Bad attitude Himalayan

Question
Hi there, I have an almost 7 month old male chocolate point Himalayan with an attitude. It seems like he's always on attack mode. He likes to bite. He doesn't scratch at the furniture or anything, he is good in that way. It seems like at night time he is most active, keeping me up until 3am wanting to play, but sometimes he will sleep during the night. I am thinking about getting him nuetered. Will that calm him down at all, is this just a faise that he's going through, or is it the breed? Sorry for all the questions at once. Its just that I have a few friends with cats his age and they are not half as bad as mine...he is also anti-social towards other people, he will only go to me or my boyfriend, he will bite anyone that goes to pet him....is there a way to stop this behaivor? Thank you for your time.

Answer
Catherine,

At 7 months of age, he is going through puberty and needs to be neutered NOW!!!!!  This will help calm him down somewhat.  Some of his biting and "attack mode" comes from this.

Normally, the Himalayan is a very laid back breed!!!!!

It is also possible he was never socialized to play with humans.  Kittens play with each other incredibly roughly.  Part of this is due to the toughness of cat skin (watch a vet give a shot and you will see how tough cat skin really is).  Kittens have to learn that humans are not as tough as their siblings.  We carry our kittens around and talk to them and stroke them when they are very young. All kittens tend to love this "game".  If they begin the biting and scratching behavior, the carrying, talking, stroking game ends, they are put down and we walk away.  Eventually they learn that playing with humans only continues if they are gentle with us poor soft skinned people.  You can try that with your kitten.

Another technique you might wish to try is clicker training.  Go to Karen Pryor's web site:

http://www.clickertraining.com/home/

for more information.


As for the night games, he will outgrow this.  This is what kittens do!

Good luck and best regards... Norm.