Cat biting

curly from cork

My 18 month old Siberian cat has started to bite quite regularly. We have had him since he was 12 weeks old , bought from a registered breeder with papers etc. He was neutered at 6 mths. Was at the vet yesterday for annual vaccinations etc. Vet checked him over and says there’s nothing wrong with him that would cause him to bite as in we re not rubbing a sore spot .
He mostly bites when it comes to food . Either you don’t feed him quickly enough or it’s not the food he wants so he will follow you and lurch for your leg and bite. He hasn’t drawn blood yet but does get his teeth around you. After this happens we smack him and shout bold . His response is to run away or to turn and try to lunge again. If I can get hold of him I will put him out the door into the garden. This may only last a minute as he comes back in the car flap happy out and forgetting any incident ! This morning I washed his bowl fed him royal canin nuts and changed his water .. he was crying for food , didn’t eat any and bit me. Occasionally he will snap at you mid rub although he would have instigated the rubbing session ! Other than that he is a very loving cat , loves company is independent but never goes on the missing list and sits with us every night
This biting issue worries me . The vet offered google ! I was wondering can anyone else help or has had similar issues
Many thanks for reading

tedpan

Unfortunately the smacking and giving out to him has turned the whole thing into a game. You can't hit animals, they have no idea why you're doing it, so more than likely your fault..

Watch some Jackson Galaxy on YouTube for tips.

the beer revolu

Muzzle.

VonVix

From what I have gathered from my (little) experience with Siberians, is that they are a bit more active and intelligent than the average moggie. Your cat is possibly a bit pent up and needing more activity.

Do you exercise or play with him much (ideally not with your hands, but rather dangly cat toys) and did you ever play with him in the past by using your hands?

I would highly discourage hitting him as it is very damaging to a relationship between pet vs. owner, it makes you unpredictable and untrustworthy to them. You are also teaching him that if your hands come near, bad things will happen, in turn can increase the likelihood of biting as he will do what he knows best to keep your hands away.

Nody

Honestly sounds to me that you don't know how to read what your cat is telling you so let's go through them shall we (and after that look at this video by Jackson for more things your cat is telling you not related to the below):

1) Bite when serving food - He's bored and decides he wants to play instead. Solution, use activation toys for serving food; esp. kibble and have a play session before you serve the food to him to get him into the hunt, kill, eat, groom, sleep cycle. Here's a video by Jackson on ankle attacks.
2) He snaps in middle of cuddling session - Let me guess you pet his whole body or perhaps cuddle his tummy? Either way you need to keep an eye on the tail as the moment it starts swinging you're over exciting him and he's about to turn it into a game. If you ever look at cats washing each other you'll see the exact same thing happening so restrict your cuddling instead to head and figure out what parts of him is triggering the behaviour. Look at this video on how and why by Jacson.
3) Change away from royal canin ASAP; that food is overpriced and you're much better off with something that's grain free which most likely will cost you less money. If you really want to do him a favour consider going to BARF instead and you're not going to get any more complaints about the food and if you want further information this is a great video on why kibble in general is all wrong as well.

curly from cork

Thank you all for taking the time to reply. I hadnt heard of Jackson galaxy but I have now watched a few clips . Our cat hunts and stalks all day outdoors , he doesn’t come in until late afternoon. So I would think he’s getting enough exercise. Yes we played with him as a kitten, with our hands so I presume the horse has bolted in that area. His biting appears to us to be sheer bad temper. He sees the food doesn’t like it , follows you and bites ! We leave the food there and later he’s eaten it ... clean bowl !
Re petting we only rub his head and chin as that’s the area he likes.. mostly ... the snap biting there is not as frequent as the food biting episodes. We never rub his tummy or lower spine .. he’d eat you ! Grooming is a nightmare takes two and at times requires thick gardening gloves on to protect your hands. 95% of the times he’s gorgeous with a great personality, loves company and enjoys close contact .. maybe he just has a bad trait in him and bites when he doesn’t get his way .. I won’t smack him as advised but I don’t see any consequence to enforce as a result of his bad behavior . You definitely can’t catch him to “time out “ therapy style , once he’s bitten he runs or if I can catch him I will put him out the door but he’s back in the cat flap in no time - as if nothing happened. It just makes us wary around him and that’s unsettling
Once again thank you for the replies

Briskit

Hey Curly,

Your cat is gorgeous.
I have a big 7kg cat, who is six years old and he exhibits the exact same traits... I find it hilarious, and always saw it as a catitude thing...
He's an outside and inside cat... He's a great big fella, but a big softie at heart, and spends a lot more time inside these days as he's not fond of cold-snaps, even though he's got a very thick lustrous and glossy coat.
Tyson does the ankle grab… he pounces and wraps his paws around my ankles on occasion and then ‘bites’ my leg… We have a super tight and playful bound, and I always saw it as a cheeky challenge to my dominance in our ‘pride/pack’ hierarchy!
he loves to play, and sometimes punches me with the pad of his paw… and he’s strong… he’s got a great right hook, so he really lives up to his name!! But he’s docile and kind most of the time.

With feeding.. if he doesn’t like a flavour… he just leaves it… regardless of how fresh it is, or how clean you’ve polished his bowl.. If he’s not eating something, then he’s just not eating it. I’m ok with that, and sometimes when he wants the gourmet supreme, even though he’s got the dry mix Hills Vetinary Plan out as an all you can eat, all the time buffet…
… so if, he’s come in from outside and he’s lingering… and I know he just wants the mousse, I ignore him as the dry mix bowl is full.. then sometimes he’ll rub his face on the cupboard where his food is, and meow me… and it would be extremely rare for him to do the pounce bite thing… but he has on occasion.

He does the exact same thing during rub sessions.. sometimes those instigated by him… where he’ll just have a wee snap… again, he’s not going to hurt anyone once they learn not to pull away, as he has a magnificent set of paws, and ‘talons’ that would make a bird of prey proud… he sometimes holds your arm with the claws, but NEVER pierces skin.. again… when he snaps at a family member, who all accept his royal standing in my house… I always say when somebody says… “cheeky fecker just snapped at me… or tried to bite me”,
… “oooh, lucky you… you are so in there!!… he only does that to people who he regards as part of his pride!!!”…
Anyways… I rescued him, because he was gorgeous, so didn’t raise him from kitten hood, so became aware of these idiosyncrasies over time.. .at first surprised by them… but now I accept them as who he is, and it’s very rare and it’s generally linked to days where we’ve played a lot… he often does an ankle pounce when I’m hanging laundry on the clothes line… and sometimes out of the blue.


cats are wonderful creatures, and we’ve always had amazing ones visit our backyard over the years when we had the misfortune of losing our own… so they seem to have an instinct for those that care for them.
To me, their magnificence and splendour is so great.. they’re so close to their wild cousins in their mannerisms, and yet so playful and cuddly at the same time… I love the serene purrs when I come home (he also rolls over on the front path when we haven’t seen him for a bit or have been out all day), or if I’m a bit stressed and take a sit down in the living room, and your big buddy curls up and joins you… makes you feel good and lets you know to that the feel our worries etc., and share in these. Not at all selfish creatures as many would suggest.


So I take all the wonderful idiosyncrasies that come with all my many pets, over a lifetime which was full of joys and loss.

In a world full of BS… they are the best… and if it’s only right that your fancy pants Siberian sitting on your windowsill should challenge you and have a little knaw at your leg or whatnot every so often. It’s the unknown mystery of the their character coupled with their regal poise that makes them a joy to behold around a household.

Cats Rock.


P.S. One time Tyson bit me hard… and I yelled in response to the surprise and pain…and he looked at me with those ‘crazy midnight on a full moon type of hunting eyes’ that they get when they’re riled up… and so I pointed at him sternly… “DON’T DO THAT…that’s BOLD”… he then swiped and bit that finger!.... hard!!!!!! lols (crack me up the scamp!)

Lumen

Our tabby rescue was a bit of psycho when she was younger. She used to savagely attack us for no apparent reason, teeth and claws. It was mostly around her hunting time.

We learned to avoid dangling hands and feet off ends of sofas, and also to spot when she was in psycho mode and avoid her generally.

She eventually (at perhaps 2-3 years old) grew out of it and now just bites affectionately.

I think we all still have the scars.

Cats are dicks.

tedpan

Lumen wrote:

We learned to avoid dangling hands and feet off ends of sofas, and also to spot when she was in psycho mode and avoid her generally.

Were you playing with her with cat toys and keeping her entertained while she was a kitten? Sounds like the kitten just wanted to play

Lumen

tedpan wrote: »

Were you playing with her with cat toys and keeping her entertained while she was a kitten? Sounds like the kitten just wanted to play

We got her as a young adult rescue. She had other behavioural issues like growling while eating which suggests a hard life.

She wanted to play in the same way that she wants to play with mice and birds. There was darkness in her soul.

She's fine now though apart from the usual stuff like standing on my face at 4am.

loveisdivine

One of our cats is an absolute ball of love and snuggles, just the sweetest most tender cat you've ever met, until it's feeding time!

Once it gets close to feeding time he starts by rubbing up against us, but this soon progresses to biting. He'll rub and then give quite a sharp bite. It's his way of telling us we need to get up and feed him now! But we keep to fairly tight feeding schedules and he's just pushing his luck to get fed earlier.

I would never hit any animal, but I have found that if I blow a short and sharp puff of air towards his face when he bites, he doesn't like it and backs off. It's actually quite funny the look of disgust he gives me when I do it.

I've found with all our cats, even our most difficult one, they usually have a reason for the things they do. It might not be obvious to us, or make sense to us, but there's always a reason. As an example, the other week one of our cats started loudly meowing every day at a certain time, for apparently no reason, driving my husband mad! He eventually realised that she simply wanted to sit on the sofa in the exact spot he was sitting, probably cos she knew it would be warm. Now, everyday after lunch, she comes into him, gives a little meow, he moves to the other end of the sofa and she settles down in the warm spot. No more crying.

Maybe he doesn't like the food? With the playing it's probably simple over stimulation.

Also, I've come to accept with cats that there will always be some degree of scratching and biting. At the end of the day, that's how cats express displeasure. It's natural. It's not pleasant for us, but you can't always expect animals to conform to humans standards of behaviour!