What Can You Do About Cat Biting?
It's highly unusual for cats to bite. It is their first instinctive defensive reaction to swipe with their claws instead of biting. Even declawed cats will first threaten with their paws and do a lot of swatting rather than bite. When a cat resorts to biting, that usually means the cat is under an incredible amount of stress or has a physical problem. Granted, there is that odd cat in a thousand who uses cat biting as their preferred method of intimidation. And some cats are just plain mental. But there is always hope for living with cats with a cat biting problem.
What Are You Doing Wrong?
It's usually your fault when a cat bites you. Cats don't think to themselves, "What am I going to do today? I know - I'll walk around biting the living daylights out of everyone I meet." They bite only out of self-defense. If they are ill and don't want to be bothered and you try to pet them anyway, don't be surprised when the fangs sink into your flesh. It's what you deserve.
If you have to work with a cat and you know the cat will get mad, equip yourself accordingly. Wear gardening gloves, wrap the cat in a towel, wear eye protection, that sort of thing. For example, we had a cat who hated going to the vet. She would always know whenever she was going to the vet, even before anyone said anything.
Our gentle kitty would turn tiger and run whenever she somehow figured out that she was going to the vet. We expected a cat biting problem when she was finally corralled and wrapped in a towel. We didn't hold the cat biting behavior against Melanie -she was just defending herself from the Evil Vet.
Also, never walk up to a cat you don't know and expect the cat not to scratch or bite you. You are a huge looming powerful giant in the eyes of the cat. Don't corner this cat, don't touch this cat, leave this cat alone. Let the cat come to you and make the first overtures of friendship. Otherwise, you are setting yourself up for a perfect cat biting opportunity.
Take To Vet
If a usually friendly cat suddenly turns to cat biting from out of the blue, that usually means there is a physical problem like an internal injury or arthritis that is causing the cat pain. The only other time a cat takes to biting unexpectedly is if they have been declawed for years and have finally figured out that their only defense left is their teeth.
