Cat aggression is one of the risks of taking care of cats. In fact, pet owners may experience being attacked by their feline friend without even knowing the reason why. Knowing this, I will be answering why cats attack their owners as well as other people around them. You will also learn how to prevent your cat from doing this deeper in this article.
The Reasons Why Your Cat Attack You
Being Playful
Cats are naturally playful. They spend up to 80-percent of their entire day asleep and when they are awake, expect hours of entertainment. The soft paws scratching at you is not an attack. In fact, your feline friend is asking you to play with it.
Seeking Attention
When your cat wants your attention, expect your cat to pounce on you while making calls or watching TV. So, give your pet some attention when it is asking for it.
Redirected Aggression
Another possible reason for your cat attacking you is redirected aggression. Sometimes, your cat feels angry or scared because of some situations and then you interrupt them. As a result, it may show aggression through lashing at you.
Most cats do this when they are watching over other animals outside the window or children disturb them.
Fear-biting
Cats who are fearful will usually attack as a defensive reaction when they can’t escape or they have no place to seek security. To avoid attacks, introduce your cat slowly in scary situations to help it become familiar to this kind of environment.
Mating Behavior
Some pet owners choose to desex their felines. However, the instinctive sexual behavior of cats still remains. Male cats will naturally use their mouths and paws to keep a female cat still when mating to prevent themselves from becoming injured. Meanwhile, cats fight back to the mating by using their claws and jaws.
Cats do the same when we stroke and hold them, leading to sudden attacks.
Medical Reasons
If your feline friend is not usually aggressive or playful, its attack may be a sign that it is suffering from a medical condition. Consider sending your pet to a veterinarian to determine the main reasons behind its attacks.
The Dangers Of Cat Aggression
Unfortunately, cats are mostly subjected to aggression, resulting in their urgent trip to a behaviorist. Cat’s sudden aggression is undeniably scary. It is also a frustrating detriment for most pet owners who are afraid of the unpredictable nature of cats and the damage that its attack can impose.
Aside from the pain of cat scratches and bites, cats that are under the state of aggression may also transmit diseases from these attacks. Some of the health conditions that it can bring include scratch fever as well as a serious bacterial infection. Therefore, cat aggression is no joke.
How To Tell A Cat Aggression?
Most pet owners report that cat attacks are unpredictable. But, you can tell if the cat that attacked you is under aggression or not from the position of its body before doing the attack. You can use its postures as a clue to determine the trigger for your cat’s aggressive behavior. Also, take it as a warning signal to avoid your cat’s attacks.
Here are the two stances that a cat does along with their possible meaning:
Defensive Postures
When a cat is making its defensive postures, you can observe that it is making itself smaller. Aside from that, it also tends to be in a protective stance to prevent other cats, animals, and people from targeting them. Some of the postures under the defensive cat postures include crouching, turning away from the person, flattened ears, raised hackles, hissing, swatting at you, or tucked head.
Most often, a defensive cat is experiencing anxiety or fear with its current situation. It may be or may not be obvious to you, but cats can also be fearful when they don’t feel secure or comfortable in their environment, especially to other living creatures around them.
The dangerous thing is that you can receive the aggressive attack of your feline friend even if you are not the cause of its anxiety. For this reason, you have to be more aware of your cat’s behavior when playing with them.
Offensive Postures
Cats also make offensive postures. These kinds of stances often make the cat look bigger and intimidating. If you find your cat has stiffened legs, raised hackles, upright ears, stiff tail, it is growling, moving towards you, and staring at you, keep your red flags up because these are signs of aggression.
It is better if you avoid your cat when it displays such postures because it might impose a damaging attack on you. When a cat is on its attack mode, it can move fast and with have superior strength for its moves. The worst thing that may happen is the extensive damage that it can quickly impose onto you.
You can’t be too confident around an aggressive cat. Since it can use all its paws and its mouth to scratch and bite you multiple times in one go. Cats are known for their agility and reflexes when it comes to hunting and protecting themselves so you better be careful around an aggressive cat.
Final Say
To summarize, experiencing sudden attacks from a feline friend is a big question for most pet owners. Understanding the reason behind these attacks as well as the possible indications of such will allow owners to prevent harm for both cat and owner.
Cat attacks vary and it may result in minor to major detriments. The worse is that it can impose medical conditions on humans and it can also be a sign that a cat is suffering from a health issue as well.