Today let’s talk about things that you should do and things that you can do if your cat bites and scratches you. So how you can correct such a behavior and how you should react to it.
Kitten biting can be cute and harmless when your cat is a baby. But can turn painful as cats get bigger.
Cats bite and scratch for a variety of reasons. It’s important to understand why if you want to stop it.
Why does my cat bites and scratches me
The first way to address your cat’s biting is to look at reasons why your cat bites and scratches you in the first place.
So it could be a number of things, it could be playtime aggression, it could be petting aggression, it could be that your cat is simply frustrated or bored or it could be that your cat is asking you to stop doing something that you are doing but you just don’t hear them.
Here are our tips on how to stop your cat from biting and how to react if it happens:
1- Play aggression
Play sessions provide the best opportunity to teach your cat that it is not ok to bite, claw, scratch or play attack you when playing.
However, it is completely natural for a cat to act out on their hunting skills in a playtime session. But the cat should only be allowed to play using their paws and not their claws.
If you think that your cat goes after you during playtime and this is not just an incidental contact call a timeout.
So if your cat acts out by scratching or biting you, just stop the playtime immediately, and turn your back on the cat.
“If she’s biting your ankles, stop moving. She wants movement, so if you stay still, she won’t be getting her desired result.” Johnson-Bennett, Cat Behavior Associates.
Don’t resume playtime and ignore your cat completely for at least a minute. So after a few cycles of this, your cat should get the message.
If your cat doesn’t get the message, you can send even a stronger message. In this way, you can change the scenery.
If your cat doesn’t get it, just put the cat into a separate room for a few moments. So in this way, the cat will make a connection between biting you and fun times ending.
2- Petting aggression
If your cat becomes overstimulated at 5 minutes of stroking a petting then please stop at 3 minutes.
Don’t push your cat over the edge and then wonder why in the world is he acting out on me?.
Remember, that in this situation the cat will probably give you some pre-warning signs, such as dilated pupils or they will wag their tail. Once you see these signs – stop right away unless you want your cat bites and scratches you.
Some cats love being stroked and petted and they enjoy human contact, whereas others might enjoy human contact such as being sat on your lap. But they just don’t like to be stroked, and that is something that you just have to accept because you cannot change the basic personality of your cat.
3- Drain your cat’s energy
If your cat is attacking you outside of the playtime than probably he needs to drain some of his energy.
Spend time playing with your cat and make sure you include some playtime sessions, even if their just 5-10 minutes during the day.
Play with your cat until you can see that the cat is tired. Because a tired cat is going to be a lot less likely to attack you than the one that is bored and frustrated and has a lot of misdirected energy.
4- React calmly
And finally, never hit shout, chase or lose temper with your cat. Because that will terrify the cat or make it completely confused.
The first thing that you should to do, when your cat acts out, is to just stop what you’re doing. Stop touching the cat and just freeze and ignore the cat. Because that is acting, that is the opposite to acting like a prey object, because prey object would move away from the cat and so the cat would chase it.
And also, after freezing you can stand up and walk away in a dismissive fashion. And in that way, your cat will receive the message.
General Tips for Cat Training
Always use patience and be kind. Be sure to give lots of praise when your cat does what you want him to do. You must be unambiguous when training them. All biting is bad and should receive the same response.
