Many people usually have fun playing gross games with the cat. They play with their hands, provoking the cat and making it rage, especially if the cat is small.
As much as we say that it is counterproductive to play with our hands with the cat, people continue to do so, and this generates problems later in the cat when he is an adult. It is more important than it seems.
When the cat goes from month to two months of age, it goes through a very important learning phase: self-control and the intensity of the bite. This is usually learned through games with his brothers and his mother, so it is ideal that the kitten live with his family until two and a half months of age or with other cats to teach him. If the kitten does not spend that age with his cat family, and instead it happens with us, we must be careful and try to teach it to us. And we are doing just the opposite. In this phase, when playing with the cat with his hands, we are teaching him two things: that our body is prey (let's not forget that the cat is a hunting animal), and that it can bite and scratch everything it wants (since small the kitten hardly hurt). It is provoked with our hands and it is made to rage so that it bites harder, which is just the opposite of what it must learn. It is also often played to provoke him with his feet.
What happens when the cat is an adult? That has no self control They tend to become cats that bite very hard, that rush on us in a hurry and they bite us (you've taught them to you), that they have no measure when it comes to biting or control when it's a game, they get frustrated. Then people call me telling me that he has an aggressive cat, that he barely gets touched because he bites, that he "attacks" him while walking through the corridors of the house, that he is sitting quietly and the cat comes and bites him, and with two questions already I get to the origin of the problem, and this is it. All these inappropriate behaviors are usually derived by a great mistake of ours when teaching him, or because he has lacked this learning at the appropriate age. But it's never late.
If for any reason the kitten can not be with other cats during the month at two months of age, we can teach him, with very easy guidelines to perform:
- Of course, never play with the cat with our hands or feet.
- Causing the cat to play with toys, especially those with a long rope or fishing rod, with which the cat can not access our hands while we play with it. A small cat and until he is an adult needs a lot of activity.
- If he bites us, we should not move his hand (if the prey moves, he bites harder) and we should scream, showing him that he is hurting us. This is done by his kitten brothers when they play between them: one bites, the other squeals, so the one who is biting to bite and let go of his brother, like this again and again. When he releases us, we must calmly withdraw his hand or foot and divert his attention to another type of game like the ones we mentioned earlier. This shriek should only be made when it comes to a game, never if a cat is attacking us for another reason.
It is necessary to respect the vital space of the cat and not overwhelm him when he does not want to be caressed or held in his arms. When it demands activity, it must be given, when it is time for rest, then we can caress it.
Only this way we will achieve that our cat is balanced, we do not provoke behavioral problems, which then unfairly pay them, because these cats end up abandoned or sacrificed, saying their owners are "aggressive".
