Cat Attacking Me

[hopps]

Sometimes my cat will start arching her back, put her ears back, tilt her head sideways and breathe really hard (audible breathing). Then she'll straight up attack me. Today she almost broke skin biting me. Saying no doesn't deter her at all and she's about 8 months old. I'm not really sure what I'm supposed to do when she gets like that. Any advice?

 

[if i fit i sit]

that is weird to me, i never saw that happen. 

she might be afraid of something that you are carrying or maybe a color you were wearing or the clothes themselves. 

does she bite defensively or just when you pet her? because i read somewhere that cats would sometimes give bites of affection to their owners.

i'm not really an expert so i'm not sure what's going on but i hope it stops.  

 

[whiskylollipop]

I don't know why she would attack you and it would probably be a better long-term solution to figure out the root of the problem and try to understand what's really setting her off, but whenever my cat gets too aggressive in his play and hurts me, I hiss.

Open your mouth, arch the back of your tongue up near the roof of your mouth, and blow air out aggressively. It exactly imitates a cat's hiss, and that very effectively lets a cat know that it should back off immediately. I hope it works for you!

 

[mani]

Hi Hopps...

I'm wondering whether this could be redirected aggression. Or there could be a medical condition.

This is a good article to check through: http://www.thecatsite.com/a/cat-aggression-toward-people

Have a look through there and see if anything resonates, and keep us posted!

 

[musicalcats]

Barring any health problems, it sounds to me like she's play fighting with you. Is she an only pet? I'd try wearing her out with some good, long play sessions and ignore her when she tries to play rough with you. You could also try hissing (yep like a cat) if she's too rough with you...this is how cats express irritation or too much roughness amongst one another and in my experience it seems to make sense to them when words fail. Obviously, never yell, hit, or otherwise discipline a cat...it only causes distrust and fear in a cat, the opposite of how you want them to feel about you. Good luck!

 

[hopps]

Thanks everyone for the suggestion. So to give out more information:

For example yesterday she was laying down under a table in the room. I was sitting on the bed talking to my brother. She then got up and starting displaying what I described. Then she started attacking me. She'll attack, back up and attack again. 

I will start with more play sessions then see how that goes... 

I read the redirected aggression article and doesn't seem to fit the situation but it was a great read! Hopefully this stops because it's so annoying that she'll randomly attack me...