Anyone who has lived with a cat knows how loving and kind their companion is. However, despite this, it’s certainly not the first time you caress your cat in silence and he starts biting you, holding your hand tightly with his claws and kicking you furiously, as if it were a fight.
This situation creates a lot of confusion among many guardians and gives arguments for those who believe that cats are not very affectionate animals. However, as you will see in this article by Animal Expert, there is an explanation for “why does my cat bite me and kick me?”, And understanding this behavior will be vitally important for a harmonious coexistence with your hairy.
- Biting.
- In addition to kicking.
- Is part of the natural behavior of the cat from his puppy.
- This behavior.
- With which the puppies play.
- Serves as training when they are adults and must hunt and defend themselves.
- Therefore.
- At this point.
- It is no more or less than a joke and is therefore not aggressive behavior.
- As we explain in the article Why does my cat bite me?.
But what happens when this behavior lasts a long time? It is not uncommon to see domestic cats play or exhibit this behavior even if they are not kittens, as playing provides them with a necessary stimulus similar to what they would get when hunting in the wild. In a way, domestic cats raised with humans from an early age retain much of a puppy’s behavior, such as playing or ordering food in the same way 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 or are aggressive. The truth is, most of the time, we face a learning problem.
That is, when this behavior becomes problematic, it usually occurs because the way you acted with your cat when you were a puppy was not the most suitable, you were not taught to inhibit the bite, and you could even have been encouraged to play that way, because being a puppy is fun. However, now that the cat is an adult, the bites and kicks that were fun and harmless have become a problem. In addition, often an aggravating one is the fact that the cat has been prematurely separated from its mother and siblings because, through interaction with them, the puppy learns not to bite disproportionately, because he gradually realizes that he is in pain.
In some cases, you can caress your cat in a relaxed way and, without warning, it annoys you and starts attacking you with rage, bites you and scratches you with its hind legs. In this unexpected situation, your cat may have been upset because you’ve crossed the line of what it can and can’t tolerate. That is, your cat can be calm and suddenly you have touched a part of its body that it does not like, like the belly, because it is a very vulnerable area for it. It should be noted that if your cat has never had this behavior before when you have touched an area of your body, but now you have noticed that it is particularly aggressive, this can mean you are suffering (as well as if you notice other strange behavior or changes in habits). In this case, it is advisable to take it to the veterinarian.
It’s also not uncommon that if your feline is calm and wants to be alone, it feels uncomfortable if you touch it. That’s why it’s important to understand the body language of cats, as you’ve probably already given signs that you want to be left alone. Otherwise, if you don’t respect their limits, the conflict can begin.
Cats are not usually aggressive. When it comes to a cat that bites, kicks and hurts, it hardly means it’s aggressive. As we have seen, this is often due to a lack of education or understanding of the subject.
However, aggressive behavior can be due to fear, especially if your cat has not been properly socialized with people since you were a child and unfamiliar with care. Fear also has a strong genetic predisposition, which can be fostered by the environment in which it grew up and its experiences, for example, if you have ever experienced pain due to human contact (when you have been embraced or caressed in a sensitive area). .
Finally, it would not be uncommon for a cat to behave aggressively with a single person in the household because he has had negative experiences with that person, or because the feline clings only to his caregiver and is afraid of others.
If you think your cat’s behavior has changed, you can check out this other Animal Expert article about Aggressive Cat: Causes and Solutions.
Whatever situation in this article, you should understand that the cat does not carry out the assault maliciously. I mean, if you’ve had a bad learning experience, show this attitude because you don’t know it hurts. And if the assault is committed because he’s angry or he’s afraid of you, he does it with the intention of moving away from him, and he’ll probably leave if he’s not cornered. Therefore, you should insist that you NEVER physically scold or punish your cat, because in addition to being cruel, it will only scare you, seriously aggravating the problem.
If your cat bites you and kicks you with your hind legs, you must be patient and stand still. However, any move you make will only excite you more and invite you to keep playing or accept this as a threat if you are afraid.
Além disso, será contraditório você falar com ele, porque ele pode tomar isso como algo positivo, quanto mais acariciá-lo. Neste caso, o melhor a fazer é reagir dizendo um “ai” e parar o jogo, desta forma ele aprenderá que, cada vez que morder com força, a diversão acabou, e aprenderá a brincar de uma forma mais proporcional como aprenderia com sua mãe e seus irmãos cachorrinhos, porque quando eles brincam um com o outro e mordem com muita força, eles reagem rapidamente mostrando dor e indo embora.
It is necessary to indicate that it is not advisable to play with the cat with your hands, as you must constantly measure your actions. Therefore, you must offer your cat toys with which to perform this behavior at will and expend its energy, such as stuffed animals or sticks, so that it no longer is tempted to do it with you. Here’s an article on the best cat toys.
If your cat bites and kicks you when it can’t stand being caressed, because it prefers to be alone or because it’s afraid of you, it’s important for the tutor to be able to interpret his body language so that he can identify when he’s more or less. 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 run can become really rough and reluctant to human contact if we don’t understand them and if we treat them, literally. , like stuffed animals.
Then you’ll have to change your usual way of interacting with it. So, to start building trust, let your cat start interacting with you, so you know that when it voluntarily approaches you, you’re really interested in providing your attention. You can even try to motivate him with a reward by working on positive reinforcement in cats, as he will associate the prize with something positive and set aside any negative experiences he has had in the past.
Finally, when stroking your cat, you should always do it gently and slowly, avoiding areas that do not like to be touched, such as the belly or legs. Preferably, caress the top of its head and little by little (because you see that your cat does not care about human contact) it goes backwards, because this is where most cats like to be petted.
In this other article by Animal Expert we explain in more detail how to massage the cat.
If you want to read articles similar to Why does my cat bite me and kick me ?, we recommend that you visit our Behavioral Problems section.