We have a 2-1/2 old female rescued cat that will attack and bite my 9 year old daughter. The cat only attacks and bites her, no one else in the family. When my daughter walks through the house, the cat will attack her legs and when she is sitting on the floor, the cat will bite her, sometimes really hard for no reason. Can anyone explain why the cat does this? She gets a lot of exercise by chasing strings and laser lights around the house. So, why does she do this?
By Linda
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We had a cat that did this, but to everyone in the family. He acted like this when exposed to catnip.
Maybe, when you see him laying in ambush for your daughter's legs, another family member can hide and spray him with some water from a spray bottle (without him seeing you). Maybe, he will associate it with unpleasantness and will break him of this habit.
It sounds like your cat is trying to establish her spot in the pecking order. Lower than you but higher than your daughter. She has probably needed to fight for what she needed at some point in time. I use a squirt bottle for major infractions by my two cats. Basically that is being aggressive to each other. I would certainly put biting the children in that category. I would get a spray bottle that shoots a strong stream of water (not a spray mist).
Remember you have to squirt within a few seconds of the infraction for the cat to connect the punishment with the crime. I used to carry a squirt gun in my pocket. It only took a few squirts before all I needed was to raise my voice slightly to keep the peace.
My cat loves to bite, but she's not trying to hurt me & it doesn't as long as I don't draw back. But I started saying NO everytime she starts to bite & she will stop. I think she thinks they are love bites.
Spraying with water and/or sternly saying 'no' (without yelling) is a good idea to stop the behavior. I'll tell you that my Rachel gives these sort of love bites once in awhile to be playful or to get attention and it doesn't mean it as an attack. She's just trying to tell me she wants my attention.
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