what do you do when your kitten/cat attacks?

[zech13_9_goforgold]

Our kitten is about four months old, and is nearly the size of a full-grown cat. He has times of being really aggressive, where he attacks me. He grabs onto my arm (usually) with his teeth and claws. I throw him off and give him a firm "no." If he persists, I put him in "time out" in a room away from me. I leave him alone for about five minutes and usually by then he's calmed down.

Does anyone have any other ideas of how to handle this? He's making me crazy and making my husband upset because of all the scratches on my arms.

[sonicfrost]

Chances are, your kitten will grow out of it, but in the mean time, I know how much cat scratches can sting, so I'll give you some advice that I've used in the past to discipline kitties.

Get a water spray bottle! When you see him about to attack, squirt him with the water! If you can't tell when he's going to, or aren't quick enough to get the bottle, you can still spray him with he's attached to your arm. My cats learned very quickly not to do something if it got them sprayed. Usually only a day of using it, and they understand. None of them have attacked me to that extent, but some liked to eat house plants, and I'd spray them and they learned not to eat the plant. Same goes for clawing the couch.

Do you play with your kitten? Might be a stupid question, but if you have him chase your fingers in play, he might be just trying to up you one and go after your whole arm. If you do, I'd stop and replace my fingers with one of those "fishing pole" type of toys that have a little stuffed fish or whatever on the end of a string. Some come catnip scented and others have bells on them.

[honey-lilac]

I grab by the scruff of the neck (not too hard, just enough to get the point across), give a firm shake (again, not enough to get shaken kitty syndrome) and say "no" firmly. Then I try to hold him down and do some heavy kitty petting with a soothing voice. Seven times out of ten this will result in them calming down and licking themselves a few times and going off to play with something. If he won't calm down, however, he will do a kitty time out.

[zech13_9_goforgold]

Thanks. We use water for other things, but haven't tried it for that yet. I don't let him play with my hands/fingers normally, just toys (string, balls, bennie babies). I wonder if he's going through puberty. He almost acts like he's getting hormone bursts and doesn't know what to do with them. My husband thinks I'm silly.

The water thing is kind of funny, since the cat jumped into the shower with me today. He doesn't mind being wet, but he does hate getting wet.

I've also noticed that the attack tendancy comes right before "nap time." He usually attacks me, gets sent away for a while, then curls up and goes to sleep.

Thanks for your advice.