Hey guys. I'm in big need of some advice and I'm hoping someone can help! My fiance & I recently (about a month ago) adopted a male cat--about 1-2 years old, formerly a stray, neutered--who has ENORMOUS amounts of energy. I've owned cats that were high-energy before but nothing close to this. From the moment before he goes to sleep to the moment he wakes up, all he wants to do is play. Most people say cats need 15-30 minutes of focused playtime from their owners? Definitely not this one. It goes on and on. That isn't so much the problem as the kind of play he prefers.
He likes to attack. Feet, hands, even arms and legs. I've woken up to him biting my face before. He's not being mean--it's very obvious that he's playing. But that doesn't change the fact it hurts and we're both bloody messes! We've bought him toys, etc. but he ignores most of them because attacking our feet, etc. is his favorite.
Truth be told, I think this is very much our fault. For a while we encouraged the roughhousing and would tickle him, pick him up, or let him chase us around. But the aggressiveness in his play has escalated. He's biting harder, and scratching now as well. Even when we scream "ow!" or "no!" this doesn't deter him. I've even tried chasing him off when he's attacking me, while yelling "no!", and not even this deters him. He runs off and hides for a moment and then pounces and chases me. To the point I've had to lock my bedroom door so he can't continue. And then he just cries at the door!
Again, I know this is playing for him, and not him genuinely being mean. He likes to be around us, hang out in the same room, follow us around, etc. and he will even greet us at the door when we get home, knead on us as we sleep, etc. I know it's not that he dislikes us. He is just VERY high energy and he loves to roughhouse. But my fiance and I look like we're both victims of domestic violence! Does anyone have some advice or solution for this behavior? Any suggestions are very much appreciated. Thank you!
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/gchkxk/cat_wont_stop_playbiting_and_attacking/
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