Biting Behavior? Returning A Cat To The Shelter?

[catted]

Hi, there.

I have an adorable, chubby male kitty who is three years old. We have had him for a year and a half now, but recently we've been noticing a lot of unprovoked biting, which always happened, but it started to occur more often now.

We have tween children in our household and the cat seems to be aggressive towards them and attacking, even when they are feeding him. The bite marks our kitty leaves on them can be deep and in multiple areas on the ankles. We also are first time cat owners.

Is this normal behavior? Why is he biting them? Would returning him to the shelter (no-kill) be appropiate? I was thinking of adopting a kitten instead so we could raise it to be less aggressive and teach it to be kinder before it develops a habit.

Thanks for reading this, and all tips given will be appreciated greatly.

 

[littlecatt]

Hi! My cat Finn did a lot of this play biting behavior so hopefully I can help. Do the bite marks break the skin? This playful biting is common among cats who were taken from their mothers and litter-mates too early and never learned how to play properly — i.e., how hard they should bite. Would you consider these attacks provoked by movement? The biting at the ankles or moving hands is what I primarily experienced from my cat, who got excited to chase moving things.

Either way, this behavior is absolutely not okay, especially since it's distressing you and your family to the point you want to return your cat. However this behavior is common (there are frequent threads on here about it if it makes you feel better!) and is an aggressively playful thing rather than wanting to hurt you. I have a few suggestions, the primary of which is don't play with your kitty with your hands if you aren't already, and invest in a wand toy like Da Bird to really wear him out. I would walk around the house holding Da Bird in my free hand for Finn to chase instead of my ankles or my pants. You can try to discourage the behavior by hissing at the cat or telling him no when he does bite, but in all honesty I found the biting behavior really really hard to eliminate — I think because it's an excited prey drive thing, and the cat can't help but want to play when he sees something moving.

Honestly what worked incredibly for me was getting Finn a playmate. I adopted my kitten Anya two weeks ago and the behavior is 100% gone. He hasn't chased my ankles or bitten my hand once. He finally has someone else to pounce on who likes pouncing on him back, and together they wear each other out. Your cat's aggressive playful behavior may be a sign that he has too much pent-up energy and could benefit from a younger companion. A lot of people here say two years is kind of the magical maximum age for when you have less problems introducing two cats, but if your cat is friendly and playful then it's likely you'll have less problems introducing a young cat than if your cat was reserved and not playful. Younger cats or kittens are seen as less of threat to the resident cat's territory and rarely need that extended introduction process involving scent-swapping, sight-swapping, etc.

 

[catted]

Hi! My cat Finn did a lot of this play biting behavior so hopefully I can help. Do the bite marks break the skin? This playful biting is common among cats who were taken from their mothers and litter-mates too early and never learned how to play properly — i.e., how hard they should bite. Would you consider these attacks provoked by movement? The biting at the ankles or moving hands is what I primarily experienced from my cat, who got excited to chase moving things.

Either way, this behavior is absolutely not okay, especially since it's distressing you and your family to the point you want to return your cat. However this behavior is common (there are frequent threads on here about it if it makes you feel better!) and is an aggressively playful thing rather than wanting to hurt you. I have a few suggestions, the primary of which is don't play with your kitty with your hands if you aren't already, and invest in a wand toy like Da Bird to really wear him out. I would walk around the house holding Da Bird in my free hand for Finn to chase instead of my ankles or my pants. You can try to discourage the behavior by hissing at the cat or telling him no when he does bite, but in all honesty I found the biting behavior really really hard to eliminate — I think because it's an excited prey drive thing, and the cat can't help but want to play when he sees something moving.

Honestly what worked incredibly for me was getting Finn a playmate. I adopted my kitten Anya two weeks ago and the behavior is 100% gone. He hasn't chased my ankles or bitten my hand once. He finally has someone else to pounce on who likes pouncing on him back, and together they wear each other out. Your cat's aggressive playful behavior may be a sign that he has too much pent-up energy and could benefit from a younger companion. A lot of people here say two years is kind of the magical maximum age for when you have less problems introducing two cats, but if your cat is friendly and playful then it's likely you'll have less problems introducing a young cat than if your cat was reserved and not playful. Younger cats or kittens are seen as less of threat to the resident cat's territory and rarely need that extended introduction process involving scent-swapping, sight-swapping, etc.

Thank you so much for replying!

Yes, the bites often break the skin and the wounds are relatively deep. Only some of them are provoked by movement, I must say, but there are other times where it is out of the blue.

We have some teaser feather toys around the house, but I get the feeling it makes him more agressive even after he gets worn out.

Perhaps we can get a playmate. A kitten would be optimal for us. Would a kitten be intimidated by scent and our current cat be very terretorial? We have a nice, small room for our cat to hide in, use the litter box, and eat food: is it okay for them to share it? Thanks for replying, too!

 

[littlecatt]

Thank you so much for replying!

Yes, the bites often break the skin and the wounds are relatively deep. Only some of them are provoked by movement, I must say, but there are other times where it is out of the blue.

We have some teaser feather toys around the house, but I get the feeling it makes him more agressive even after he gets worn out.

Perhaps we can get a playmate. A kitten would be optimal for us. Would a kitten be intimidated by scent and our current cat be very terretorial? We have a nice, small room for our cat to hide in, use the litter box, and eat food: is it okay for them to share it? Thanks for replying, too!

Yeah that's really troubling that your cat is getting too rough even unprovoked. You could also look into medical reasons if you haven't already, if your cat seems to be in pain or exhibiting signs of FHS, but it could definitely be play behavior too.

Kittens adapt incredibly well to their new environment! Most kittens are curious, playful, and roll with the punches. Many adult cats don't find kittens as large of a threat to their territory as an older cat would be and accept them more quickly. When getting a kitten you'll using want to have a safe space room for them so you can get them used to a single space before expanding to the whole house, and so you can control introducing your current cat to them! I set up my spare bedroom for my kitten, and once she was confident, started letting my resident cat in for meal times and play sessions. There was hissing and swatting from him at first, but in under 48 hours he'd taken to her and now they both roam the house together. If you have a space where you can shut the kitten in without your current cat getting to it, that'd be ideal! The general rule is to have a number of litter boxes equal to your number of cats +1, so getting a least another litter box would be good. I've heard of some people whose cats use separate ones, but my cats are completely fine with sharing.

 

[Hellenww]

My suggestion was also going to be a playmate. We had a cat, Monkey, who was raised with a toothless senior, Rusty. Rusty taught Monkey most manners but not how to bite softly. In less than 2 wks of playing with a new kitten, Yoshi, Monkey began to bite very lightly. Monkey never knew biting hurt until she met Yoshi.

If you decide to get a kitten there are a lot of people here that can help with introductions.