Problems with random attacks by our cat 'Jingles'

Dear rec.pets.cats.health+behaviour

We recently adopted a tom cat from the RSPCA in the United Kingdom whobeen
neutered, and. we believe is 5 years old.

95% of the time he is a nice cat, but for the remaining 5% of time he is a
vicious little tiger that attacks one of us for no reason. The problem is
characterised by his attacking with proper bites for no reason whatsoever.

We have tried:

Both feeding him at the same time
Alternating who does the feeding
One episode of shouting at him - seems not to have worked
Both playing with him
Alternating who plays with him
Encourging him to go outside and catch his own entertainment

We do not want to give up on a cat that we have adopted for under 2 weeks,
or start on expensive cat psychology.

The RSPCA have suggested that it is because of the windy conditions that
have lasted for a couple of days now.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Reards,


Charles

I was having similar problems with Tiger (4 1/2 year old neutered male).
I would be petting him and he would suddenly spit and take a swipe at
me. The last time he attacked me I grabbed him, put him in the carrier
and put him out on my deck. It was dark and 18 below zero (Fahrenheit).
I only left him out there for five minutes. When I brought him in, he
was one ****ed off cat. He got over it over night BUT he hasn't
attacked me since.


-MIKE

I was having similar problems with Tiger (4 1/2 year old neutered male).
I would be petting him and he would suddenly spit and take a swipe at
me. The last time he attacked me I grabbed him, put him in the carrier
and put him out on my deck. It was dark and 18 below zero (Fahrenheit).
I only left him out there for five minutes. When I brought him in, he
was one ****ed off cat. He got over it over night BUT he hasn't
attacked me since.


-MIKE

I was having similar problems with Tiger (4 1/2 year old neutered male).
I would be petting him and he would suddenly spit and take a swipe at
me. The last time he attacked me I grabbed him, put him in the carrier
and put him out on my deck. It was dark and 18 below zero (Fahrenheit).
I only left him out there for five minutes. When I brought him in, he
was one ****ed off cat. He got over it over night BUT he hasn't
attacked me since.


-MIKE

I was having similar problems with Tiger (4 1/2 year old neutered male).
I would be petting him and he would suddenly spit and take a swipe at
me. The last time he attacked me I grabbed him, put him in the carrier
and put him out on my deck. It was dark and 18 below zero (Fahrenheit).
I only left him out there for five minutes. When I brought him in, he
was one ****ed off cat. He got over it over night BUT he hasn't
attacked me since.


-MIKE

Being cruel and torturing your cat "It was dark and 18 below zero
(Fahrenheit)" is not the way to get him to stop attacking. All animals
respond better to positive reinforcement for good behavior and withdrawal of
attention (time-out in the bathroom for example) for bad behavior. It must
be done immediately after the bad behavior occurs so they can associate the
result with the behavior.
Judy F

"---MIKE---" wrote in message
...
I was having similar problems with Tiger (4 1/2 year old neutered male).
I would be petting him and he would suddenly spit and take a swipe at
me. The last time he attacked me I grabbed him, put him in the carrier
and put him out on my deck. It was dark and 18 below zero (Fahrenheit).
I only left him out there for five minutes. When I brought him in, he
was one ****ed off cat. He got over it over night BUT he hasn't
attacked me since.


-MIKE

Being cruel and torturing your cat "It was dark and 18 below zero
(Fahrenheit)" is not the way to get him to stop attacking. All animals
respond better to positive reinforcement for good behavior and withdrawal of
attention (time-out in the bathroom for example) for bad behavior. It must
be done immediately after the bad behavior occurs so they can associate the
result with the behavior.
Judy F

"---MIKE---" wrote in message
...
I was having similar problems with Tiger (4 1/2 year old neutered male).
I would be petting him and he would suddenly spit and take a swipe at
me. The last time he attacked me I grabbed him, put him in the carrier
and put him out on my deck. It was dark and 18 below zero (Fahrenheit).
I only left him out there for five minutes. When I brought him in, he
was one ****ed off cat. He got over it over night BUT he hasn't
attacked me since.


-MIKE

I was having similar problems with Tiger (4 1/2 year old neutered male).
I would be petting him and he would suddenly spit and take a swipe at
me. The last time he attacked me I grabbed him, put him in the carrier
and put him out on my deck. It was dark and 18 below zero (Fahrenheit).
I only left him out there for five minutes. When I brought him in, he
was one ****ed off cat. He got over it over night BUT he hasn't
attacked me since.


-MIKE
I agree with you that removing the cat from the situation for "time out"
works. But I either put them in the garage or bathroom. Bathroom works best
because I figured out they *like* goinng in the garage.

Sherry

I was having similar problems with Tiger (4 1/2 year old neutered male).
I would be petting him and he would suddenly spit and take a swipe at
me. The last time he attacked me I grabbed him, put him in the carrier
and put him out on my deck. It was dark and 18 below zero (Fahrenheit).
I only left him out there for five minutes. When I brought him in, he
was one ****ed off cat. He got over it over night BUT he hasn't
attacked me since.


-MIKE
I agree with you that removing the cat from the situation for "time out"
works. But I either put them in the garage or bathroom. Bathroom works best
because I figured out they *like* goinng in the garage.

Sherry

in article , ---MIKE--- at
wrote on 2/7/04 8:42 AM:

I was having similar problems with Tiger (4 1/2 year old neutered male).
I would be petting him and he would suddenly spit and take a swipe at
me. The last time he attacked me I grabbed him, put him in the carrier
and put him out on my deck. It was dark and 18 below zero (Fahrenheit).
I only left him out there for five minutes. When I brought him in, he
was one ****ed off cat. He got over it over night BUT he hasn't
attacked me since.


-MIKE


It's called over stimulation and you don't punish them for it. They have a
bit of "sensory overload" and it is up to you to watch for signals. Pearl
gets this way. I just immediately make her get down and ignore her. In
general, being consistant with this, if I miss the signals (she starts
getting a bit tense during petting and I can tell, oops enough) I just put
her down and ignore her. This behaviour has gotten MUCH better this way. The
cat cannot help it and sticking them in the freezing cold, even for five
minutes is, in my book, a VERY nasty thing to do and an over reaction. He
may have had a sore spot or something too, since you say he hasn't done it
before. In which case you punished him for being sore. Not A Good Thing.
Please rethink your training methods and do some reading on cats.

Karen