Male Cat Behavior...

Question
Hi...I'm totally frustrated with my male cat, Louie.  I got Louie and Lexxie (his (sister) litter mate) from a no-kill pet rescue when they were approximately 9 weeks old.  They are now 5 years old. They are tabby cats...Lexxie is a 11lb beautiful silver grey and Louie is a 18lb beautiful black/grey/brown tabby with unbelievable true tabby markings.  I was told when I adopted these two kittens that the male species tends to be more affectionate than the female.  Lexxie is very affectionate and sweet and not jealous and just a joy to be around.  Louie on the other hand is quite aggressive at times, not very affectionate, and is jealous when I'm on the computer.  He overeats and then promptly throws it up and looks at me as if to say, I did that because you made me mad!  He chews things like a puppy would...paper, magazines, furniture, pillows, etc.  You name it and his teeth marks are on it.  If he doesn't get his way, i.e., enough attention he will walk away and then pounce on me and bite me.  He usually draws blood.  He will actually bite me in the middle of the night as if to tell me, get up and pay attention to me.  On the weekends, I could sit all day on the couch and Lexxie will lay to the right of me and sleep and be content.  Louie will lie on the back of the couch and sleep all day but the minute I get up and turn on the computer he starts meowing loudly and at some point will bite me.  I'm at my wits end with him.  I take extra time to play with him (which he will only tolerate a small amount of), pet him, brush him and he still is very aggressive.  Please help!

Answer
Judy,

I am not sure how long Louie's aggressive behavior has gone on.  Is this aggressive behavior relatively recent development or has it been going on for years?

If it is fairly recent, there may be a physical cause of this behavior. In this case a visit to the vet may be warranted to see what is going on.

If it has been going on for a long time, Louie has never been properly socialized for human contact.  At age 5, I am not sure this can easily be corrected.  If you saw how little kittens play with each other and their mama they are incredibly rough engaging in lots of scratching and biting.  Cat skin is incredibly tough, so none of this scratching and biting activity really hurts them, it is how they play.  Kittens need to learn to be gentle with us soft skinned humans.  What we do is to carry the kittens, speak softly to them, and stroke them.  If they start the biting and scratching behavior, the ga,e is over, we put them down, and walk away.  This has been effective for little kittens.  I am not sure this behavior mod will work with Louie.  However, you might go to Karen Pryor's website:

 www.clickertraining.com

Clicker training is a very successful training technique which works for cats, dogs and other species.  You should go to the web site and see what you think.

Also, I think you are anthropomorphizing Louie's motives.  I think Louie is trying to show affection, but in a way that is acceptible to other cats, but not humans.  He is really playing, although, that is not what it feels like to us.

Since these kittens were obtained at the tender age of 9 weeks, they had barely been weaned when you got them.  It is not unusual for kittens who are rehomed at a very early age to develop bad chewing habits.  On the other hand, have you ever had his teeth checked?


Good luck & best regards... Norm.