How can you keep a cat from thinking fingers and hands are toys and not to bite them?
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010 at
7:24 pm
7 Comments
Cheap Cat Furniture
Cat furniture, cat trees and cat condos are great additions to a cat lover's home, as they provide hours of good fun for the feline companions and keep your own furniture intact.
Cat scratching is a perfectly normal behavior for a cat, and if your cat is scratching a chair or your favorite couch, then you just need to somehow re-direct his or her scratching to other, more appropriate objects.
The consensus from the various Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) is that de-clawing is cruel and unnecessary. I can only agree with this conclusion. However, if you feel that you must either declaw your cat or give her up, we would rather see your cat stay in her home and be your lifelong companion. I only ask that you do not make this decision lightly and just be absolutely sure that you will not change your mind later about keeping your indoor cat once you have it declawed.
You can use nail caps for the cat's front paws as an alternative to getting the cat de-clawed. This is a much more humane choice and it does work to protect the furniture. Just make sure you do not use nail caps on a cat that goes outside, as it will have no defense.
Most pet shops offer different selections of cat scratch posts from which to choose. Some have carpet or rug material on wooden posts and bases. Others are made of rope which is wrapped around the post or pole.
Then there are cat towers and cat trees which are great for the cat to climb and play besides being there for scratching purposes.
Other people like to design their own and make them themselves. This is another option for you as well. Besides going to your local pet store, you can look online for these different cat trees, towers and scratch posts.
One thing that can work well if your cat is still scratching the furniture is to spray some citrus oil on the chair or the couch that they are attacking. This is a good deterrent that usually works quite effectively.
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I trained all of my cats over the years not to bite by biting them back.
Just a light bite on the ear or paw will correct the behavior. It’s how the momma cat corrects the kittens. Also, putting them down and ignoring them helps too.
Don’t yell or hit, they don’t understand it and will just look at you like you’re crazy.
you could give them toys or you could get a certain kind of yucky tasting stuff just for that. As long as you don’t lick your fingers. LOL
don’t use your hands or fingers as toys! never hit a kitty, especially when you’re trying to teach them something is bad to do! that will only teach them that you hit…
yes, it’s oh so adorable when they’re little, but as they grow they won’t understand that it’s hurting you.
when you reach out to pet your kitten & it launches at your hand (to play) pull your hand away & say no. then give your kitty a toy to play with instead. try ribbons or catnip toys (they have all sorts of shapes, sizes, crinkly, sparkly, jingly, rattly…)
playing with kittens with fingers & hands encourages rough play & aggressive behaviors…this causes problems as the get bigger & stronger…
we adopted a kitten that had been treated like that. she was downright vicious when we brought her home! she literally tried to tear flesh from your hand when you reached out to pet her. we taught her not to do that as suggested above. we’ve had her for over a year now & she is the sweetest most gentle kitty!!! you’d never know she left a kitten mouth shaped bruise on the palm of my hand (that lasted for 3 weeks)
Do not hit or yell at your cat. Yelling and hitting (even gentle thwaps on the nose) will just give you an angry and resentful cat.
We adopted a 8-year-old neutered male last year and have the same issues with biting as yours does. I asked our vet and this was her advice:
When your cat bites, give a gentle, but firm "no" (cats have exceptionally good hearing, so screaming isn’t going to do anything but irritate them). Stop petting them or snuggling them or playing with them. If they are on the couch or bed with you, put them on the floor. If the cat approaches you again, give them another chance, but if biting occurs again, repeat the "no" and ignore them again.
Another tip is to make sure you never use your hands, feet, fingers or toes to tease or initiate play with your cat. When someone does this, it’s teaching the cat that those items are toys. Use cat toys instead to initiate play.
Simple – don’t use them to play with the cat.
I took this advice with my two and they don’t bite.
give them toys
You can try saying No and tapping him gently on the nose. If that doesn’t work, or he get overzealous with his biting, you can make like a mother cat. My cat Oh Sawma, terrorist kitty, is now two and has had a biting problem ever since I rescued him as a kitten off the streets. He can be a real Jeckyl and Hyde with the biting, especially when he’s excited. I finally tried a trick used with puppies and, to my surprise, it worked. When he starts to bite, grab him gently by the scruff of his neck, look him in the eyes, make a loud, commanding, cat-like merroww sound, then let him go.