Hands are Not Toys.

[cessena]

We adopted an adolescent cat in July, to keep our older cat company. So far, this has not worked out great. We love them both but the new kitten is just too playful for my shy tabby. So we are mostly doing site swapping and keeping them separated for now. 

The new kitten, Vega, is VERY playful. We play with her with toys, she will chase the laser pointer until she is panting. And then she still wants to play again later.  We make sure she gets some play time every day in the morning and the evening.

But despite our efforts to entertain her my hands are still covered in cuts. She sleeps curled up next to me, and if I make the wrong move in my sleep she will grab my hands with both her front paws and not let go, while I try to pull away before she hurts me even more. And sometimes she'll pounce and attack other places. She plays ROUGH, while her play biting is sometimes more controlled, her claws never are.  Even during the day it is a crap shoot as to whether an approaching hand will result in claws and paws, or purring pets. 

She for sure wont let me handle her enough to trim her claws. No way no how, she reacts very badly to being picked up or controlled in any way and I only do it on occasion right now.

Typically when I've had issues with cats playing too rough with hands I've just withdrawn my attention and stopped playing. But we're not even playing, I'm sleeping or just trying to pet her, or god forbid, move her so I can roll over.  Plus, when she's got both paws dug into my hand it's pretty hard to pull my hand away.  I don't want to overreact and punish her, but I also need her to learn that this is not ok!

I was hoping as she got more comfortable at home and with us this behavior would diminish. but not really. (She lived in a vet's office for a while, so I'm wondering if the way she was handled there made her more shy of/playful with hands? I don't know.)

She also used to have a brother that she lived with, but they apparently weren't bonded. Now that she lives with us she's also lacking in that cat socialization because she is too sharp for the resident cat.

I know that some of this is her age and it will get better with time, but I'd really like it to get better before my hands are covered in scars.  So any suggestions would be super helpful! 

I had thought about doing some clicker training with her, as she's very food motivated. Would there be anything along those lines that could help?

 

[lykakitty]

This is a very common problem with cats that have been separated from their littermates or aren't properly socialized. The best way I've found is to mimick what her littermates would do. Kitens will make a yelpy/squealy sound when their littermates bite or claw too rough and that's how they learn to be gentle with their teeth and claws. If she attacks your hands make a loud, high-pitched yelp sound like a cat being hurt and walk away. I know it's annoying in the middle of the night but give her a few minutes to settle down and then give her a few minutes of playtime as soon as she's not going after you any more. You may need to make her sleep somewhere other than the bed until she learns if it's that big of a problem.

Clicker training is an awesome tool but you need to do it right. A lot of people don't. The only way to make the clicker affective is to "load" it first. Set aside a few minutes every day to sit with her and just click and give her a treat. It doesn't matter what she's doing, this is to make her associate the click with getting a treat. Spend probably about 5 minutes doing this, just click, treat, click, treat, click, treat. It's tediius but it works. How long you have to keep this up before the clicker becomes effectice varies between individuals but watch for her reaction to the click to become excited and happy. It may take anywhere from a couple days to a week or more. Once that's done you can start clicking for good behaviors, but remember to still treat often at first so she doesn't lose the association, and even once you've faded treats mostly out to still give her something every once in a while to keep it strong.

 

[mollyblue]

We adopted an adult cat who also lacked socialization and would tear us up everytime we tried to play.  Substituing a stuffed animal worked very well.  She shredded the first one the first day, but the second one lasted a little longer and now she plays well with the third one she has had for almost a year.

 

[cinqchats]

If she grabs your hand, be sure not to try and rip your hand away from her grasp. That will get her more excited and she'll get even rougher. Freeze instead! Usually they'll let go a few moments after you freeze. Sometimes I'll also blow a puff of air in their face to encourage them to let go. It's a good distraction that will help to take their mind off of your hand.

 

[cessena]

Lyra - I have been trying that, but yeah I will try to be more dramatic about it. I think there is sometimes not enough settle down time.  Since she so often initiates play at random times it's hard to handle. 3/4 times you try to pet or touch her she grabs your hand with claws, even if she's been sleeping. SO much energy.

Molly - I have tried that a bit, she has shown a little interest in a couple stuffed animals but will usually only play for a few seconds and then runs off.

Cinq - She tends to hold on, I don't move, but then she will dig in deeper and start gnawing on me. I will try the air thing for sure.