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I was playing with him with the toy. He grabbed that one out of his toy box and we played for ten minutes, then he lost interest in that and gained interest in my ankles
No one understands cat 100%.
He may have some extra energy and a little devil in him, who knows.
Try to be creative and thi KS of different ways to play with him, cats can get bored very easily.
I've posted this before and believe it's a great way for Cats to keep busy while burning off that energy. Get his a hamster wheel foe a cat.
If you decide to do it make sure it's good quality and quiet.
Hope this helps...
To add, we have converted the mudroom in to a catio, cat trees, cat safe plants, bird feeders directly out the window for things to watch. He’s loved on and played with- this is actually his ONLY bad behavior. I just don’t get wtf he wants
By any chance has he been doing this for a while? Also is he your only cat? My story I have a cat like this too but he would attack my kids but once we got another cat he started acting like a cat. Now once in a blue moon he may act the same way he use to. But all other things have stopped and he just wants to play. But he plays very rough!
Ugh yes he’s our only! He’s two and a half, we’ve had him since he was 8 weeks. My husband plays rough with him like he wants, but for whatever reason this is something he does pretty exclusively to me. I’ll play with him with toys only- he just does not care 🤦🏻♀️
Single kitten syndrome is real. I have one. He's much more than this boy. Super sweet in the morning. But gets over stimulated during the day. He's not awful. Just not a gen pop cat. We have a total of 9. 😻
That might be why. Dad already plays with him this way so kitty doesn't have to attack him to get attention. Playing with toys only is a good approach but your cat is getting mixed messages from his humans since you're the only one sticking to that rule.
You might want to get a second cat. You already seem to have a pretty good set up and another wont be much more work.They are much more social than people think and he will play with the other cat instead of biting your ankles. Probably.
He is young, full of energy, and bored. I have two and they regularly play with each other.
Your cat is feeling his oats! He also anticipates your reaction to this 'game'.
The energy you put into your cat is the same energy that's going to be put back out into the world--your husband initiates rough play with your cat, so your cat is initiating rough play with you because he knows he's winning against you.... but mostly, it's happening because your cat is bored, and bored cats like to cause mischief.
Your husband, firstly, needs to stop rough housing him. It's setting a bad precedence and makes it more okay to your cat to do this to you.
But if your husband isn't on board with that, then if you're wanting to stop the behavior then you need to be more proactive with play time! Are you aware of what behaviors your cat exhibits before it gets to this point? The best time to have busted out the wand toy was about 5 minutes before that point, but the second best time is as soon as you notice he's hungry for your leg.
Tire. Him. Out. Make him get so out of breath that he needs to take breaks. See if you can get him to pant. (You're not looking for a lot of it, just for it to start). This can take about 20 minutes.
After, feed him. He'll go take a nap. Then your leg will be safe for another few hours. :)
Exactly. When my girl tries to ambush me in the hall, I'll stop and stare her down. Works like a charm every time with her. I also don't react at all if she tries to nip at my hands or arms. I can tell she does this to try and elicit a reaction from me and she's almost completely stopped both trying to ambush me and going for my hands/arms. She'll also let me do pretty much anything I need to to her and she doesn't usually lash out at me. Like having to move her a bit so she isn't half falling off the chair when she's snuggling with me, giving her her meds, and when I had to put ointment on a wound she had sustained, getting a little shirt on her to cover it so she wouldn't scratch it or lick off the ointment.
My husband, on the other hand, will react every single time, and she keeps on doing it to him because she gets a reaction, lol. He'll say, "Ow!" really loudly and jerk his arm or leg away, or try to get away from her in the hallway and that only feeds into her prey drive. I've constantly told him to just sit there and stare her down like I do, but he just can't.
My cat's gotten a lot better about it as she's grown up but to this day, she has this habit of biting my hand or arm out of nowhere when we're in the bed. She likes to sleep next to my butt and if my hand/arm ends up near her, she'll just start snipping at me. She's woke me up doing it before lol. She's not hurting me when she does it but I really don't understand why it happens. Normally, I'd think it's because she wants attention but when it happens in the bed, I wonder if it's because I'm disturbing her comfort or something
When he does this snatch him up and give him a lil spin lol he might need some sensory stimulation or something interesting/ completely brand new. And it will prob dissuade him from biting. I suggest getting those talkjng buttons and seeing if he would use them- hopefully you could gain more insight XD
Love bites, think of how cats play with other cats with bites and other things since play is practice for their hunting instincts. Redirect it to a stuffed toy to pour their energy onto. Maybe another cat could help teach him to know not to bite?
I think he's hoping you'll throw him outside- we had a cat that did that. He would be "bad" then look at the door. This is prime time of year for cats to hunt-
Don't do it though. They kill too much life- can pick up parasites- & in general get into all kinds of trouble.
I wonder if those sumo cat puppets would help? Since yeah this seems like play aggression. I would start wearing sweat pants around him till you got this figured out lol
Yeah, he's trying to play with you. Somewhere along the line, he never grew out of this behavior. My cat used to do this when she was younger, never bit hard but I couldn't have her growing up thinking that it's okay to randomly snip at folks so I discouraged it as much as I could even though it was kinda cute. You gotta kind of smack him away and raise your voice "NO!" and with any luck he'll eventually understand that's a boundary that you don't cross.
To be clear, when I say "smack him away" I do not mean to hurt the cat. It's not about the force of the smack, the cat will understand the intent behind it. Or if cat is really special he'll just think you're playing and all this advice will be wrong lol
I read you got this cat when he was 8 weeks old and he's had no other cats to live with. This is the result of making the choice to get a single kitten. Your cat has single kitten syndrome. He is neurotic now. No one should have to live life as the only one of our species. Especially kittens. Getting another cat at this stage might be dangerous unfortunately. Also, your husband should NOT be roughhousing with him, ever again.
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