Biting problem - drawing blood

[Kiia]

Hi everyone :), I was wondering if you could help my parents with their cat.

She is about 3-4 years old, they've had her since she was a kitten. She's an indoor cat, they live on the third floor of an apartment so she goes on the balcony once in a while. They take good care of her, feed her well, spoil her, etc. The only problem is that sometimes she bites them. They don't instigate her or pester her, or provoke her in any way.

Example: My Mom was sitting there watching TV one night and all of a sudden the cats ears go back and she bites my Moms finger, drawing blood. :( Samething happened a few mornings ago, my Dad was laying in bed then she attacked him, drawing blood again. She bites pretty hard too, it looks like when a snake bites, two deep cuts.

This happens once in a while and we aren't sure why. Anyone have any ideas, please? :confused:

Thanks.

[guineapiggie13]

That seems likea pretty feisty kitty! When I first got my guinea pigs, Smudge was a bit of a nipper. When he would nip me, I tried lightly tapping him on the nose. Soon afterwards, he stopped the habit. My family has cats and I am always around them, but I am not entirely sure this trick will work. So maybe you could tap her nose and say "No" loudly, possibly that could break the habit. Hope it helps :)

[cruisetime]

My cat is about 2-1/2 years old. We just got her form the local animal control about 2 weeks ago. She was biting playfully at first (not hard) but I made my hubby stop playing with her with his hands so she wouldn't associate it with play. But I really dont' think it matters. She has now started after the feet. AND she is biting harder. She did this last night and I yelled at her good! Yelled "no" and while she was looking at my feet (she wants to play is all) I took two fingers pointed out to her and when she looked at them I brought them to my eyes. And said "eyes not feet!" Don't know if she will learn but it really seems like if we play with her she will stay away from the feet and hands but if we dont' play (we were real tired last night and didn't play much) she tries to instigate the play buy attacking feet or hands. If anything wiggles she thinks it is fair game. Maybe if they play with her more with other things like a stick with string or anything far away from their feet or hands then she will stop attacking them.. Also yell at her and maybe if you can tap her nose - not sure if she is being playful she will think you are trying to play when you reach for her and that is not good because she may swat or scratch.... Try the yelling loudly - they don't like it and playing with her some more with toys - that extend away form them... just ideas Debbie

[Kiia]

Thanks for replying. :)

LOL they can't tap her nose because she knows she's not allowed to do that and runs off in a scurry! Oh and they do yell at her when she does it, believe me, I heard my dad on the phone.

That's another thing, they buy her all kinds of toys and she doesn't want to play with them. (the toys) They collect dust or when Teeko goes over he finally plays with them.

They are just sitting there and then all of a sudden BAM she bites and runs away.

Thanks again for your replies and suggestions, I'll let my parents know what you guys said.

[cruisetime]

My cat wouldn't play with her toys either. I had to play with her with them.. After about 3 weeks of playing with her with them I now see her playing with them on her own. I use string or rope to play with her with them though so I do not get my hands or feet at all close to her. So far the best thing to totally stop bahavior of any kind has been the squirt gun. But still she will do things just so she can get our attention. The other day she started grabbing my leg and play biting. This was right before I was leaving. Then she did it again the next day and it finally dawned on me she was doing it to get food - she wanted to be fed. I'm trying to only give her food twice a day and pick it up after about 45 minutes - what she doesn't eat. They say it is much healthy for her. I did feed her but I waited another 15 minutes and did something else so she would not think that I would feed her when she bit my leg - that could get to be a very bad habit! :) :) Good luck, Debbie

[rebekah]

i have a six month old cat. he also attacks, unprovoked. i'll be sitting in the chair watching tv, not even moving and he will run up, bite my feet or hand and then run away before i can even react. i think that some cats (obviously) are just naturally more aggressive than others. this is the first cat i've ever had that behaves this way. the only thing i've found that helps is to tell him "no" and when he does bite i tell him "be nice" in a stern, deep voice. since he realizes what this phrase means, now when he is biting me and i tell him to "be nice" he will let go and even if he looks displeased with me, at least he is listening. from what i've read about this, is to not ever use your hands to play, only to pet. and if he is biting, then remove your hands ( if you can!) and leave him alone for a while. i've also noticed that if we play with oliver alot, he doesn't randomly attack us as much. - just what i've learned from my crazy little cat!

- on a side note: my boyfriend is sterner with the cat and punishes him more than I, and oliver also attacks him more than he bites me. so maybe there is a connection here?