Aggression in cats
Why my cat attacks me?
One of the most common consultation reasons is “aggression”, so I think it is important topic to discuss. This is really wide and it will need to be separated in different posts, and also you can join our course "understanding your cat".
We understand aggression as feelings of anger or antipathy resulting in hostile or violent behaviour; readiness to attack or confront.
There are lots of different aggressions, and also there are lots of different classifications: depending to whom is directed (to another cat, to a family member, to a guest…), or the cause of the aggression. I prefer to classify depending of the cause, because when we know the cause it is most likely that we can work to solve the problem.

Adapted from J, Heath S: An overview of feline social behaviour and comunication: Behaviour problems in small animals: practical advice for the veterinary team, ed 1, 2005, Sunders Ltd. The original figure was adapted from P Leyhausen: cat behaviour, 1979, Garland STMP press, New YorkNew paragraph
- Fear: Is the 1st cause of aggression. Fear, defined as an emotional response that enables an animal to avoid situations and activities that could be potentially dangerous (1). The most important cause of fear is lack of socialisation (2) .
- Pain: 2nd most important cause of aggression. If the cat is not feeling well, will try to hide its disease, but may respond aggressive when trying to approach, “without an apparent reason”.
- Play and predatory behaviour: this is not aggression per se, although it can be harmful!. What happens when you move your feet under the blanket? They see a prey. Play behaviours in cats are closely related to the natural predatory sequence of stalking, chasing, pouncing, and biting (3). Encouraging play and biting behaviours with hands and feet may teach the cat that it is rewarding to stalk, pounce on, and bite the owner, leading to play-related aggression problems (4), learn how to play with your cat.
- Aggression associated with petting: Cats with this condition actually solicit attention from people, but tend to bite if petted for more than a few seconds.
- Redirected aggression: This is one of the most harmful and dangerous aggression. An easy example is: a cat sees another cat in his/hers garden, wants to attack it, but cannot. Will redirect this anger to another cat or person in the same room. It tents to be a really strong attack and unpredictable.
- Aggression towards new cat: cats are really territorial and new cats MUST be introduced at home progressively, you can read this post if you are thinking of introcuing a new cat at home.
- Aggression between cats living in the same household without previous problems: (Most of these problems are covered by the above causes.)
— After being separated: easy example: one of the cats went to the vets and when coming back, aggression happens, because the other cat doesn’t recognise the smell anymore. We will need to keep them separate for 2–3 days and the cat will get back the normal small, the conflict should stop. If not, reintroduce them as new cats.
— Behavioural change of one of the cats related with illness (pain) or anxiety.
— Silent conflict and resources competition: insufficient live resources can create a conflict between “friend” cats. Check our post about Environmental needs and key resources.



