4 month old kitten aggression when you pet her the wrong way... help!
Long story, but I am a grad student and my parents recently adopted/are fostering a 4 month old kitten that I will then adopt next summer when I move to a new apartment. She was a nervous kitten, since there were a lot of other animal noises at the shelter, but when we met her, she'd come up and curl up in our arms, so we could comfort her. She'd let us carry her, and I even had her on her back between my legs, with her stomach fully exposed! We thought she'd be fine with anything cuddle-wise! Now, my parents have had her for a week and I just went home this weekend to visit her.
It sounds like she's been adjusting pretty well to their house (a couple accidents, but no big deal). The issue is, now she sometimes likes being held and sitting on your lap and gets really cuddly like before, but then out of nowhere she get really mad and can bite and try to scratch. It sometimes happens when you get closer to her back/stomach, but when she's in a mood, it can even just be when you pet her head. It's definitely different than my friend's kitten's "play biting", as this seems to be more with the intention to hurt you, and she also has hissed a few times.
It's strange because then a couple minutes later she will walk up and curl up on your lap like nothing happened. It's putting us a bit on edge, since she is totally fine with petting at one moment and then at a different time, may try to take your hand off! How do we teach her that this biting behavior is not ok? My SO tried to restrain her once when she did it (just held her down so she couldn't bite, but didn't hurt her), but it only made her more mad. I'd rather go the positive reinforcement route, but will allowing her to do this now, just enforce that it is ok long term?
Is it better to keep trying to pet her everywhere while she is young, so she gets used to it? Or should we just ignore all areas that make her mad?
Will this behavior go away? I often read that biting will go away, but that seems more in regards to "play biting"/teething, not this kind of random aggression.
(As a side note, we are hoping to introduce her next year to our two rabbits, so we've put soft paws on her that she is tolerating well. But would you be concerned about her mouth-y aggression being a danger to the rabbits? Or is it all a phase?)
My parents and I had cats in the past, but none that were under a year old. Help!
Submitted October 29, 2017 at 05:19PM by swimmergirl3211
via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/cat/comments/79jxdb/4_month_old_kitten_aggression_when_you_pet_her/?utm_source=ifttt
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