Any cat whisperers on the site? | GTAMotorcycle.com

Any cat whisperers on the site?

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nobbie48

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My daughters cat is semi feral. It's great with her, tolerates my wife and hates me.

I lurks under a chair and swipes at me when I walk by. My daughter says not to escalate the tension but I don't like bleeding from scratches.

Elephants never forget. Cats never forgive?
 
I own 2 cats but they both love me. When I meet new cats I let them approach me at their pace.

Maybe when you're near the cat stick your hand out but in a non threatening way. If it comes close to sniff your hand that's one step closer. Or maybe lure the cat with its favorite treat. But let it come to you. Right now she doesn't trust you.

I'm no expert so if u end up bleeding to death from the scratches don't sue me.

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Some cats never get over a grudge, often for reasons you'll never determine. Sometimes it's been my experience that reminding them they are not the alpha in the house is helpful, you can determine yourself how you wish to approach that, but it may involve some bloodletting on your behalf when you get clawed some more during the "meeting of the minds", but the cat won't forget and may decide it's easier to avoid swiping at you anymore vs having another meeting. ;)

Honestly, assuming it's an indoor cat...declaw it. Then it can bat at you all it wants and it's like someone bopping you with a stuffed animal - almost funny, and totally harmless.
 
PrivatePilot said:
Some cats never get over a grudge, often for reasons you'll never determine.
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What's new, Pussycat? Whoa Whoa are we talking wimmins or actual cats?
 
PrivatePilot said:
Honestly, assuming it's an indoor cat...declaw it. Then it can bat at you all it wants and it's like someone bopping you with a stuffed animal - almost funny, and totally harmless.
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Usually this is only done when they are a kitten and not an adult. Plus, would you want your fingers and thumbs all cut off to the first knuckle? It is incredibly cruel. Cats scratch things, if someone doesn't want that and can't bother to train their cats where it is ok to scratch and where it isn't then that's their own problem. Another thing is that declawed cats that are normally aggressive anyway tend to bite a hell of a lot more when they don't have any other weapons. I'd rather be scratched than bit, personally.
 
Take over feeding it. They love the one that give them food.

Declawing is for wimps. I wouldn't ever do that to a cat. Keep their nails trimmed down.

Pet it from behind it's head so it can't bite or claw you.
 
Besides annoying you, what does it like to do for fun? Does it like to play outside or have a favourite toy? Try to bond with it somehow.
 
PrivatePilot said:
Some cats never get over a grudge, often for reasons you'll never determine. Sometimes it's been my experience that reminding them they are not the alpha in the house is helpful, you can determine yourself how you wish to approach that, but it may involve some bloodletting on your behalf when you get clawed some more during the "meeting of the minds", but the cat won't forget and may decide it's easier to avoid swiping at you anymore vs having another meeting. ;)

Honestly, assuming it's an indoor cat...declaw it. Then it can bat at you all it wants and it's like someone bopping you with a stuffed animal - almost funny, and totally harmless.
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Second strike. Bet you also want bears declawed.
 
Oh here we go.

Listen, we currently have 2 permanent rescue cats, we currently foster (currently have a mother and litter of 5) and I've had cats for close to 35 years of my life. Neither of our current cats are declawed despite being indoor cats simply because they are not destructive nor aggressive - we've had them both since kittens and there were well trained from their formative stages. Our previous cats (1 of which passed away due to kidney failure from the tainted pet food scandal years ago) and the other which died 3 years later of cancer were both declawed. There was no behavioural differences.

I've no idea where people get the information or impression that declawing changes a cat - much personal experience tells me that it makes no difference at all and the ones we had declawed really didn't seem to give two craps about the whole situation, honestly.

However, if my current cats were destructive because they were not trained properly as kittens (as commonly happens with strays, feral, or surrender cats that end up in the rescue system), or as in the case of our OP they were vicious to the point of continuous injury (with risk of spreading disease, they dig in their own crap in their litterbox after all, think about it), yeah...sorry, if other attempts to remedy the issue fail...they are either leaving my house (which doesn't seem to be an option for our OP), or getting declawed.

I would not live in my own house with an animal that continually injures me, and I don't think any of you would either if it was the situation you were placed in like our OP.
 
PrivatePilot said:
you can determine yourself how you wish to approach that, but it may involve some bloodletting on your behalf when you get clawed some more during the "meeting of the minds", but the cat won't forget and may decide it's easier to avoid swiping at you anymore vs having another meeting. ;)
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OP, put on your riding gloves and jacket and give the cat a good ol' schoolyard *** whooping...
 
For the record, the earlier suggestion to take over feeding duties is a very good idea....so long as everyone else is onboard with that and doesn't undermine your efforts - if the cat figures out it is getting fed by everyone else anyways it'll have no need nor likely desire to play nice to you as part of the feeding process and you won't make any forward progress with bonding over food.

We also dealt with a rescue approximately 6 months ago that had VERY bad food aggression...again, common in borderline feral cats captured from colony situations. It sounds like your cat is possibly in a similar situation. It was a challenging situation that I still have a few scars from but with much patience and a clear indicator to said cat that attacking was not acceptable nor rewarded, the aggression was reduced and nearly eliminated by the time she went to adoption, but it was a 3 month process.
 
One thing more. You might be better off the way you are with the cat and just ignore it. If they like you they will try and claim you by spraying you. They will also try and sleep on you. Nothing like waking up choking with a mouth full of cat hair, or trying to roll over and your legs won't move.
 
Feeding the cat as already noted. If you are the ONLY one feeding it the behaviour will change over a month or two.

Also try playing with the cat. Get one of those cat toys on the end of a stick and have some play time with the cat once a day. The play itself may seem "aggressive" but play builds trust in cats.
 
I have 3 feral cats. 2 males and a female. I've never trimmed their nails and wouldn't consider declawing them. Mine all learned the rules, know what they can and can't scratch. I also have a jack russel that knows and will enforce the rules. When the cats step out of line or start fighting, which happens every day, then the jack russel will straighten them out. If I call the cat's name, in a positive tone, they will come to me... If I call out their name in a negative tone.... the dog will bring that cat to me.
The oldest male cat hissed and clawed me once... When he did... I picked him by the scruff, lifted him to my eye level and asked what he wanted. He never did it again. If their claws start to dig into me when petting, or sitting with me, or similar... I flick their paw gently.
 
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