Does your cat tend to attack you when you walk by? Does it ambush you in the hallway? Or does it always end up biting you when you pet it? Don’t worry, you’re not alone and it’s possible to remedy the situation!
Here’s why your cat sometimes behaves like a tiger and what you can do to help it show more love to you and your loved ones.
Cause #1: Can bites be caused by boredom?
Symptoms of a cat that lacks stimulation
One of the main causes of repeated attacks by the family cat is the lack of independent activity for Kitty. Indeed, a cat who is bored, looking for something to do and has excess energy to spend will create activities, such as destroying furniture, scratching furniture.
If the cat is still young or has a lot of energy, a game that is similar to hunting will certainly be enjoyable. It may decide that its human’s hand or ankle would make an excellent object to chase. He will then adopt a game-like attitude: it will hide before “attacking”, the bite (or scratch) will usually be brief and rarely cause an injury (but it can still hurt!), and finally the cat will run away with his tail high. There may be many attacks during the day, depending on the cat’s energy level and the satisfaction it gets from the “activity.
It is often difficult to predict when the cat will attack, but by learning to recognize the signs, it is possible to see an attack coming and thus prevent it.
Why does my cat bite my feet?
Cats that bite out of boredom do so because it gets their human’s attention. Regardless of the area the cat chooses to bite, usually the first bite will cause us to react, often in spite of ourselves. This reaction, no matter what it is, will cause the cat to repeat what it just did, since it is getting a response, a kind of reward (yes, even a reprimand can reinforce a behavior, unfortunately!). We can’t know exactly what is going on in its head, but we can easily imagine that it will be excited that its “prey game” is moving or scr
eaming or struggling, much like a real prey. The vicious circle will then begin, and the cat will want to attack his human again to get a reaction, because for him, it is exciting!
Solutions to keep your cat busy and reduce biting
As you may have guessed, the first action to take to prevent your cat from biting you because it is bored is to make its environment as stimulating as possible to its eyes. It will not need as much to make us react to satisfy its need to play hunting. Environmental enrichment includes adding heights, such as cat trees, using interactive feeding stations, rotating toys in the cat’s environment, and anything else that allows the cat to move and grab toys.
At the same time, we should also avoid stimulating the cat with our hands or any other part of our body, at all times!