Dealing with a fearful and aggressive cat.

in #cats6 years ago

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Have you ever seen a cat truly in fear? Cat's exhibit fear for a variety of reasons, usually it's when they are forced to confront something they are uncomfortable with or completely a new experience to them. It is a perfectly normal response which doesn't warrant any psychological assessment because it is part of their normal survival instinct when meeting a potential threat.

Sometimes, the fear response is quite conflicting, the cat will posture in an aggressive stance, it will also growl and hiss to try sway off the immediate "threat". Body language changes as well and this can be seen when the cat will crouch down, looking with big eyes. The thought process in their minds would be akin to something like "I will fight if I have to, but the best case is still to run away."

Most of the time, the cat will face front with the oppoent whilst the back will be sideways on the verge of escape. All to often, the posturing will be induced by children who try to hold the cat against their will. The cat responds with fear and aggression which sometimes end up with some scratches or even bites.

The key to avoiding this is proper identification and education on what a fear posture looks like on a cat as well as knowing when is a good time to be in contact with them, not forcing the contact, or intruding on the cat's personal space. Many cats are labelled as aggressive (wrongly so) because their signals of fear were overlooked and not respected. Their only way to communicate this fear is through their aggression.

To deal with this, pay attention to the following:

When you identify this fear aggression, stop any physical contact, or attempts to touch the cat. Cat's can treat contact in this state as restraint. Allow them a safe way to flee as this is the first thing on their mind. Give your cat plenty of places to hide, and even better, you can give them plenty of elevated positions where they feel much safer than on the ground.

If you see your cat beginning to show signs of fear, then you can help train them to not be afraid of the situation by lowering the intensity of the activity into a play time intensity. Building up their tolerance will help a great deal with modifying their mindset of what can be considered fearful, and what isn't.

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My family is been around cats for long time the best thing to do to ward of there fear is to divert the attention, it must be done by someone who feeds them regularly. This works even during fights.

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