We adopted a rescue cat four days ago from a local shelter. He is five years old, male, desexed and healthy. He had been returned to the shelter already twice - once because it turned out he didn't get on with other cats (not a problem for us as we don't have any) and once because he attacked someone while they were sleeping. That was obviously concerning, but we thought he deserved a chance.
The first day we had him, he was nuzzling my face and then bit my chin. Hard. He didn't break the skin, but it really hurt. He also bit my hand when I tried to push him away. Later, he bit my wrist when I was patting him - and he did break the skin. He also bit my husband at a different time. Each time he did this, he was purring and seemed content. He is extremely affectionate - he loves being on our laps, loves in particular nuzzling our faces with his face, and purrs a lot. He's super happy nestled in our arms while he sleeps.
We have quickly learned he doesn't like to be touched on his sides, which is fine and we have avoided those areas. We only stroke him for short bursts so not to over-stimulate him. We play with him a lot (with toys, never with our hands) and got him a scratching post, which he uses. The problem is, there is seemingly no warning before he attacks - and he attacks HARD. This morning in bed my husband scritched the back of his head once and the cat tore into him with his claws and drew a lot of blood.
I'm at a loss as to what to do with him. When he bites, there's no warning or play biting, it's biting hard, usually hard enough to draw blood. If we want to move him off the kitchen counter or somewhere he's not supposed to be, we run the risk of getting bitten. When he does bite, we try and gently remove him, put him on the floor and walk away from him.
I personally don't think he is the right fit for us - our house is a bit odd in that there are very few doors, it's an open plan three-floor apartment and so we can't shut him out of the bedroom or anything like that. We also go away occasionally and at the moment I wouldn't feel comfortable asking anyone to catsit as he's so unpredictable and violent.
Does anyone have any tips on how we can manage him? I'm grasping at straws here but I want to try everything before we think about returning him. He has no known health issues, eats fine, uses the toilet fine, is otherwise fine. Thanks!
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/b3o1mv/cat_bitesscratches_without_warning/
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