My cat is aggressive and destructive. What can I do?

by Deborah Thornton
(Turkey)

My cat gets fed in the morning and then wants to go out. He stopped using the litter tray after about six months, although I still keep it clean and available.

He is out all day. He plays outside with other cats and chases birds, etc. He comes home in the evening, wants feeding, then goes to sleep. When we do, he won't play with toys (although he has lots) and scratching posts, but he wrecks the furniture instead.

He attacks with full claws. He races about during the night and claws everything other than the scratch posts, including attacking us.

If we move near him, he attacks with full teeth and claws. On the odd occasion he comes home during the days he's very sweet, loving, and cuddly, but not for long. After a brief cuddle, he wants to be outside again.

How can I stop the aggression and the damage? I tried the normal stimulants including feathers, fishing rods, etc. He's not interested at all.

Why is my kitten so aggressive all the time?

by Nicole Lynn
(Michigan)

My kitten Amara is 3 months old and she is already extremely aggressive. I will walk to the kitchen and she will attack my ankles all the way.

Not a playful attack either. She sometimes draws blood.

She also will be sleeping one second, then the next she is latched on to your toes or feet and again will draw blood. I am covered in scars already from her random attacks.

I googled and tried almost everything recommended to stop her. It doesn't work.

If I stop moving while she attacks my ankles, she digs harder. I push back into her, and she digs deeper.

The only thing that seems to work is almost like kicking her off. (Which I don't do.) But my boyfriend has reflexes sometimes and she ends up getting hurt.

I don't want her getting hurt and I don't want her putting scars all over my body. Help please. :(

My cat is showing unnatural aggression

by Emmalee
(Colorado, USA )

My four year old Ragdoll cat, Mocha, has been with his sister since birth. They were inseparable. Two days ago Mocha started hissing and growling at his sister.

She can't be in the same room with him or eat or drink with him around. When she hisses back he swipes at her and growls so loud.

She is afraid of him. I have no idea what has gotten into him. He even occasionally hisses at growls at me. I am terrified he is going to hurt her. I have no clue what to do.

Editor's note: I'm sorry to hear that your cats are having problems. A sudden change in behavior can often indicate a medical problem.

If Mocha were my cat, I'd take him to the vet today to find out what's wrong.

Please let us know how he comes along.

Cat aggression before meal time

by Neilbert Jala
(Philippines)

My partner and I have a cat named Samantha. We adopted her two years ago and found her on the street near to my house in Butuan City, Philippines in my hometown.

Samantha is a very sweet and playful cat. She always sleeps with us by our feet and sometimes between us so that we can hug her.

Every time she asks for food and feels ignored she always bites my foot, sometimes hard, sometimes not, but it doesn't create a wound.

She is so impatient about waiting for her food, even though I tell her, "Please wait Samantha because I am preparing your food my baby," every time I am about to feed her.

Is there anything that we can do to prevent Samantha from biting our feet while we are preparing food for her, or any way to understand why she is doing that so we can adjust ourselves to Samantha's biting behavior?

Any thoughts will be appreciated! :)

Question about cat aggression

by Gabriella
(Denmark)

Hello Cat Lovers, I have a few questions about cat aggression. This morning I sat at my PC, when I heard angry cat sounds from the bathroom (never heard such angry and loud sound before). So I ran to the bathroom to see what was going on, and I saw mother cat attack one of her kittens (at least that's what it seemed like, it all went so fast).

So I bowed down to get the kitten away and all of a sudden mother cat jumped on my face with her claws, and what happened next tears my heart apart to think of... Because I really didn't mean to do it!

As it attacked my face, I got a grip of its tail and threw it... Unfortunately it hit the radiator and was just laying there for about 10 seconds like I had broken its neck or something. It was a reflex, and it tears my heart apart to think of :( I did not know what to do, so I grabbed the kittens and closed the door to the bathroom.

About 10 minutes later, I heard the mother cat meow from the bathroom and I was happy I had not killed it! However, the kittens seem traumatized. They're scared and angry towards each other.

Mother cat is silent and will not take a treat out of my hand as she used to. I think she has some internal damage, but I am not able to go to the vet before next week. What do I look for ?

Thank you

P.S. I'm sorry for my bad English.

Neutered male cat aggressive toward new male

by Renee
(Chicago)

I recently rescued a cat that was living outside, had him vetted and neutered. I already have two female and one male cat, all of which are fixed. The new cat was neutered 2 days ago, and my male cat is showing aggression towards him (deep throated howling and growling).

He has not attacked him, but I was wondering if he is showing this aggression because the male hormones on the new cat can still be smelled by my resident cat.

I have read that these hormones can remain in the body for up to 30 days. The new male is not aggressive whatsoever, and I am surprised my resident cat is behaving this way.

Prior to this he was the most passive out of all three of my cats? Any ideas or help to make this transition smoother??!!!

How do I stop my cat from being a bully?

by Rachel

When my sister first brought her new female kitten (Diamond dust) home, my female adult cat (Misty) decided at the start that she did not like the new kitten. She ended up pushing her off the stair case and being a bully as soon as we brought the kitten home.

We didn’t even have the chance to properly introduce them. She acted hurt for a while but she finally got on her feet and started walking and acting like a normal kitten.

Later, we tried to properly reintroduce her to our adult cat the right way, but it still didn’t go so well. Now they are full grown cats and Misty still bullies Diamond and Diamond won’t fight back to defend herself. She just screams and runs away from Misty which makes Misty bully her even more.

I don’t understand why she hated her at first and why she hates her now. We also brought home Diamond’s sister and she and Misty got along fine with no problems.

Then we brought home a couple more kittens and they didn’t seem to have a problem either. It’s just Diamond and Misty. If I try to put them in the same room, I’m afraid my cat would kill her if she could.

I don’t want to re-home my cat and my sister doesn’t want to re-home hers which is very understandable. We try to keep them separated as much as possible but I want them to start getting along. How do I stop my cat from bullying Diamond?

My cats refuse to get on :(

by Izzie

I have 2 14 year old cats. They are brother and sister. They get on great. Well, when I say great, they live side by side if that makes sense.

Lucy the female, spends most of her time inside, where as Brandi the male, likes to be out all the time.

I recently introduced a 12 week old poly kitten into our group, but neither cat will even go near the new kitten. They have shown nothing but hostility towards her.

She doesn't pester them at all as she's more of a people cat, but the other 2 are constantly growling and hissing at the kitten, even though she leaves them alone.

It's even to the point that Lucy went for the kitten a few days ago. Please help. I really want them to get on with the kitten. I'm not asking for them to love her and fuss her, just not be mean. Any ideas?

Editor's note: Congratulations on your adoption! While some amount of hissing and fighting is often normal when a newcomer threatens a resident cat's territory, a slow introduction process can help smooth the way.

If you start the new kitten out in a room by herself, and then slowly introduce the cats following a proven process that has worked for others in the past, you'll be ahead of the game.

What I would do is pretend as though your new kitten has not even met Lucy and Brandi yet, and set her up in a room by herself. Then, start the introduction process.

I've already outlined this introduction process on another page, so I'm going to link to that here as that is the full answer... how to introduce a new cat.

Help with an aggressive cat

by Caroline
(Western Colorado)

I have three cats and adopted a new kitten we fostered. We did a slow introduction of the kitten to the three adult cats. It went perfectly with two. One cat, however, has been, and continues to be horribly aggressive to the kitten.

She will stalk him and attack whenever we aren't looking. We separated them and have tried different techniques for a slow introduction multiple times to no avail. I have taken advice from the animal shelter and vet and nothing seems to work.

We have tried pheromone collars and it doesn't change the behavior. We have put the kitten in a kennel for long periods of time so they can get used to each other and it hasn't changed the behavior.

All the cats are fixed. Help. I don't know what else to do.

My cat has become aggressive

by Cara
(Florida, USA)

My female cat (6 years old) has gone outside for almost half a week. She finally came back in a good condition (no physical injuries or whatnot).

We have another cat that has been with us for a long time who stood also as a parent for the female cat. My problem is my female cat is suddenly so aggressive towards him (even left him with a bloody eye).

I'm guessing it must have been trauma, but I have no idea how to soothe her. Is there anything that I could do to help my female cat?

Editor's note: I'm sorry to hear your cat is having problems. Cats are very good at hiding pain. Some cats that roam and don't return for an extended period of time may have internal injuries that don't show.

If your cat is injured, that might explain the aggression. This may be the only obvious sign she's been injured. Because she's behaving strangely after being gone, I'd recommend calling your vet to get her checked out.

Male cat aggression toward other male cat

by Mike Schnell
(Warner Springs, CA USA)

We have three male indoor cats. Squeaky is 4 years old and is our oldest. We've had him since birth. Our middle cat, Cheetah, is 1 1/2 years old and we've had him since birth. Our youngest, Remy, is 1 year old and we've had him about 9 months.

Cheetah and Squeaky get along great. Cheetah and Remy get along great. Squeaky, however, appears to hate Remy and Remy is terrified of Squeaky.

The two co-exist up to the point where Squeaky appears to "snap" and goes on a hunt for Remy. The "snapping" is usually preceded by a chirping sound from Squeaky and a laser like focus on Remy.

When he approaches Remy, Remy immediately takes a submissive posture, ears back, growling and hissing. He appears to sense that Squeaky has "snapped" and is going to attack. When he attacks, it's definitely NOT playing.

Remy screams and tries to get away, but Squeaky follows him everywhere he goes. We try to snap Squeaky out of it by clapping our hands and saying NO!

This works about 50% of the time. It's like we have to break Squeaky's focus. Half the time we need to physically intervene to keep Remy from being harmed.

Thus far, Squeaky has not injured Remy. Remy is more agile than Squeaky and can get away by climbing up high on a shelf.

Physically, Remy is about 1/2 the weight of Squeaky. Squeaky is built like a 16 pound tank.

When we got Remy, he immediately wanted to interact with our other two cats (as opposed to hiding for a few days like normal). We let the interaction happen since everyone seemed to be getting along (probably a mistake).

The attacks came a few weeks after Remy's arrival. Our gut instinct tells us that Squeaky's behavior is dominance and pecking order related.

He occasionally will aggressively play with Cheetah too, but the playing is very hard. He and Cheetah will "fun" play as well. There is a distinct difference in the two.

We have tried everything we can think of to help Squeaky accept Remy, including playing with him separately, giving him lots of individual attention, plug-in pheromone devices, etc., but nothing seems to work.

An hour after a "battle" the three of them will be sitting within a foot of each other, seemingly OK with each other's existence.

An hour later, Squeaky snaps again and we go through the whole thing again. Remy is such a loving little cat and so is Squeaky.

I wish we could find the silver bullet that fixes this problem, but so far nothing has worked... HELP!

Cat becomes aggressive around other cats

by Fatema
(UAE)

I have an 11 month old indoor female cat (Himalayan ), which may be pregnant. This is another problem on its own. She was seen outside several times mating without my knowing that she was outside, during one heat cycle.

I have several questions:

1. My cat Luna is a very active cat and gets bored very easily. She was separated from her mother since she was young (probably less than one month).

I got her from a guy when she was one-and-a-half months old. Because of that, she is not used to being with other cats, and gets thrilled when she sees a cat outside through the window. Because of that, she always tries to go outside and chase them.

You might think that that it's easy getting rid of the other cat and poof, but not for me in my village. There are tons of cats/cat families.

Some are my neighbor's, some are strays, and some are our rescued cats, which are living completely fine, they have shelters, food, and they are taken care of, so I can't get rid of them.

Every time I want to walk my cat outside, these cats are everywhere, so she runs a away from me (including the leash and harness) and chases them even if the cats are not showing any hints of aggression and competition.

After I quiet them down by raising my voice and waving my arms, I try to take my cat indoors again, not wanting this to continue.

She attacks my hand and attempts to wiggle out of my arms. By now she may seem like an aggressive cat, but she's not.

She's actually very playful and affectionate around me and acts as a normal cat, but as I told you she changes 180 after spotting a cat.

What I really want is Luna to be comfortable around cats or at least not rage, especially around my outdoor cat, which is rescued and lives in my backyard and has two babies.

2. This is my second concern. When I walk Luna outside, she's very scared or worried when I pet her and growls and runs away, because she thinks I'm trying to take her inside again.

I really want her to be comfortable when she's outside with me. I really hate getting hissed/growled at by my cat.

I feel really bad for her, but I know for her safety I can't leave her outside alone, and I really need a solution for this.

3. Third problem. My neighbor and I are really close, like really close. She owns one female cat, and four kittens (three-five months old) who are outdoor cats, but they are really affectionate and playful just like any kittens.

I really want my cat and her kittens to be friends (or at least comfortable, not being enemies), because they always chase each other.

We have attempted to make them meet, but things went wrong, which is really funny. The kittens were more dominant and scared my cat. So I also need a solution for this. :<

All cats are not neutered, and I'm planning to get Luna neutered, but I'm going to have an ultrasound first. Can we neuter a pregnant cat?

Why does my male cat aggressively lick my hand for minutes?

by Anonymous

He grabs my hand so I can't pull away. He licks for minutes at a time and sometimes starts biting. My hand can be washed or not. It doesn't matter.