Reasons a cat would randomly bite its owner?

[Bouncy Ball]

I can't believe a cat would bite its owner (and I mean hard enough to break the skin) for NO reason. There has to be *some* motivation for it, right?

But let's say you were just sitting there, minding your own business. The cat has food and water, seems to be fine. Is sleeping curled up at the other end of the couch. Gets up, stretches, seems fine. Stands there for a second or two, staring at you. Then just walks on over and bites the shit out of your arm. Hard enough, as I said, to draw blood, break the skin, and cause a bruise later.

WTF would that be about, you think?

[ScreamingMeemie]

1. He/She LOVES you...and was overcome with emotion, and had

to act on it. Merlin does this all the time, sometimes hard enough to draw blood. :hi:

[Bouncy Ball]

21. She most definitely does not love me.

She loves no one. I feed her, I'm the only one who pets her (husband and child are both horribly allergic). I pay attention to her. And what do I get? She bites the shit out of me and pukes in my shoes.

Nice. And yet somehow I know, if I were to lose her tomorrow, I'd be really sad.

Cats are SOOOO weird.

[CatWoman]

45. be thankful she isn't leaving headless birds or mice in your shoes

:D

cats ARE weird :D

[terrya]

44. That's the explanation I'm using about my cat...

Chess does that. She'll be laying on the bed, on her side, I'll be petting her and then....BITE. I'm going on the assumption that she loves me. I have to remind her NOT to bite the hand that feeds her. :-)

:hi:

[jpgray]

2. It's a cat

Having grown up around some cats, that's all the explanation I think is needed. :)

Dogs are more likely to have a comprehensible reason for their behavior.

[hfojvt]

19. Cats are crazy

They growl when they are happy and wags their tails when they are mad/agitated.

My neighbors cat used to bite me when I was hanging out with it. Never broke the skin, but I was determined to teach it to not do that.

[Pithlet]

3. My cat does that all the time.

Always has. It comes out of nowhere. He'll even be on your lap purring and then chomp! Although it's never hard enough to draw blood. But, it's damned annoying. He's a wonderful cat, otherwise. I don't think he was properly socialized as a kitten. We got him at a no kill shelter, and they told us he was dropped off by a nearby store owner who'd found him in the streets.

[ZombieNixon]

4. Your cat is my cat, perhaps?

My cat does that all the time. I think it's just because she's evil. My family is long-suffering; we love her, but I'm willing to be anyone else would have put her down years ago. She's lucky she got us.

[LeftyMom]

5. LeftyDad's late cat would do that.

In his case it was pure malice. He didn't like me for some reason.

[kittykatkoffeekup]

6. My cat bites my nose

I have learned when to stop petting him, because he will bite (hard) when he is over stimulated.

[philosophie_en_rose]

7. Because it could?

:shrug: I don't think a cat needs another reason.

On a side note, if you stroke a cat near the edges of their mouths, it will create a sucking/ chewing reflex.

[trackfan]

8. That is the way of a cat.

I have over 40 years experience with them. I know.

[Bouncy Ball]

10. She's never done it unprovoked before.

Now I'm all jumpy around her, which isn't good. She approached me from the same direction tonight and I removed her from the couch and told her "sorry, that arm's a bit tender still. Go bite the dog."

[Bouncy Ball]

9. See, I've heard of overstimulating them.

Or the cat basically saying "STOP, enough petting now, my loyal subject!"

But I wasn't even TOUCHING her. NOR was she demanding that I pet her. Just.....stared....at me. Like "I am going to chomp off a piece of her tasty arm now."

I think it's more like what ZombieNixon said--she's evil. I've always known it, but it's getting more obvious. Sometimes I wake up because she's trying to sleep across my face. She pukes in my shoes. And did I mention she's old?

I should post a picture of this bite. The cut is easily two inches across.

[ZombieNixon]

15. Our cat is also elderly (14, I think),

but she's actually mellowed out a whole lot with age...she used to be downright vicious at six or seven or thereabouts. Some cats are just like that. They love you, but they have a hella funny way of showing it!

[Bouncy Ball]

22. Opposite here. She used to be fairly mellow

but she's getting horribly ornery with age.

She's 13 or 14, rescue cat, we're not sure of exact age, but she's on up there.

[ZombieNixon]

28. I think ours finally realized that with another cat in the house,

she needs to be nice to us in order to remain in our favor and retain her alpha cat status!

[Pithlet]

16. Hmm. Has she been acting funny aside from that?

Since she doesn't normally do that, and if she hasn't been for a checkup lately, you might want to get her looked at. Maybe she's in pain. I hate to make you worry as things are probably fine, but it might be worth considering.

My cat needs no provoking, either. In fact, his favorite time to attack is when I'm lying in bed reading. That offends him, for some reason. Sometimes I'll see him out of the corner of his eye making his way stealthily towards the bed angling himself for the attack. In fact, right now, he's staring at me from the couch and his pupils are starting to dilate and his tail is swishing. I'm expecting an attack any second.

[Bouncy Ball]

24. OMG I HATE THAT.

It just freaks me out. I have to do some pre-emptive stopping of the attack. I was working on a Sudoku puzzle the other night, lying there in bed, not doing anything to her, and I could see her butt wiggling and her ears flatten out and I knew I was about to be attacked.

@#*(#*$#(@*$

Oh but to answer your question, I'm going to take her in this week. She's old, she's been puking a lot and she's lost weight. She used to be somewhat chubby and now is thin. Much thinner.

[Pithlet]

32. I hope she's okay.

Keep us updated.

It was the worst when I was pregnant. I was already sick and miserable, and very hormonal, and one night I'd had enough. So, I lay a bunch of crinkly plastic bags all around the bed, and the minute I heard it scrunch I'd shoot up with a pillow in hand and yell "Ha! I got you! Bastard!" He'd be gone before I could get a good shot, though. It stopped it for awhile, but it made me seriously worry about my future parenting skills...

[caty]

11. You have to

understand that cats are in a perpetual state of an LSD trip!!!!

[Bouncy Ball]

13. That must be....wild.

And it explains a lot about her. LOL.

What are dogs in a perpetual state of? My dog's acting freaky lately, too. She's started rubbing her back on the underside of the coffee table so hard, she lifts it up off the floor (and she's not a heavy dog). She growls while doing this. It's freaky.

[caty]

34. Sounds like she found the

key to the liqueur cabinet.:rofl:

[CornField]

12. Ear Infection?

I'm not sure about cats, but I know dogs can act really out of character if they have ear troubles. Sorry, I'm probably not much help.

[Bouncy Ball]

14. Well, you know, I actually was thinking about taking her to the vet soon.

She really does puke a bit too much lately. She's thinner. And then this biting out of nowhere.

[crispini]

17. She had a bad dream?

My cat was sound asleep once, and went from a nice fluffy cozy ball on the end of the couch to giving a meeeYOW of pure terror and flying across the room in 0.1 seconds flat. She cowered under the bed for the next hour and spat and growled and hissed at me when I tried to check her out and see what was wrong.

I think sometimes reality can be a bit tenuous when you're a cat. :shrug:

[CornField]

20. You know what that is?

Spirits.

Go ahead, laugh if you like, but I'm completely serious.

:hi:

[crispini]

23. Hm. Could be.

I hope not!

But she was a stray, so I'm sure she also has her store of bad memories to give her nightmares.

[Bouncy Ball]

26. Sorry but that last sentence made me chuckle.

[crispini]

30. Heh. As it should. :) nt

[graywarrior]

18. Because your cat hates you.

http://www.mycathatesyou.com

[moki]

25. Yikes

Maybe the cats in heat

[Bouncy Ball]

27. She's spayed.

And welcome to DU!

[LisaL]

29. Your cat hates you.

[Bouncy Ball]

31. Actually, I think my cat hates you.

http://www.mycathatesyou.com

[XemaSab]

33. Did her head spin around

before she puked in your shoes?

And have you ever caught her doing blasphemous things with a crucifix?

If so, call The Exorcist. :hi:

[arwalden]

35. Sleepwalking... Still Dreaming... Acting Out What He Was Dreaming.

That's truly strange behavior. I hope it's rare.

[arwalden]

36. Maybe He Was Sore, Wet, And Hot?

[ikri]

37. Does your cat..

Chuckle maliciously and occasionally strut around saying Treat 'em mean, keep 'em keep?

You cat sounds a lot like one of my childhood cats. We got her from a shelter where she'd been left having apparently been mistreated by her previous caretakers. Even after she'd lived with us for years she could move between super-affectionate-feline-cutie to furball-of-flying-death-claws in under a second and usually for no apparent reason.

Why do they do it? Probably To remind you what they are capable of should you fail to feed them on time.

[Callalily]

38. Maybe your cat had a bad

dream and was doing the transferring thing ( ha ha). My cat's old and she'll nip me when she thinks she's not getting enough attention, when she wants me to do something, or just to let me know she's still the boss. But I attribute that all to old age. And who knows how well they are feeling when they get that old. My cat's on three different meds, and I'd do anything for her. She has always been there for me, and I'll take care of her to the end.

[Patiod]

39. I think they have a vivid fantasy life

I've seen her stalking one of her stuffed mice, and she seem to psych herself up first.

She has done the same to me - stalk and attack (weird staring, ears in a funny position, butt wiggling, then POUNCE) but never broken the skin (which would be disturbing).

[radwriter0555]

40. He/she hates you... clearly you have a republican cat.

what's so hard to understand?

[LynneSin]

41. I'm thinking either you taste great or you're less filling

never know with these cats

[MrScorpio]

42. Read this

http://netscape.petplace.com/articles/artShow.asp?artID=1819

[nickinSTL]

43. my late cat

would bite and attack mercilessly if you weren't giving him what he wanted. Even if you had NO IDEA he wanted something.

He was...a bit off, I think.

This doesn't quite sound the same, as my cat would attack, bite hard, and keep attacking.

The only way to stop him was to lock him in a room (usually the bathroom) until he calmed down.

Most of the time, he was a great cat, but he'd fly into these rages...

Still miss him though, four years after I had to put him to sleep. And I still have some scars.