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Cat Forum / Health and Behavior / February 2004Problems with random attacks by our cat 'Jingles'
Dear rec.pets.cats.health+behaviour We recently adopted a tom cat from the RSPCA in the United Kingdom whobeen neutered, and. we believe is 5 years old. 95% of the time he is a nice cat, but for the remaining 5% of time he is a vicious little tiger that attacks one of us for no reason. The problem is characterised by his attacking with proper bites for no reason whatsoever. We have tried: Both feeding him at the same time Alternating who does the feeding One episode of shouting at him - seems not to have worked Both playing with him Alternating who plays with him Encourging him to go outside and catch his own entertainment We do not want to give up on a cat that we have adopted for under 2 weeks, or start on expensive cat psychology. The RSPCA have suggested that it is because of the windy conditions that have lasted for a couple of days now. Does anyone have any ideas? Reards, Charles Are you interacting with the cat when he bites or does he just come out of the blue and bite? If your interacting with him then say "ouch" and "no" and put him down or give him a "time out" in another room for a couple of minutes. This lets him know that he won't get any attention if he bites. If he's stalking and attacking, the time out might work for that as well. W Dear rec.pets.cats.health+behaviour We recently adopted a tom cat from the RSPCA in the United Kingdom whobeen neutered, and. we believe is 5 years old. 95% of the time he is a nice cat, but for the remaining 5% of time he is a vicious little tiger that attacks one of us for no reason. The problem is characterised by his attacking with proper bites for no reason whatsoever. We have tried: Both feeding him at the same time Alternating who does the feeding One episode of shouting at him - seems not to have worked Both playing with him Alternating who plays with him Encourging him to go outside and catch his own entertainment We do not want to give up on a cat that we have adopted for under 2 weeks, or start on expensive cat psychology. The RSPCA have suggested that it is because of the windy conditions that have lasted for a couple of days now. Does anyone have any ideas? Reards, Charles I was having similar problems with Tiger (4 1/2 year old neutered male). I would be petting him and he would suddenly spit and take a swipe at me. The last time he attacked me I grabbed him, put him in the carrier and put him out on my deck. It was dark and 18 below zero (Fahrenheit). I only left him out there for five minutes. When I brought him in, he was one pissed off cat. He got over it over night BUT he hasn't attacked me since. -MIKE > I was having similar problems with Tiger (4 1/2 year old neutered male). > I would be petting him and he would suddenly spit and take a swipe at [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > -MIKE It's called over stimulation and you don't punish them for it. They have a bit of "sensory overload" and it is up to you to watch for signals. Pearl gets this way. I just immediately make her get down and ignore her. In general, being consistant with this, if I miss the signals (she starts getting a bit tense during petting and I can tell, oops enough) I just put her down and ignore her. This behaviour has gotten MUCH better this way. The cat cannot help it and sticking them in the freezing cold, even for five minutes is, in my book, a VERY nasty thing to do and an over reaction. He may have had a sore spot or something too, since you say he hasn't done it before. In which case you punished him for being sore. Not A Good Thing. Please rethink your training methods and do some reading on cats. Karen I didn't say he hadn't done it before. He had done it many times and it wasn't from too much petting. It would happen out of the blue. At any rate, it worked. -MIKE I was having similar problems with Tiger (4 1/2 year old neutered male). I would be petting him and he would suddenly spit and take a swipe at me. The last time he attacked me I grabbed him, put him in the carrier and put him out on my deck. It was dark and 18 below zero (Fahrenheit). I only left him out there for five minutes. When I brought him in, he was one pissed off cat. He got over it over night BUT he hasn't attacked me since. -MIKE Being cruel and torturing your cat "It was dark and 18 below zero (Fahrenheit)" is not the way to get him to stop attacking. All animals respond better to positive reinforcement for good behavior and withdrawal of attention (time-out in the bathroom for example) for bad behavior. It must be done immediately after the bad behavior occurs so they can associate the result with the behavior. Judy F > I was having similar problems with Tiger (4 1/2 year old neutered male). > I would be petting him and he would suddenly spit and take a swipe at [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > -MIKE Being cruel and torturing your cat "It was dark and 18 below zero (Fahrenheit)" is not the way to get him to stop attacking. All animals respond better to positive reinforcement for good behavior and withdrawal of attention (time-out in the bathroom for example) for bad behavior. It must be done immediately after the bad behavior occurs so they can associate the result with the behavior. Judy F A time out in a room like the bathroom does work. Our kitten, Boots, was chomping during play for a while. If just putting him down didn't stop him then he made a trip to the bathroom for 5 - 10 minutes. He is 5 mo now and almost never nips at all any more and it is never a hard nip. My old girl Tigger must "clean" my hands before I'm allowed to pet her. Sometimes her licking becomes chewing. All I need to do is say "ouch" and she backs off immediately. W >I was having similar problems with Tiger (4 1/2 year old neutered male). >I would be petting him and he would suddenly spit and take a swipe at [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > -MIKE I agree with you that removing the cat from the situation for "time out" works. But I either put them in the garage or bathroom. Bathroom works best because I figured out they *like* goinng in the garage. Sherry > >I was having similar problems with Tiger (4 1/2 year old neutered male). > >I would be petting him and he would suddenly spit and take a swipe at [quoted text clipped - 8 lines] > works. But I either put them in the garage or bathroom. Bathroom works best > because I figured out they *like* goinng in the garage. LOl! Sort of like sending a kid to their room where they have books, computer, TV... My basement is the equivalent. It's their wonderland. Priscilla Charles, It can take up to 3 months for cats to get used to new surroundings, so it's early days to be getting impatient with his behaviour. He's probably just anxious, especially if he came from a situation where he was mistreated by humans. When he attacks, *gently* disengage him and put him in "time out" -- in another room on his own -- for a quarter of an hour or so. Understand that over time he will get used to you and understand that you're not going to hurt him, and will give up his aggressiveness. Best of luck -- M9 > Dear rec.pets.cats.health+behaviour > [quoted text clipped - 25 lines] > > Charles
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