Aggressive behavior :-(

My civvie Merlin can be aggressive. Most of the time he is very loving and sweet. He sits on my lap (and Dave's) and sleeps with me/us. He is nice to strangers. He is also a VERY frisky cat. He's 1 and a half and if you pet him a little too long in some spots he gets really frisky and starts biting. He also jumps on my leg (a lot) to make me pay attention to him. He is also very verbal like all meezers. He wants constant attention and loves to play hard.

The latest example of him being aggressive was last night as I was getting in bed. He was in my way and I smooshed him by accident and he started biting me in the dark. I grabbed his neck scruff and pulled him off while screaming "no". He paused a second and then he jumped on me biting me again, he seemed extra pissed off. I directed his butt off the bed and I was really upset that he acted that way. My feelings were actually hurt. He came back later and acted normal and sweet, same with this morning.

In lots of ways he can be gentle - like when I give him his asthma treatment he squirms a little but isn't nasty at all. I have no idea how to handle this. He can be laying in my lap completely blissed out and in one second be totally hyped up and biting me. It's SO weird. I'm thinking of making an appointment with Dawn Allen. Has this happened to anyone else? I suppose I could be more diligent about carrying around a spray bottle. Thoughts?

 

Pam Johnson-Bennett that has some great books on cat behavior. A quick google search came up with her website: http://catbehaviorassociates.com/

I'd check out some of what she's written.

 

My cat Callie is the same way. One moment she is sweet & loving, the next moment, completely vicious. I started giving her Clomicalm a few months ago and that has helped significantly. You may want to ask your vet about it. She was originally prescribed 1/2 pill daily, but I have been able to reduce it to every other day.

 

The biting after/during petting is called overstimulation. Almost all cats do this to some degree but each cat has a different response. Some cats bite hard with very little signals, some cats will do a little nip to give you warning, some cats just get up and walk away. Many cats will give you body language clues that say Stop petting now I am worked up that can range from obvious (when you know what to look for) to subtle, so subtle it seems like the bites are out of the blue. Some of those signals can be tail swishing faster, quick turn of the head looking back at your hand, dilated eyes. Try to see how much petting and where you are petting get him overstimulated. If you can see that, then before he bites you can give him a break and redirect him to interactive cat toys. You do not want to have a bite, and then give him the toy, which will reward the biting behavior. If he bites. Say NO, or blow on his face, but scruffing probably did piss him off. Water bottles are a last resort. Cats do know you are doing it, and it can increase the level of aggression.

The incident in bed is harder to assess. My Merlyn had some issues with restraint due to his previous home, so once I petted him in the dark and I startled him, and he bit me. Were the lights off when you got in bed? Was he asleep and startled? Some cats are status aggressive, meaning that they want to be in charge and do not like it when they are pushed out of the way, they may bite someone when they are on the phone (demanding attention) or when they are being petted while you are talking to someone. From one incident its too hard to say if this is it. Its not that common in cats.

Because he is so active, its possible he decided to tell you he wanted to play, getting your attention. Are you playing with him, with interactive kitty toys such as feather/stick toys?

http://www.sfspca.org/resources/library/for-cat-owners

 

This sounds like my civie Daisy when she was young. Man did she have a short circuit! She especially hated feet when you got out of the shower. She'd wrap around them and bite your ankles cat(2)_steam

Your story reminds me of this:



But in all seriousness, the only thing that eventually cured Daisy of it was a version of kitty prozac. She got amitriptaline (spelling butchered) for about a year and was weaned off. She's been fine ever since.

 

mocha is the EXACT same way .. one minute she can be all stretched out on my lap purring and purring ... and I can go to pet her and it's like something goes off in her head and she bites and hisses at me .. but peter, who is sitting right next to me on the couch can pet her all night long .. and then other times, it's only ME who can pet her .. and peter will get bit .. sometimes, she purrs and bites at the same time! We have just always considered it part of her meezer tude because no other cat we have ever had does this .. and to be honest, mocha is the weirdest cat we have ever had.

 

our 2 year old kitty is like that - just bite you out of the blue . . . and i have to say thanks for sharing that map of the cat brain cartoon - too funny!!!!

 

Hi Guys-

Thanks for the tips and ideas. I've done some reading on both sites that were posted here and I think I need to be more cognizant of how, where and how long I am petting him. He tolerates head petting a lot longer than body petting for instance.

He has a lot of energy and I don't play with him as much as he wants to be played with (constantly). I did just get him a mouse chase toy (the kind that spins in a track if he hits it with his paw. He's only played with it a little bit. His favorite is the wand toy with feathers and curly ribbon but I have to play with him with that.

I got a Foster's and Smith catalog today and if you spend 49- you get free shipping so I am actively looking for a toy like Da Bird and some other new toys so I can test out the color thing too. :lol: I'm also going to get a ball that releases cat nip pellets. He's just a very active guy. He was just chewing on my magazines that are in a rack. :roll: Crazy thing!

 

Devon - I laughed out loud when I read this part: "and to be honest, mocha is the weirdest cat we have ever had". Hilarious! And both are seal point meezers!

 

Well, there's no sense in denying the truth right? :lol:

 

I recently had an odd experience with aggressive behavior with my Porkchop, so I wanted to mention it here....

Porky is the most mellow, easy-going cat I have ever had. He has never exhibited any aggressive behavior in the past, even when I brought an extremely annoying, overactive kitten into the household! He is friendly with total strangers, and flirts with everybody - just a natural sweetheart!

Well, I went to bed late one night, and I had been really upset over something, so I had been crying, which caused some nose stuffiness and wheezing - you know, the whole nine yards. So, I had been making a lot of noise, but had pretty much quieted down by the time I was pulling the covers back to slide into bed. Porky had jumped on the bed, which was somwhat unusual for him, but he had recently started sleeping with me. I reached over to pet him, and he sank his fangs into my lower arm, beneath the elbow. I immediately pulled back and started crying - it hurt like heck! I also had blood streaming down my arm, dripping onto my sheets. He lunged at me again, this time biting me on my upper arm. Again, he broke the skin. At this point, I was totally freaked out and screaming - and he was still lunging at me! I tried to block him with my pillow, then I decided to run away. Big mistake - he chased my and bit me on the calf!

At this point, he did stop chasing me, but I was shaking and bleeding. I cleaned myself up, applied triple antibiotic, but decided to go to the ER, as the bites were swelling and bruising like you wouldn't believe. After 2-3 hours total spent there (ugh!), I just ended with with an antibiotic to take for several days....

Turns out I had to take Porky to the vet the next day anyway, so I mentioned the strange attack to the vet. Turns out his new medication can cause aggressive behavior (Temaril-P), so I think it was that, plus the fact that I must have freaked him out with all of my strange unusual noises that I was making, plus the wheezing...maybe he thought I was an intruder, and he was protecting his turf? I'll never know for sure...

Anyway, it was a very strange happening, but all ends well, and Porky is back to his usual, sweet self - mostly. He is a little more aggressive with his civvie brother, and he has bitten me pretty hard a couple of times (after too much petting), so I'm just being extra careful not to overstimulate him.

 

I wish I could get the vets around here to understand that :sad: They just won't listen to me telling them that my cats find it as a sign of aggression and will not tolerate it.

To the topic at hand - my Taz earned her name for this type of behavior. She snuggles in and purrs away, but we can see it in her eyes when she is about to lose it and she'll go for snapping the bone in your arm when she bites if she catches you. We've never looked into it medical-wise, just assumed it was torti-tude and learned to stop petting when the signs came.

Our kitten will get aggressive when we aren't playing and she wants to. She wraps her arms around hubby's calf and bites when he's climbing into the shower in the morning because she wants to keep playing in the shower curtain with him. We assume she'll grow out of it when she isn't so crazy to play 24-7.

 

Hi Jennifer-

Thanks for sharing your story. I'm glad Porky's agression was from his meds and probably from you crying. I know that Merlin notices when I cry and it seems to make him feel uncomfortable. No other cat I've had has noticed crying though. I hope Porky doesn't ever lose it again - I can't believe you had to go to the ER. That's scary!

Last night in bed I think I was touching Merlin too much and he bit my BOOB! That's a first! I was mad but I stopped touching him and was calm and so was he. It's a project!

 

Tom is like that. Not very often, a few times a year maybe. A lot less now that he is almost 18 though.
He is extremely affectionate but every so often, he will go off the deep end. Overstimulation sounds like a good description. I would be petting him, he would be purring and all of a sudden he would turn and give me a look, jump at my hand and bite hard. He has also jumped at my ankles. Not a playful bite. Once, he bit my sister so hard he drew blood and she needed abs.

I have learned to recognize that look, i warn DD, and i found that the thing that works best with him is covering him with a blanket or pillow, actually covering his eyes, just for a few seconds. It's like it just shuts that swith off.