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Well as you I've said before, I have like the most aggressive cat on earth. He nips me when I watch tv, am online, sleep or anything. He attacks people who come over as well if they think they can walk by him. lol So I wrote to a girl online I found who calls herself the "cat whisperer". This is the email response. I was wondering what you guys think about her ideas and the medicine.

 

Thank you for writing to me about Rohan. I will do my best to help you.

 

I understand your dilemma with Rohan. He is extremely possessive over you and doesn't want to share you with anyone or anything. This is a male-cat thing, so drops are indicated to stop that. The other part is a training issue, and we can deal with that also.

 

When Rohan bites your fingers, put your finger in his mouth as far as you can until he gags. He will continue to bite for a few weeks, but this stops the damage and teaches him that biting isn't any fun anymore. He will eventually stop, but will occasionally try again, and you do the same thing all the time. He will "get it" and stop.

 

The staring him down is a challenge. He is the dominant and you need to teach him that you are the dominant. Keep at it. If he goes for your face, hold him down and trim his claws. Your husband may need to help. At least you won't get hurt when he attacks. Never let him around your face. This means no more kissing him. Sorry. Until the aggressive behaviors are completely gone - and I mean GONE, your face is off limits. All parts.

 

As for attacking other folks, once he learns that you are dominant, it will stop. Meanwhile, protect them as best you can by removing Rohan to another room when you have visitors. Behind a closed door will be best.

 

Now for the drops. I recommend Relaxi-Herb, which is the only thing I've ever found on the market to help with male cat aggression. It's totally non-toxic, homeopathic(natural) and safe. Even if you overdose him, he will only sleep a little more than normal. You can add some drops to his water and rub the rest on his paws. Here's the link:

http://www.for-the-love-of-cats.com/ss-ONP-RelaxiHerb

 

Instill discipline in small doses. He needs to learn some new house rules, and he will. He will rebel the entire time, test you, and not understand why, but once you are dominant, he will comply. He loves you too much to challenge too far.

 

Keep me posted on Rohan. He sounds like a very special cat.

 

Morgen Marshall

Here is a picture of my "special" boy.

 

new487a-2.jpg

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I do the finger thing removing Mo off when he nips. Course for me it is just to get him to let go and he is still a baby. I don't have to worry about alpha issues. LOL MOLLY has the more than covered. She is boss and don't you forget it. LOL Oddly enough we were worried if we could keep Mo ( foundling one eyed monster). But Molly is an odd ball. Healthy or Huge Monster cats she beats up. Pregnant cat about to deliver (and did on my outside chair) and one eyed kitten are allowed in her domain with no issues.

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That sounds like good advice, at least in principle. The one question I have is about sticking your finger further into Rohan's mouth when he bites. I assume you know how hard he will bite, but you wouldn't want a really hard bite that would get his incisors deep into your finger. That could cause a serious finger infection.

 

Readers on this BB are probably familiar with my Border Kitty, whom I got at age nine weeks. He is now 6 months old and has a wonderful disposition. But at about age 4 months he had to be taught a lesson about not biting. One time he was lying on my lap and I was gently caressing his ears with my finger.

 

Without warning he turned and bit me on the finger -- not a deep bite, but enough to draw blood. It really surprised me and I quickly pulled my hand back. That bite caught me completely off guard, as it was the first time he had ever done that.

 

By the time I thought about it, too much time had elapsed to punish him. I have in mind that any punishment should happen within two seconds or else the animal won't know why he is being punished.

 

I made a mental note to myself -- "he won't get away with that behavior again." The next day he was again lying on my lap, and he again bit my finger. Within one second I gave him a good slap across the top of his head with my fingers. I didn't slap him hard enough to injure him, but I definitely got his attention. He looked up at me in surprise, and I followed that with another slap.

 

He took off and ran out of the room. In a few minutes I went and found him, picked him up, and we went back to the where I had been sitting. I put him back on my lap and petted him gently. I wanted to reassure him that I still liked/loved him.

 

He never bit me again. It only took that one incident of getting slapped (twice) to teach him that biting Dad is NOT a good idea. Whatever pleasure he got from biting was way more than offset by the pain of getting slapped.

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Rohan has EXCELLENT bite inhabition. He bites just hard enough to let you know he doesnt appreciate whatever you're doing to him.. i.e. brushing, petting, putting medicine on paws. When he bites me when Im on the bed he does it and if I dont react immediately he bites harder. If I move an inch at all he takes off, so I dont know how I can get a finger pushed into his mouth. Every time I move he hauls butt away.

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I find hissing or blowing into the cats face (gently) works for my girls. Molly is absolutely perfect, so she doesn't need to be reprimanded for anything. Willow can be a little bugger once in a blue moon, but usually only when she wants a sample of whatever you're eating. Simply placing your finger on her head, between her eyes, makes her back up (I find this doesn't work with Molly, she just pushes back, lol). Buffy, on the other hand... Buffy's a wild child, to put it simply, but hissing and blowing in her face works best, especially the hissing. If you do anything that requires contact and discomfort, Buffy gets offended and her behaviour just gets worse. For a while we used nose taps (light ones) and hissing, along with nudging her back with hands against her side or something. For the past while, though, we've all been just hissing and picking her up gently and placing her where she should be (if she's on a counter, we place her on the floor, nothing else) and her behaviour has improved. Classic Buffy reaction to negative training: if my sister is holding her and Buffy is in a crabby mood, she'll slap my sister in the face. My sister hisses and blows in Buffy's face. Buffy gets a majorly pissed-off look in her face, gives my sister a intent stare in the eyes, which my sister returns. After a few seconds of that staring contest, Buffy slaps my sister again. This time my sister says, "Hey! No!" and hisses and blows at Buffy again. Same thing ensues, it's a staring contest and then maybe two rapid slaps against my sister's cheek (claws are retracted, by the way). Buffy is a majorly stubborn girl, but being NICE to her (even though people call us pansies because of that) makes her behave nicely.

 

Buffy was a 4-week old orphan, though, with Willow and the humans of the family treating her like a queen. So if you wonder why Buffy's such a brat, there's your answer... lol

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Rohan was a 3 week orphan who almost died repeatedly when we got him. I know thats where I started treating him like he'd break, and where I messed up badly.

 

Rohan is unphased by hissing at him...blowing in his face makes him attack ... repeatedly See, thats why Im trying alternative methods lol.. Anyone who doesnt love cats would have gotten rid of him long ago. But I love him, and its my fault he's this way.

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Sammy tried biting when he was just a little kitten. A couple of finger flicks on his nose (like flicking lint) taught him to never bite. HOWEVER, he has always had his dry food free fed, but he gets 1/2 can of wet, in the morning and at night. Well, if you don't feed him that 1/2 can when he is meowing for it and you are wandering around the kitchen he would come up behind you and nip you on the back of the leg! Not even enough to hurt, just get your attention to the feeding time!

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Speaking of evil cats...

 

I have two 10yo kitties (littermates). The female is AWFUL to me (and semi-bad towards everyone else). She will attack anyone she deems as acting inappropriately. She attacks me if I act hyper (I have to be sure she's not around if I am in a hyper mood, haha), if I am too energetic, or loud.....or just in her space. Today she hissed at me for moving a stack of folded clothes. Both cats attacked my mom for rescuing Zeke (my labrador) from their grasp....(he curls into a ball and cries when they attack him).

 

Anyway, sorry to hijack the thread....I just like relating random stories.

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When Rohan bites your fingers, put your finger in his mouth as far as you can until he gags. He will continue to bite for a few weeks, but this stops the damage and teaches him that biting isn't any fun anymore. He will eventually stop, but will occasionally try again, and you do the same thing all the time. He will "get it" and stop.
I don't know if I would dare stick my finger in his throat!

He looks identical to our Tiggers. May be not so aggresive. Here is Tiggs:

 

Tiggs.jpg

 

 

I couldn't resist posting this one too. Tiggs cuddling with Punkin :rolleyes:

 

TiggsPunk.jpg

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hmmmm, personally for unwanted cat behaviour i favour a water pistol and have told my neighbors to make free with water if my cats cause a problem, BUT having said that the finger thing would work for a cat i am sure!

the only other thing i will say is regarding the drops, herbal they may be, and all natural they may be but homeopathic they are not!

bribe him to be nice with a fresh catnip plant, my cats are addicts!!

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I don't like anything negative because while cats can be trained, they can't be trained the same way as dogs. The problem with water pistols, or anything else that causes discomfort, they'll associate it with you, so if they want to get in the flower garden or hop up on the counters, they'll just wait until you leave and then they'll do as they please. As soon as they hear you coming back, they disappear and you're none the wiser. They're not doing it to spite you, they're doing it because they're avoiding YOU, the being who inflicts discomfort on them. My 3 cats all love to lounge around on the table (officially called the dinner table though nobody has used it in about a year or so) and when they hear my dad coming, they all flee. When he's gone, they hop back up. The rest of us don't care so much when they're doing that, and they know it, so they stay.

 

 

Rohan was a 3 week orphan who almost died repeatedly when we got him. I know thats where I started treating him like he'd break, and where I messed up badly.

 

Rohan is unphased by hissing at him...blowing in his face makes him attack ... repeatedly See, thats why Im trying alternative methods lol.. Anyone who doesnt love cats would have gotten rid of him long ago. But I love him, and its my fault he's this way.

That's exactly the problem with Buffy. *sigh* At least we know better now and we'll treat future 3-4 week old orphans differently.
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Hmmm. Well, for one thing she doesn't know the definition of homeopathic, as donna points out. And I don't know that I really buy all this "show him who's the dominant one" stuff. I mean, he's a cat - he already knows he's the dominant one! :rolleyes:

 

Have you tried a water pistol? When my cat, Clawdia, was a young terror, both DH and I went around the house armed like we were at the OK Corral. :D It slowed her down a little bit, although it also taught her to like water. For awhile I had a problem taking a bath without the fuzzy little freak.

 

What finally cured Clawdia was maturity - by the time she was about two we were fairly safe from kamikitty attacks.

 

How old is Rohan?

 

I don't believe I'd give him the drops, because you don't really know what's in it or in what concentration. AFAIK manufacturers of stuff like that aren't subject to truth-in-labelling laws.

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Well I'll update you all a bit. I havent given him the drops. I wanted to try it without. I dont know that I like the whole "make him sleep more" idea.

 

Rohan is 2 years old on Halloween.. how fitting huh? lol

 

I always have used a water bottle on him but if I used it for everything he'd be wet and I'd have to have about 4 bottles filled repeatedly a day. Because with Rohan, 1 squirt doesnt work, you have to repeatedly squirt till he goes to his house. (his little kitty tower at the window) That is the spot we dont spray or mess with him. i.e. his safe zone.

 

Catnip doesnt work with him. When he was a small kitten he got into the cupboard at his foster parents house. His littermates and him ate an entire container of cat nip. He doesnt care about it now. I've tried fresh and dried.

 

Rohan attacks if you blow in his face. He also remembers that you did it and will attack repeatedly during the day. That is not punishment to him, that gets him from being a jerk to complete a hole in about .2 seconds.

 

Ok so to the update. I've been shoving my fingers in his mouth when he's nipping me. Amazingly he's hesitant now before he does something. Its just enough time for me to be ready, cause I can feel it coming. Riven can too and for the last 2 days when he starts meowing or getting ready to bite me, she attempts to play. She'll butt him with her head or stand in front of him. No worries, Im keeping an eye on them, I dont want her punishing or herding him at all. The really true thing the lady said was about not putting my face near him. I can stop at any time and pet him and love on him as long as I dont put my face near him. She said in a letter after the one I posted here that it is a space invasion when you put your face near them. So things are getting a small bit better.

 

One funny thing though kinda off subject, sort of not. Rohan LOVES lime! I made salsa the other day and guacamole the next and had lime juice on my fingers and he licked my fingers for like 30 minutes. He thought he was in heaven. How wierd.

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