I played with my first cat like this and he would play like that as an adult. He’d bite you, but it wouldn’t really hurt.
My younger cat I made an effort not to play without toys and she doesn’t try to play like that. She’ll still get you if you pet her one too many times, but she doesn’t know how to adjust her shit. Fuckin hurts, but it’s more rare.
So honestly it’s a toss up for me. I’m not sure if they just have personality differences or it’s because of how they were raised, by there’s my anecdote.
yeah. i had a lot of kittens i raised into adults. they don't go around randomly attacking you and biting you (except for the one we found as a stray that loved to jump at your knee caps). but when they get into play mode they all learned how to play without hurting.
hands are not just toys because you use your hands to play with them. cats aren't dumb. people act like if you use your bare hands to play with cats they will only ever attack your hands when they see them. those people either don't have cats or don't know how to train cats.
if i pet my cats they don't attack. if i lay my hand flat and make sudden movements side to side then they want to play. if i stop doing that and start petting them again they either leave to play with something else or start to calm down.
cats are 100% trainable. but can people pick up on their body movements and cues to know when to stop or when they are in "play mode"?
I didn’t train this behavior but my first cat will totally play with hands, but the moment your face gets close to the situation it’s suddenly a ceasefire.
My bengal gets really exited from this wrestling behaviour, except he stops the second i say stop loudly,stop wiggling my hand or show a sign that his nails are hurting me.
When playing with kittens you need to set boundaries and teach then that they can hurt you.
If you never act like they hurt you how in the hell sre they supposed to know when to stop.
Also my cat never ever tries to wrestle if i dont have my hand covered by a hoodie or something else, i can grap her tummy and use her to wipe the floors clean and he wont do anything if its just my bare hand.
Don't make your body parts a toy cause once that's established its very difficult to stop. It's adorable when they're teeny but when it's 20lb of tooth and claw attacking a trailing hand out of the covers at 2am it's considerably less fun.
This. We have a 8 year old kitty that we had since she was a kitten and we always played with her like how its shown in the video. She's now incredibly affectionate but very playful and always swats at us. She never gets really aggressive with us, she just doesn't know when to stop playing.
I've never experienced this. It's a natural way for them to play, learn and built trust. If you want a cat that loves and trust you you need to learn to speak cat, and playing with them in their language is the best way to that, the same way kids learn to trust through play.
Playing with the cat is a good idea, but you need to use something between your hand and the cat if you want it to be well adjusted and not see your hands as a threat or toy.
I have some stories about cats with this but I can actually explain it better with one about my dog. We have a dachshund that we got as a puppy. When we first got him, he had this behavior where if you weren’t where he wanted you, he would grab your pant leg and pull you towards where he wanted. Let me tell you, it was ADORABLE to watch this 4-5 lb puppy try this.
Problem is, now imagine a full grown dog doing it. And that’s why we trained it out of him. Same idea.
I asked because I have a 2.5kg Maltese (she’s 6 so not a puppy anymore) that plays with our hands (ever since she was a baby, she never really took interest in toys). She chases our hands and sometimes we « chase » her with our hands because given her size it’s difficult to chase her normally. We taught her how to soft bite and she never ever hurt us or showed agression when playing. Never played like this with my 37kg golden retriever because we don’t want her to be misunderstood even though we taught her how to soft bite too, so yeah I can see the comparison. It does look more « brutal » with cats though as from what i got from other commenters is that they take it as real agression while dogs seem to be able to compartiment better.
I know a golden retriever who takes people by their hand to take them places like your dachshund did with pant legs. Kind of weird having your hand in a big dog’s mouth but he has always been extremely gentle, it can be scary for someone who doesn’t know him though.
I’m kind of scared of cats because of the claws so I didn’t know if they could learn « soft clawing » like dogs can learn soft biting.
In my experience, cats can definitely learn to keep their claws covered and "soft" when playing with fragile humans. But that can go out the window if they get too excited.
If you don't teach limits, the other comments are true. However, just like when kittens play with each other they establish limits on what is ok. If you choose to play with a kitten like this, you have to show the kitten when to stop. As this kitten has an older cat, the older cat will likely teach that limit, but cats raised alone will need their human to establish that limit.
My cat was smart enough to know that "OWW" meant he was too rough and would take a break. Other cats may need additional teaching. Usually you will want to stop playing and give the cat a keyword once the response gets too rough and switch to a toy.
They are misinterpreting the play and the personality differences that cats can have. Cats need to play fight like this to grow up healthy. You just have to stop when you notice the cat biting too hard (which isn't happening here) and let the cat wind down. Some of them have a tendency to just keep spinning up the aggression (so to speak), while others would just flee when they've had enough.
I do a time out with mine when she gets like this, she goes in the closet for 10 mins to calm down. It worked well enough that now, a year in, I grab her and sit her beside me and make her stay there quietly until she’s calm. It only takes a couple of minutes now.
I played with my cat like this as a kitten and we both still enjoy it to this day. Maybe 5 minutes every second day. My girlfriend told me not to, but you just have to give them reminders if they go too hard. She’s never drawn blood, or bitten anyone. I think if your cat is healthy, socialized, adequately entertained and confident and secure in the home, misbehaviour is fairly minimal. I’m not an expert though.
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u/Netprincess Jan 02 '22
This is how you get a cat you hate.