Nervous and aggressive cats information/advice

[Edgewood]

This article was in the Bluecross May's newsletter. I thought it might be of some help or interest.

http://www.allaboutpets.org.uk/factsheets/cat/behaviour/Nervous-and-aggressive-cats.aspx

Anyone finding any other useful advice on these behavioural areas please feel free to add them here.

[Tallulah]

This link is taking AGES to load for me, but I'm pleased to see they have lumped nervousness and aggressiveness in together since aggression so often stems from nervousness!

[Tallulah]

Wow, what a fascinating and informative factsheet! I am really impressed with this and wish I had seen it when I first had Mr Cat, who was extremely nervous. The rush of relief a nervous cat experiences when it finds a safe hiding place acting as a reinforcer for this behaviour was a particularly interesting point which I had not understood before.

Can we pin this topic so it's easy to find? I think it could be an excellent resource.

[BeaBlip]

Thanks Chris,

This article is very interesting and helpful. I wish I had understood more about Isis's aggression when we had her. We realised that she was nervous but could never understand why and blamed ourselves, although we never abused or mistreated her. It sounds like she may have lacked human interaction as a kitten before we got her. We still adored her though despite her problems. Poor Isis. 

[kittywake]

Ah that explains a lot, especially Tilly's nerves as they were at the CP from birth.

Very informative article - thanks Chris.

[Edgewood]

Tallulah set it as a sticky.

I was having problems seeing your photos yesterday, yet knew they must have been there as Gabrielle and Rosie (I think) had commented. It took ages for me load UA and when it finally came up the full graphics were missing. After a couple of tries posting the graphics arrived. I tried again to see your photos but they were taking forever to appear. I was at homing blaming windows vista, but maybe it was UA. 

[archiecat]

Archie is like a schizophrenic cat. He can be all nice as pie one minute, and then suddenly turns into devil cat. He has a "war cry" meow as he launches through the air to grab hold of anything he can... And then as soon as it starts, he stops. All this time, he is purring.  So we know its play fighting, but its funny how he just switches into "mental mode"!

[tiggyntazzy]

This doesn't pin point my cat's problems towards my other cats.
He is 4 years old and what he does is jump onto of our other cats and bits them and runs away it doesn't matter if we are in the room or not he still does this. it frightens the other cats and 3 of them are very small timid cats and are afraid of him and our other cat is old 12yrs and not into playing to rough only plays when he wants too. they have loads of toys and get load of equal affection and this started when there was only the older cat in the house when he was about 2yrs old.
How can i stop this?

[wishbone]

That article tells a lot, and it's very useful, thanks for sharing to us. That gives differ understanding with this cat behavior..

[pablo247]

It has been ages since I posted here...I had forgotten how to use the site!
Anyway re-aggressive cats...where I live in London suburbia we have a neighbourhood Bengal cat (Lola...looks beautiful) which attacks every cat in the area. All the neighbours have had to get burgle proof cat flaps because she breaks in and attacks even very elderly cats.
Read about them! http://www.bengalcathelpline.co.uk/bengalsaspets.htm
About 6 of us with cats in the road have been having serious trouble. She fights to kill and I have never seen fur fly like it.
My tom, Tom, can defend himself OK but he isn't looking for a fight. She waits for him to come out!
We all laughed when we read the article because it so precisely describes her.
Anyway warning...think twice about falling for the good looks of Bengals!
Cheers everyone. Julia