The Cats Body Language and Its Ears
• If the ears on each side are down like an o-shape and the pupils of the eyes are small, this will mean the cat is playful and intrigued.
• If both ears are pulled back and low, the cat is getting angry and will be ready to fight.
• If you see one ear to the side and the other pushed in front, this is its calm-but-waiting stance.
• If both the cat's ears are pointing ahead, it will be alert to a disturbing noise.
Body Language- The Eyes
• Small pupils- in a playful mood
• Extremely small pupils- in a nasty streak
Body Language- The Whiskers
• When a cat is on edge, the whiskers move in the direction of the ears.
Body Language- The Legs, Head, and Body
Legs:
• When the cat is stressed, the front legs will be followed by the back legs in a stuttering manner.
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Head:
• If you see the cat with its head in a lowered position, it's ready to pounce or give up.
Arched body:
• Look out, the cat is ready to battle and defend itself.
Feline Aggression
There are different aggression factors that will be common in cats that are playful as well as cats that are aggressive, so let's try to combat them together. By nature, cats are instinct-based predators and will never ever change. It is the nature of the animal, in it's breeding, and it can't be changed.
The cat was created to have pointed claws and sharp teeth for a reason- to attack prey and defend themselves. All cats will pounce and stalk.
You will find some cats will attack the owner's feet, even when their owners are asleep, as well as small animals like mice, rats, or birds. Cats love to wander, pounce on anything that moves, or chase small objects that they can pretend to be prey. You will see this in many small kittens in their early years of training. You will also find that a lot of older cats will hunt in a playful way.
Kittens start to learn the rules of whats right and whats wrong up to 13 weeks old. While they will often play and fight each other, the limit of biting and scratching will be learned quickly. When it gets too rough with the little ones you will see them bite back to stop other kittens from getting on top. These skills may be used to attack their owners. However, the kitten won't see that they are misbehaving because it will feel natural.
What Are the Signs?
You will see in the cat's body language when it's play is aggressive. You may see them crouch, put their ears in a flat position, their pupils dilate, or their tail moving from side to side as they stand aggressively. They may be ready to pounce on the owner. Before doing so, their backside may swivel to show playfulness.
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What's the Solution?
You should stop the kitten from getting into a routine of stalking you. When you notice the kitten's body language, distract it with a ball or a toy. A string hanging off a stick, like a fishing rod, can be pulled along the floor to get the kitten to chase it.
Don’t let the kitten jump on you. If you start to run or make sharp movements, this will encourage it even more to fight back. Don’t allow hand play because you will only teach the kitten to stalk as they think you are playing with them.
Don’t allow any rough play between the kitten and a human at all. This includes members of your family. If this happens, play dead when the kitten attacks you and don’t make a move, this will get the kitten to lose interest in you and walk off. When this happens, grab a toy for the kitten to play with.
When you stroke your kitten and they just bite you, raise your finger and say a firm “no!” Walk away and ignore the kitten completely. The kitten will know that they have done wrong.
If this won't work, rattle a jar or container. This may encourage the kitten to stop. Caution: doing this too loudly may make the kitten jumpy and on edge. I’ve never had to resort to this method as the calmer method has always worked better.
Do not get into the habit of punishing your kitten. Try to show good play at all times. Encourage it with verbal tones; telling it “you're a good boy, yes you are...” or something similar.
Hissing at the kitten with your mouth works if its a girl. Making a noise to a distract from the kitten to stop what its doing. It may back off and sulk for a while but it will remember what it did wrong.
Some folk may suggest that you should do things the old way: placing your cat or kitten into an empty room for punishment. If this works, great! However, this can mentally disturb the cat or kitten, often resulting in anxiety problems.
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Aggression Based On Territory
Cats are one animal which will always guard their territory. They are even more interested in guarding their territory than dogs.
Cats will hunt in their own territory and not any further. Cats can be seen as indoor or outdoor cats. The aggression based on territory mainly starts when they reach 18 months old. You may find the territorial aggression in kittens also.
Cats that are seen as outdoor cats will be very territorial to the boundaries of the home. If they spot another cat, dog, a bird, or other animal in their territory, they will get very upset. In this case, your kitten or cat may take its aggression out on their owners or other pets. This same thing can occur with indoor cats.
What Are the Signs?
When aggression is due to territory, kitten and cats can hiss, spit, and start to growl in warning to other animals. It's been known that cat owners can be attacked by their own cat. Normally, in this situation the cat will only attack the hind quarters of the other cat. Open wounds can occur on legs and tail of the more submissive cat, on the face, nose and neck area of the aggressor.
The aggression is different when it comes to indoor cats. Cat households can feel at ease with several cats sharing each other's territories at different times of the day. This routine can be upset by a number of things: when the cat owner starts moving furniture about, adding a new sofa in a room, or moving cat trees. Adding a new cat or kitten to a household will also upset the apple cart.
It will be more difficult spotting this in the home, an aggressive and more forward cat will guard favored places and objects by growling or showing an intent to threaten or attack the other cat or person.
Territory-based aggression can be spotted when a cat gets stressed a lot. You can spot this by cats walking round with toys in their mouth or spraying urine to mark their territory.
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What’s the Solution?
Any household with more than one cat will need a litter tray for each feline, as well as a spare one. Each needs to be placed in a different area of the home. Cats will not want to share food or water dishes or feeding areas. Every cat will need its own food and water bowl plus its own eating space.
Make sure all your cats have their own territory to relax by placing baskets behind sofas, under a table, under radiators, on top of or under beds.
Use color-coded toys: red toys for one cat, blue for another, and so on. Only play with the right colored toy with the correct cat. Never mix them up. Allow cats to have access high up areas like cabinets and shelves.
If you bring a new cat to a home, keep it in one room to begin. Don’t stop the other cats attempts to smell under the door. Spend as much time as you can with the new cat and let the older cats to get used to the scent of the new cat on your clothes.
After some time, make the new cat's area larger and place the old cat to sleep in a different room. Put the new cat in another room and make sure the doors are closed, allowing the new cat to smell this area and where the old cat has been.
Then, change the cats over and allow the older cat into the new cat's room.
Don’t kid yourself if you think that placing a new cat straight into your home and expect things to be perfect. A slow introduction period must be done first and will require plenty of patience.
Stop Aggression Against Humans
When stroked and socialized with other cats and humans, kittens between 5
and 13 weeks of age can be fearful, shy, wary of new people, easily frightened and upset. A frightened can can be mistaken as an aggressive cat, but usually is just frightened and not an aggressive cat at all.
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How to Spot the Signs
When cats get frightened and uptight. they will lay their ears back and crouch the tail and roll inward. They turn their bodies away from the threat. If needed, they will lash out and claw or bite anything that comes near them.
The cat will show you how it's feeling by the way it walks. If the cat has a ridged upright tail it may be showing fear.
This behavior often occurs in a new surrounding or if someone is a stranger to them. The cat will show its anger before he attacks by hissing and showing their teeth. The cat's fur will stand up their back and they will raise their tail up vertically.
Whats the Solution?
Handling a kitten at a very young age is very important to help it socialize with other cats and humans. Practice touching them from an early age until it gets content and relaxed.
Once a cat starts purring you give it a favorite healthy treat on the floor by you.
Once the cat starts to eat the treat, stroke it on the head and cheeks. Don’t jump or move in a sharp manner. Slowly rub the cats back and tail while talking to the cat.
Watch for the signs of agitation from the cat. Once it stops purring or the tail starts to make slow movements, stop what you are doing and leave the cat alone to relax again. Once the kitten allows you to stroke them again, give them treats. This will feel natural to the cat and the cat with warm up to you and be calm.
Allow your kitten to be stroked by different people of different races, builds, sizes, both young and old. Socializing will help to get the kitten used to remaining calm around different people.
It can be harder to solve fear-based aggression in older cats, but with patience and time it can be accomplished. Older cats have built fear into their personality.
If an older cat has fear-based aggression don’t ever approach it. The cat terms always come first, so allow the cat to approach you. Reward the cat by giving treats when it approaches you. Encourage the cat to do so again without fear. Small steps are needed when the cat approaches you. Slowly raise your hand towards the cat so it can get used to your smell.
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The cat will allow you to stroke it if you give it treats. It will learn to trust you.
Encourage it to come to you. Don’t push your luck, if the cat is showing signs of hostility or agitation, stop what you were doing and let the cat begin relaxing again.
Redirected Aggression
This will happen when the cat smells a strange animal or person in his territory that it isn’t used to. This intrusion will upset the cat and the cat will take it out on the owner instead of the predator. If it has not occurred before, this can break the bond between the owner and the cat.
How to Deal with This
Find out how this happened and put a stop to it straight away. If it's stray or neighbor's cat, shut the blinds so your cat can't see it. If the cat turns on you, leave the cat to calm down. Never shout or be nasty to the cat. Don’t punish the cat, it will only make things worse towards you. Once the cat is calm, reward it with treats and play. Make it feel wanted.
Stop the Bite When You Stroke It
Has your cat appeared happy for you to stroke it, before turning around and biting you? Does the cat purr, pretending to be friendly, then bite you? The cat will forget about being nice. With its short attention span, the cat is warning you by biting you. If you go too far, what's pleasurable can turn into what's annoying. If you touch a sensitive part of its body, a cat may dig their teeth into you. Often, five minutes before they were more than happy with a bit of play.
Whats the Solution?
If you are holding or stroking your cat, release the cat at the first sign that your cat has had enough. How do you know that it's telling you its had enough stroking?
Some signs of getting close to your cats tolerance may be restlessness, tail twitching, flattened ears, twitching ears, or a tendency to move its head toward your hand. You can attempt to desensitize these types of cats by feeding them a treat just before you think they might attack then moving away.
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Territory Dominance Relating to Aggression
You may find that some cats may treat their owner like another cat and attempt to rule them. The cat may growl, hiss or spit when you join them on the sofa or attempt to move them. They will try to block your way and show signs of aggression such as tail wiggling, dilated pupils, low ears, and hissing and spitting.
Whats the Solution?
Ignore the cat. Do not give in or show him any attention. Stop all treats and stroking until the cat has calmed down. No contact is a good solution to this aggression. Don't give in. Keep denying the cat treats when it's being aggressive.
This will teach the cat to not bully you when it wants food.
Non-recognition Aggression
This is normal in a multi-cat household if you take one of the cats to the vet.
The rest of cats normally show some kind of aggression to the cat that has been to the vet. This is because it has returned home with a different scent. The cats that remained at home do not recognize the unfamiliar smell, so they think that a new cat is intruding into their territory.
Whats the Solution?
When you take one of the cats to the vet, place all the cats in different carriers.
Once you return home, place the cats side by side in the carriers for an hour. Give each cat a bowl of the same food and let them out once they finish. Give them no contact again, this will help the cats get used to any strange scents.
Medical-based Aggression
You may find that your cat doesn't fit into any of the above categories. They may growl and hiss when you leave them outside, give them food, or just touch certain parts of their body. If this happens, go to the vet's office immediately so the cat can to be checked out. The cat may be ill. However, cats are strong creatures and often don’t show any pain. Get the vet to do a thorough check on the cat and an x-ray to rule out any health problems.
Cats with a high fever often show signs of aggression and irritable behavior. It can also be due to their diet.
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Some kind of foods are made with grains that, in rare instances, can cause different behavior problems. Check with your vet.
Also, don’t be alarmed, but some cat aggression can not be fixed. It is purely in the genes that they have inherited. This is also rare, but it can happen.
Cat Soiling Problems
Did you know that placing a new litter tray in the home can cause major issues?
Cats hate change. Cats are very picky when it comes to where they do their business. The dislike when it smells. The feeling on their feet and how quick their urine gets absorbed is an important issue for the cat.
Even if the cat is doing well with scented litter, don’t use it, a lot of cats won't like anything that is not real. The scent of perfume or flowers may be good smell to you, but the pleasant aroma of the litter won't make any difference if your sofa smells like wee!
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