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Am I the only person with a cat that is super careful with their teeth and claws, such that they don’t pierce skin? He’ll lightly place his claws on skin or take a finger between his teeth and apply very light pressure when he doesn’t want to be touched.
The “scream in pretend pain whenever you feel anything sharp” method has trained him to be very aware of his killing tools.
The only time I have claws viciously dug into me is when he kneads me in relaxation, and that’s an instinctual behaviour I don’t think he can resist.
At this point i just conclude that a truly terrifying amount of people are lowkey mistreating their pets and operate under the assumption that a pretty severely unhappy pet is actually normal.
Like all the “funny” posts about how cats are so unfriendly and whatnot, bitch what the fuck are you doing to your cat to make it behave like that? all the cats i’ve ever interacted with have at worst been indifferent, and most of the time they’ll merrily make their way over for scritches and love.
A violent cat isn’t normal and it’s not funny, it means it’s not happy for crying out loud! i would wager that the most common problem is that they’re bored out of their skulls and are in dire need of playtime and ideally having a second cat in the household so they can entertain each other.
While you’re not wrong, I think a lot of people misinterpret normal cat behaviour for actual malicious intent. As if they knock stuff over specifically to piss you off.
And like I mentioned in another comment cats intuitively use the amount of claw that’s safe with a fellow cat where there’s a coat of fur between claw and skin. So when they scratch at us, interpreting it as intentional hurt isn’t accurate.
Cats don’t wanna bloody each other during play, they just don’t know they have to use even less claw with a human than with a fellow cat, and yet people act like their cats are out for blood at the drop of a hat.
no but that’s what i mean, well treated cats don’t just randomly knock things off tables and shelves, they do that when they’re bored out of their minds and have to do ANYTHING to entertain themselves.
And if the cats get enough entertainment and exercise in other ways, they’re probably not going to have a desire to play-fight with your hands either (especially if you don’t encourage it). none of the grown up cats i’ve met have done so, they just merrily present the belly for petting and literally nothing i do to their bellies makes them react with anything but gratuitous purring…
Seriously, a well taken care of cat is just a fluffy ball of love and purrs and the most annoying aspect of them is that they want to headbutt you constantly meow loudly to beg for scritches and treats.
I’ve been working on befriending a local feral for two years. We’re working on “gentle paws please.” She’s gotten good at puncture free play fighting with my hands, she’ll be all happy-drooling and purring, but if she gets too into it she’ll forget herself and bloody me.
She also has a bad habit of grabbing my hands or feet/ankles as I’m leaving if she’s not done with scritches time. Those are usually bloody grabs. I’m like, dude, I’m just going to get your dinner! I scream and hiss when she does it, but we haven’t made much progress on that issue. And how can I be mad? She just wants more love.
But it’s definitely not because she’s bored, she’s still semi feral and spends as much time as she wants murdering gophers and field mice and bullying her still-fully-feral litter mate.
I’ve had this theory for a few years now, it’s not a happy thought but I don’t see another explanation that makes sense
Mine definitely isn’t gentle, but I think that that’s only because I don’t mind getting a little bit scratched up when playing with him so I only taught him to keep it to that. He understands that playtime is over otherwise. He seems to understand when he has done more than he meant to as well, he immediately goes from fighting to affectionate
Same experience with kneading though. It’s very cute that he’s so happy and comfortable but holy shit cat your claws are so sharp
I’ve never used my hands directly for play, so that probably makes a difference. He only gets to go full wild animal on wand toys and such. I don’t mind some scratches either, but I made it a point to really make even the slightest catching on skin to be off-limits, so as to be able to let others handle him without worry. Especially with one of sisters starting off quite scared of him.
And yup, the kneading can go from 0 to 100 very suddenly.
I have two cats. Ones a sweetheart and wants nothing more than to cuddle on your lap or sleep between your ankles.
My other cat is only a year older and is much larger. She wants to climb on everything, scratch up the carpets, shred up the clothes in the closet or the curtains, whine and moan that she didnt get enough food (even though she ate the other cats helping too). Shes a sweetheart when shes chilled out, but man, when shes in a mood, shes in a mood.
Same here. My cat’s only about 9 months old (adopted at 4mo) but so far he’s been good about keeping the rough housing down to light nipping and grabbing me without claws. Accidents happen of course, but every cat I’ve had in my life has had a similar temperament during playtime.
Yup. As long as you actually give off a consistent indication of when you feel more claw than you’d like, cats seem to learn where the line is. They don’t actually want to hurt you, until they do, and at that point the behavior is a completely different level of aggressive.
It’s just that fellow cats are protected by a coat of fur, so the “intuitive” amount of claw that a cat will use is a bit more than what we furless humans can deal with. The cute part is that given time, a cat will even learn to tell clothing apart from skin. My boy uses plenty of claw sitting on my shoulders when I wear a hoodie, and basically none at all, even falling off rather than put claws in me, when I’m in just a t-shirt.
“come here and rub my belly hooman! I command it! Yes, rub the belly… That’s nice… OMFG DON’T RUB THE BELLY! I WILL F’ING KILL YOU!!! NEVER RUB THE BELLY! I’LL RIP YOUR BELLY RUBBING FACE OFF YOU BASTARD!!!”
-every kitty in the world
It’s time for a little bit of the old ultra violence…
Probably shouldn’t have let her drink all that Moloko Plus…
We’re sorry, but the Murder Machine’s violence setting may not be overridden by the “owner” after 130,000 years of jubilant slaughter.
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