Its a lengthly question, I need to give a bit of background before I ask.
I've had many cats in my lifetime, my step mother is a legit cat lady so I've seen the good ones and bad ones, but my new cat I got for myself and my girlfriend has behaviour I never experienced.
The cat was born in October, a stranger posted a litter of strays to give away, I got one for my girlfriend in December. The cat was never handled and very hand shy, but she warmed up to people very quick.
The problem, randomly when your petting the cat, or not petting her at all. As long as you are near her, she will take notice to your hands/arms and for no reason at all put her ears back and become extremely irritated. Her tail will twitch, sometimes she will make a low pitched moan of displeasure, and then she will dive at your arm or hand and bite very aggressively, usually shakes her head like a shark trying to rip off skin, then dives away from you. Five minutes later she will come back like it never happened, start purring and looking for attention.
Ten minutes ago I was petting her for example, she was happy and purring, then she bit my hand quite hard, I said NO , BAD, and just left her alone. While talking to my girlfriend she stood there pissed flicking her tail and when I wasn't expecting it dove roughly 3 feet onto my arm and bit me then took off. SHe is now beside me purring by my head cleaning himself.
I've read about aggression caused by over stimulation, but a lot of times shes not being pet or bothered at all. And she seems to do it more towards my girlfriend then myself.
I've tried different suggestions I've read online to break the behaviour, some are contradictory. It was so bad in the beginning with her we had to lay around watching tv with a squirt bottle to defend ourselves. It's gotten less serve but it's still a piss off. suggestions? Experiences?
that cat's going to be a feral asshole forever. youre better off releasing it to coyotes cause you got yourself a shit pet. otherwise just dont touch it. it's never going to love you
>>2095495
I'm being conservative here when I say the correct solution to this cat's behavior is euthanasia.
You won't be able to fix it to an appreciable degree. It may stop attacking out of familiarity, but it's never going to be a "pet"
These dags are idiots. People literally tame full on wild cats, so don't put your kitty down. Make sure she has lots of places in the house to hide and also a litter box in a few places. Play with her more with toys to lower her energy. Never play with your hands cuz it'll encourage her biting. Don't let her attack you - use the spray bottle or just pin her still when she does. Don't hit her or hurt her but make attacking you a negative thing. Even just yell really loud when she does and she'll probably bolt. If it's still an issue you might wanna consider getting a medium dog that can keep her company and tire her out but also take her crazy shit. Make sure the dog won't kill her though. Also if she isn't spayed or fixed if it's a dude, get that taken care of. We all know sex feels make everyone crazy.
Also carry around food she really likes and reward her for coming to see you and being nice
that's what you get for taking an animal from strangers on Craigslist/ads/etc. "free" animals are never free
my cat was born feral and hand raised from a week old, but I can see how she's a bit behaviorally fucked, including the types of behaviors you've described, even though I did everything imaginable to try and socialize her
at this point all you can really do is reward the good and discourage the bad and keep her well exercised, it doesn't sound like it's actually debilitating behavior as of now. if you start now, you could prevent it from getting worse and probably slightly improve it
>>2095506
at this point euthanasia would be very premature
>>2095495
if it's a moodflip out of nowhere with no provocation and there's times where she's comfortable around you then it could be a brain disorder. worth trying to get a diagnosis and medication imo before giving up.
>>2095512
Thank you for an actual intelligent response not telling me to kill her, lol.
I tried the hand thing, I read about them seeing your hands as toys/prey and whenever she tried going for our hands we jammed a stuffed bear roughly half her body size into her face and she would attack and kick it, but it never broke the habit.
my girlfriend owns a 7 pound mix dog, they are starting to become friends slowly. Originally the dog was very playful and tried to interact with the cat, unfortunately the cat was very aggressive with her and would attack. The dog ended up getting its eye scratched, which then got infected, which then wouldn't heal with one anti biotic and we had to try another, she almost lost her eye according to the vet.
Playing with her works, but I haven't been able to actually sit and play with her until she was tired, then once she's frisky from playing she starts running around the house and climbing everything like a lunatic and attacking the dog lol.
She will be getting fixed either this month or next, hoping that mellows her out. She hasn't had a heat yet. >>2095513
I've bought probably about 7 different brands and flavours of treats so far, won't eat any of them for some reason. Not healthy ones, and not shitty ones I presume are like junk food you get from Walmart.
>>2095515
My step mother puts food dishes out and lures in strays and once they are friendly enough she lets them move into the house, some have their quirks, some stay shy of human interaction, but they have only been aggressive with each other never us. After I moved out they had 13 strays in total they integrated into the house through outside feeding. If they come in winter she lets them stay in the garage until summer, then slowly lets them move into the house. It's completely fucked lol.
>>2095515
Also, I bought a purebred Maine coon for my girlfriend for her birthday which was nov 30th, it died roughly 6 days later because the breeder was a scumbag who sold us a dying cat for a quick buck. They had a fake health check and paperwork for a guaranteed healthy cat upon purchase. I paid 450 dollars for the cat and by the time it died it racked up 1580 dollars in vet bills for me right before Christmas. So yeah, the free craigslist cat seemed like a good slightly less expensive replacement to the dead birthday gift.
