Cat biting and attacking

Question
I have a one year old un-neutered male cat that keeps attacking everybody in the house.  He has left sever bite marks on everybody that lives in our house.  He has even bit and scratched guests.  The first time this happened I thought my daughter had aggravated him somehow.  But then he kept happening and yesterday he attacked my boyfriend.  Last weekend my 10 year daughter was on the coach sleeping and the cat jumped up on her arm biting and scratching her, what a way to wake up.  Help everybody is feed up with him and they want me to give him away.  Also we have an eight year old spayed female that stays out on the back porch just to stay away from him.  He is always tormenting her by jumping on her and biting her and chasing her around.  Help I don't know what to do with him????

Answer
Sherry,

The first thing to do is get him neutered ASAP!

He may have what is called Redirected Aggression. That happens when a cat sees a strange cat outside and  becomes territorial, but can't get to the strange cat to defend his territory. The cat then turns on the closest animal member of the family and fights with them as if they were the other cat. They have been known to attack people if no other animals are in the house. You may not see the animal that the cat sees.

The first thing you need to do is block the window past the cat's eye level of the window he can see another cat out of (out of sight, out of mind). If it is allowed to go on your cat may develop a permanent personality change. Also put the cat in a room by itself for at least 4 hours to calm down when he behaves like that.

There is a very popular cat calming spray and plug-in you can use called Feliway. It is available at pet stores or on-line. It copies relaxing pheromones that cats produce from rubbing their faces on things.

There is also a calming product that you can add to the cat's food or water that reduces anxiety called Bach's Rescue Remedy. It is available on-line and in health food stores. Here is a link about it: (copy and paste, or type the whole links into your address bar) http://www.bachflower.com/Pets.htm

If your cat is still being very stressed the vet can put him on "kitty Prozac" for a short term (usually 2 weeks) until he calms down. You may want to speak to the vet about it.

I am including links to 2 good articles on Redirected Aggression that may be helpful to you:
(copy and paste, or type, the whole link into your address bar)

http://www.catsinternational.org/articles/aggression_to_people/redir_to_humans.h...

http://www.sniksnak.com/cathealth/aggression3.html

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?action=library&act=show&item=redirectedagr...

But first make sure it's not a medical issue causing the behavior. Whenever a cat changes his behavior noticeably you should take him to the vet for a checkup. Pain from ear problems, tooth problems, etc. can cause aggression.

Tabbi