Possible Aggression Issues

[hobogoblin3]

My family and I don’t know what to do at this point. We have a kitten who is nearly a year and half old; his temperament is unlike any cat we’ve ever had. He’s actually a sweet cat, but then has a very vengeful side. For instance, when he wants food, he’ll purr and rub against my legs; as soon as I walk away, he swats and attacks at my feet. There have also been times we have told him “No!” and he has come back and tried to swat at us. Most of the time he keeps to himself or will come and seek pets from time to time. We got him at around 4 weeks old; he has been raised in our home with 3 Boston terriers. One of them does play rough with him. We understand that sometimes when he’s swatting at us, he’s playing; but a lot of the times it is almost vengeful. If we ever try to move him from somewhere he doesn’t want to move from, he’ll start almost growling and raise his paw at us. We’ve been afraid to discipline him too much as we know some cats with his personality will actually become more aggressive. Is there anyone who has gone through something like this? We do love him a lot and don’t plan on getting rid of him, but we don’t know how to properly discipline his anger.


I will let you know we did get him from the SPCA and I believe he was fixed at around two weeks. I’m aware that can be part of his attitude as well.

Oh, he’s also recently started only wanting to eat when we pet him. He also now doesn’t want to eat the current food we had for him, but he’ll eat the other brand we had on backup. We know there might be a dental issue so we are going go the vet soon, but we found it odd he’ll eat one brand and not the other.

 

[rubysmama]

Hello and welcome to TCS. I suspect a lot of his behavioural issues stem from him being separated from his mom at such a young age. These days the "recommendation" is to not adopt out kittens until they are 12 weeks old, so that they have time to learn cat etiquette from their mom and siblings. Since your little guy was only 4 weeks old when you adopted him from the shelter, he missed out on many weeks with other felines.

Even though he's no longer a kitten, this article might be helpful:
Teach Your Kitten How to Play Nice : The Humane Society of the United States

And a couple TCS ones:
Cat Aggression Toward People
How To Stop Playtime Aggression In Cats

 

[duckpond]

There is really not a way to discipline a cat. Redirecting the aggressive behavior to play or something is always a good thing to try. Keep little toy mice or something in hand during the times he normally does this, toss one to him and see if he will go for that, rather than your feet? Schedule is also very good for cats. Do you feed him at specific times of the day? Brush and play around the same time?

Some cats hate to be picked up, so if you are trying to pick him up and he growls it may be that. Some of mine don't like it, so i try not to do it more than necessary.

My guys like a food, then hate the food. like something else, hate it after a while, your guy is not odd with that, some cats are that way. I just try to rotate new foods for them to keep their interest.

If there is a dental issue, or anything else that is causing him some pain that can be a reason for most of his behavior, that and being removed from his mom so young. and two weeks seems really young for him to have been spayed. I think a good vet visit is in order, let the vet know your concerns. Hopefully they can help. Best of luck to you guys!