How to teach an adult cat not to bite

Question

About 8 months ago, my wife and I adopted a cat from a shelter. She was about two years old at the time (meaning she's approaching three now). We love her a lot and do what we can to teach her how to be more sociable, but she unfortunately has some bad habits from her life before we adopted her. For context we are in a relatively small apartment, and so I suspect that she gets annoyed with us being close all the time (she usually feels much better after her time outs and goes back to being nice). She is usually nice, and has learned to be ok with us picking her up for a little while, but sometimes her mood seems to swing quickly to being very aggressive.

For example, if she gets bored and we aren't paying attention to her at the moment, she will come over and bite us on the leg. Usually not very hard, but sometimes hard enough to break skin. From advise I found online, we normally handle this by firmly telling her no, then going back to what we were doing (so that we don't reinforce that as a way to get attention). If she is then good and doesn't bite anymore, we will go and play with her to relieve the boredom. However, sometimes she decides to keep biting us harder until we have to react (breaking skin and sometimes drawing blood). In those cases we take her into another room (a room with her food, water, and litter box) and close the door for a little while to let her calm down and learn that that isn't acceptable (a time-out of sorts).

However, recently, she has sometimes become even more aggressive. When we move her into the other room and put her down, she either runs out quickly (understandable since she doesn't want a time out), or she will attack and really try to hurt us (biting and latching on and scratching).

I can live with a few scratches and scars, but I feel that all of us would be better off if she would learn how to communicate without biting. Do you have any suggestions on techniques that could help?

Answer 1

I think it's very likely your cat just has too much energy, and is using that energy in inappropriate ways. Using normal methods of dissuasion will be less effective if the cat is also being rewarded in some way, like in the case that it's managing to work off its excess energy and boredom by pouncing on you. So I think in addition to what you are already doing, you need to try to get your cat to play in appropriate ways more. Get more toys, especially ones the cat can pounce and destroy. Feather lures are usually good, or maybe laser pointers. Most cats play only in short bursts and then lose interest, so you may need to try periodic short play sessions during the day.

Answer 2

Cats are not generally social animals like dogs whose behaviour can be modelled to our way of life.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/03/14/cats-do-not-need-their-owners-scientists-conclude/

It is however true that they tolerate us if we feed them and keep them comfortable.... why shouldn't they!

I agree with the first answer that your cat has too much energy, especially when you describe the behaviour after his outings. Being out, probably hunting satisfies his instincts and his purpose in life.

Don't be fooled, cats are hunters and predators. Even if they live together, it's for mutual benefits.... that's how they consider us too.

Of course some are more cuddly than others but if you think about it, always on their terms.

However, the biting is not acceptable. There's a trick that I used on puppies and kitten: if you feed the cat by hand, from time to time, he will learn to lick your hand but not bite. If he bites, take the food away. If he licks, give him more.

After that, if he comes to bite, do your negative acceptance from the behaviour and make him lick your hand. Maybe keep something handy around to put on your fingers to reinforce this behaviour replacement therapy.

I also suggest more interaction in the house with toys, climbing areas...

Good luck!

Answer 3

I have a cat who nibbles and will bite but not leave marks while petting her. She is then telling me she needs to play. I'll pick out a few of her favorite toys or sometimes she'll choose one and we will play until she basically drops. Then she picks a spot near me, not on me as she isn't really a lap cat, and will sleep only to start the process later in the day. Sometimes she prefers to play alone, sometimes she just races from one end of the house to the other getting her energy out or sometimes she'll pick up one of her mouse toys and will throw it around to play with it. So it just might be she gets bursts of energy and needs to get it used up before being cuddly again. The other older cat looks for any and all excuses to sit on people and cuddle. She thrives on having a warm lap to sit on and a warm body to lick. There is no biting coming from her or claws being used but instead lots of love. Different cats, different reactions with different needs.

As for treats, I leave her treats on her cat tree until she's ready to eat them. She won't eat out of my hand too but my other cat will eat off my plate or out of my hand without thinking twice. Both were strays so while I think the older cat was a family pet, the younger I'm thinking was discarded and it had something to do with a plastic bag as she's petrified of the sound of plastic bags even after having her for 9 months. I just work around whatever the cat's personality is and go with it.