Cat Behavior Problems : Five Common Causes

It can be frightening when your cat becomes aggressive. Your cat's behavior can turn on a dime. Feline aggression is often caused by five common things. We will discuss these five things as well as examine some ways that you can deal with cat behavior problems such as aggression.

It is not surprising to see aggression in cats. Most frequently you will observe cats displaying play aggression. During play aggression, you would notice your kitty using their claws or teeth to play roughly. You could easily mistake this for aggression directed to you. In reality, your cat is confusing you for a toy. One way of handling this is to always play with a toy and not your hand.

Over-stimulation is a similar problem, in which your car will start lashing out to you as a result of having become a bit too excited. This is a simple problem to deal with by simply leaving the room and letting the cat work off his excess energy by itself when it gets a bit too aggressive. The cat's behavior should quickly return to normal. This is one of the more easily treated cat behavior problems.

Most cats exhibit at least some territorial aggression. Any new person or animal entering a cat's home for the first time is likely to be subjected to it. Your cat believes that your house and all of its contents in fact belong to him. The way to avoid problems with territorial aggression is to slowly introduce the cat to your house's other people and animals, while providing it with treats while it gets to know them.

One of the more unusual cat behavior problems is redirected aggression, in which a cat feels aggressive toward another animal and in turn directs this anger toward you. Often, this problem can happen when your cat sees other cats through the window, feels threatened, but cannot lash out at them so targets you instead. To deal with this problem, place shades on your windows so kitty cannot see outside.

Finally, we should mention that some cats can become aggressive due to health problems. Any condition that causes pain, such as a bladder infection, abscess, or stomach problem, can lead to aggression because kitty cannot tell you what is wrong.