
all the time. The vet who examined her told
me she was recovering from her out door
experiences.

She had ticks, fleas, and a cut on her paw
and was full of tape worms. And she had I
discovered a bad habit.

She bites. To be exact she bits (or did!!) when
you would be petting her, for no reason out of
the blue she's Gnaw on you! And she REALLY
hurt - to th epoint she bruised me, and clawed
me and drew blood several times.

At this point I decided that she could not be re-homed -as
only a very few could deal with the behavior. I began
behavior therapy on her.

It took 6 months to see results. Now, a year after getting
her, she still mouths me, but we've had only 1 bite hard
incident in 4 months! AND when I yelled owch! she immediately
stopped. smart girl learned not to bite!!

And everyone loves my Manx look a like with 'tude!!
When her little 2 inch stub twitches around, she's SOOO cute.
Her bouncy rabbit run, extra long back legs,
the way she purrs this quiet litte
purr, her chirrups to me when she wants love time. All
quite adorable!!

so moral of the story is that you CAN do behavior rehab successfully,
it just takes alot of work. But the cat you get out of it is such
an improvement, that it is worth the time invested!! don''t give up
trying to teach kitty not to bite!!

I followed the advice given here and by Best Friends and my vet.
All of it was SOOO helpful. Those who shared stories with me
encouraged me. There were times where I really did fear she would
never learn not to bite me...or to accept casual petting while she
was relaxing asleep...

Now though, I have a really nice kitty. All grown up Manx look alike (she's about 2.5 to 3 years) that just filled herself out beautifully...In fact she
may be on a diet soon if the "filing out" keeps up at this pace, LOL!
 

stampit3d

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 5, 2005
Messages
2,864
Purraise
1
Location
Michigan USA
I`m so glad that you were able to train her not to bite...and it sounds like she is a real beauty.
One question though.....what ever happened to the "rehoming" part of this story??? He he he
Linda
 

nekomimi

TCS Member
Alpha Cat
Joined
Nov 29, 2005
Messages
321
Purraise
1
Location
Boston area
yay!
great job on raising a lovely kitty!

My little Seth-chan seems to have a shady past as well and had/has a thing about biting us as well. She rarely bites me now(we've had her for 6-7 weeks now), but she still has trust issues with my husband. When my husband is not home, she's right by my side all day, nuzzling and cuddling me. It's going to take a lot of time and patience to get her through her fears, but I agree with you that it's worth it.

I just cannot imagine myself re-sheltering her just because she's afraid or doesn't have good manners! Thanks to you, a wonderful personality can live a comfortable life!
 
Top