Anyone who has lived with a cat knows what an extremely affectionate and good companion they are. But despite this, surely it is not the first time that the situation occurs in which you are calmly caressing your cat and it begins to bite you, grab your hand tightly with its claws and kick you furiously, as if it were a fight.
This situation generates a lot of confusion in many owners, and gives arguments in favor of those people who believe that cats are surly and little affectionate animals. Still, as you will see in this article on our site, there is an explanation to why your cat bites and kicks you, and understanding this behavior will be vitally important. for harmonious coexistence with your furry.
Why does my cat bite and kick me?
Biting, as well as kicking, are part of the cat's natural behavior since it is a puppy. And the thing is, this behavior that puppies play while playing, serves as training for when they are adults and have to hunt and defend themselves. Therefore, during this stage, it is nothing more and nothing less than a game and, therefore, it is not aggressive behavior, as we also explain in the article Why does my cat bite me?
Now then, what happens when this behavior goes on for too long? The truth is that it is not uncommon for adult domestic cats to play or show this behavior despite not being puppies, since the game provides them with a necessary stimulation similar to what they would have hunting in the wild. In a way, domestic cats that have been raised with humans from a young age, retain many puppy behaviors, such as the aforementioned play, or asking to be fed eat similar to how they would ask their mother.
However, when the cat bites and kicks painfully and without warning, it is certainly worrying, as many owners wonder if their cats do not like them or if they are aggressive. Now, the truth is that most of the time, we are faced with a learning problem
That is, when this behavior has become problematic, it usually happens because the way you acted with your cat when it was a puppy was not the most appropriate, it has not been taught toinhibit the bite , and he has even been incited to play this way , because being a puppy, it is funny. But now that the cat is an adult, what used to be graceful and harmless bites and kicks have become a problem. In addition, the fact that the cat has been prematurely separated from its mother and siblings is usually an aggravating factor, because thanks to the interaction with them, the puppy learns to do not bite disproportionately, since little by little you realize that it hurts.
My cat bites and kicks me when I pet him
Occasionally, it may happen that you are caressing your cat relaxed, and without warning he gets upset and starts attacking you furiously, biting you and scratching you with his hind legs. In this unexpected situation, your feline has surely been upset, since you have crossed the line about what he tolerates and what he does not. In other words, maybe he was confident and suddenly you touched some part of his body that he doesn't like, such as his belly, well It is a very vulnerable area for them. It should be noted that if your cat has never performed this behavior before when you touch an area of his body, but now you have noticed that he is especially angry when you touch him, it may mean that he is in pain(in addition to if you observe other strange behaviors or changes in habits), so it would be advisable to take him to the vet.
It is not strange either that if your cat is calm and wants to be alone, he gets angry if you touch him. It is therefore important to understand the cat's body language, since it will surely have warned you in advancethat he wants you to leave him alone. Otherwise, if you don't respect his boundaries, the conflict may start
Is my cat aggressive?
Normally, no When we find ourselves before a cat that bites and kicks causing damage, it hardly means that it is aggressive. As we have seen, many times this happens because he has not been properly educated or a lack of understanding about it.
Now, aggressive behavior could be due to fear, especially if your cat has not been properly socialized with people since childhood and if you are not familiar with petting. Fear also has a strong genetic predisposition, which can be fostered by the environment in which it grew up and the experiences vivid, such as if you have ever experienced pain from human contact (holding or stroking a sensitive area).
Finally, it would not be unusual for a cat to have aggressive behavior specifically with a single individual in the household, because the furry has had negative experiences with this person, or that he is clinging only to his caregiver and is fearful of the rest.
If you feel that your cat's behavior has changed, you can consult this other article on our site on Why has my cat become aggressive?
What to do if my cat bites and kicks me?
Whatever the situation raised in this article, you must understand that the cat does not carry out the aggression maliciously. That is to say, in case he has made a bad learning, he does it because he doesn't know that it hurts you And if the aggressiveness is done because he is upset with you or he is afraid, he performs such behavior with the intention that you get away from him, and it is most likely that he will leave if he is not cornered. Therefore, we must insist that we must NEVER quarrel or physically mistreat a cat, because apart from being cruel, we will only make it afraid of us, seriously aggravating the problem.
1. Stay still
In the event that your cat bites you, holding you tightly with its claws and kicking you with its hind legs, you must arm yourself with patience and stay completely stillOn the contrary, any movement you make will only excite him more and, for this reason, will invite him to continue playing or will take you as a threat in case he is afraid.
two. Don't talk to him or pet him
Besides, it will be contradictory for you to talk to him, since he can take it as something positive, much less caress him. In this case, it is best to react by saying a “ouch!” and stop the game, in this way he will learn that every time he bites hard the fun ends, and he will learn to play in a more proportionate way in the same way as he would learn with his mother and puppy brothers, because when they play with each other and bite too hard, they quickly react by showing pain and moving away.
It should be noted that it is not advisable to play with our cat with our hands, since it has to be measuring itself all the time. For this reason, you should offer your cat toys with which he can perform this behavior at ease and get tired, such as stuffed animals or reeds, so that he will no longer feel tempted to do it with you. Here we leave you an article about Toys for adult cats, which one to choose?
3. Understand your cat
If your cat bites you and kicks you when you pet him because he doesn't tolerate petting, either because he prefers to be alone at that moment or he is afraid of us, it is important that you knowread your body language to know when you are more or less receptive. If you start by knowing their limits and avoiding excesses, you will have already taken a very important step, because many cats in the long term can become really surly and reluctant to human contact if we do not know how to understand them and we treat them, literally, like stuffed animals.
For more information, you can consult this other article on our site about The behavior of cats.
4. Let him get close to you, and not the other way around
Next, you will have to change your usual way of interacting with him. For this reason, to start building a bond of trust, let your cat start the interaction with you, because in this way, you will know that when your cat comes closer to you of its own accord, it's because he really wants you to listen to him. You can even try to motivate him with a prize, that is, work on positive reinforcement in cats, since in this way he will associate you with something positive and leave aside the negative experiences he may have had in the past.
5. Pet him on the head and back
Finally, when you caress him, you should always do it gently and slowly , avoiding the areas where he doesn't like to be touched, such as the belly or the legs. Preferably, stroke the top of the head and, progressively (as you see that your cat does not mind human contact), go along the back, This is where most cats love to be scratched.
In this other article on our site, we explain in more detail how to pet a cat?, as well as the ways not to pet him.
