attuide

Question
I have a long haired cat but hes mean to people. Why dose my cat try to bit people when they try to pet him.Dose it have something to do with his long hair in the summer.

Answer
Emily,

If your cat is not neutered, that would be the first order of business.

If the cat has just started that biting behavior, there may be a physical problem and a visit to the vet may be warranted.

If it is only in the summer, your cat may be knotted and matted which makes him feel very uncomfortable.  This discomfort can make the cat irritable and cause the biting behavior when petted. If you are not able to get the knots and mats out, you will need to take the cat to a pet groomer and have him clipped down.

If the cat has always done this (you have not told me how old the cat is!), he was never socialized to people.  If you could ever watch how young kittens play with each other and their mama, you would see how roughly they play with lots of biting and scratching.  Cat skin is incredibly tough (watch a vet give a shot and have to punch that needle through the cat's skin), so this play biting and scratching really does not hurt other cats.  However, we humans have much softer skin and the same play biting and scratching is too much for most of us.

We socialize young kittens by carrying them around, stroking thsm, and speaking softly to them.  If they begin the biting scratching beahvior, we put the kitten down and walk away.  Kittens love the carrying, stroking, speaking softly "game", so they get the idea that biting and scratching people stops the game.  They, thus, learn to play more gently with humans.

Not knowing how old your cat is, I do not know if this will be effective.  The older the cat, the less chance this technique has to be effective.  Another technique you may try is clicker training.  This is a behavior modification technique that seems to have had much success correcting a number of beahviors in dogs and cats.  You can check out Karen Pryor's web site at:

www.clickertraining.com


If you are able to modify the cat's behavior so that he no longer bites when people pet him, I would enforce one simple rule.  No roughhousing with the cat.  If the cat begins to roughhouse, you need to get up and walk away!!!!!

Good luck & best regards... Norm.