Mary Allen
Does your cat attack your feet as soon as you walk past? Maybe you are lying comfortably in bed under the covers and your cat is biting your toes heartily? Don’t take it personally and don’t scold your cat. It is very likely that your kitty just wants to play.
Hunting behavior is innate in cats. And even if they don’t need it to survive in their cozy four walls, they can’t put it down. Your feet, ankles, and calves are at eye level with your furry friend. It, therefore, does not view them as part of her favorite human, but rather as potential prey. So if your cat keeps attacking your feet, it’s a kind of hunting game for them. What to do to break her habit? You should offer it sufficient alternatives.
Kitten Attacks the Legs: “I Just Want to Play!”
Kittens and young cats in puberty in particular love to attack the feet of their human housemates. Kittens and kittens have yet to practice hunting and are more playful than their adult counterparts. That’s why the ambush attacks are more likely to come from growing furry friends.
Biting your feet when you are lying in bed can also be explained by hunting behavior. If your toes peek out from under the covers, they resemble prey sticking their heads out of a burrow. It is particularly exciting for cats when their feet move under the covers. From their point of view, it can only be a prey animal that is trying to flee and that has to be hunted down.
Adult Cat Attacks Feet: Why Is It Doing This?
When your adult cat attacks, bites and scratches your feet, it’s usually also meant to be playful. However, play can become serious if you get wounds, scratches and cat bites from cat attacks and these become infected.
It is also possible that your adult cat sees your feet as prey because it learned and got used to them as a young animal. What is still adorable and not too painful for kittens is no longer fun for adult animals.
But how is your cat supposed to know that if it has no other options to live out its hunting instinct? It is therefore quite possible that your cat is attacking your feet out of boredom because it is not sufficiently exercised and occupied.
Caution! If your cat has enough opportunities to play and no reason to be bored, an illness can also be behind it if it suddenly appears aggressive. An overactive thyroid, for example, can trigger a change in behavior. So, as a precaution, if your cat’s foot strikes seem unusual, take them to the vet. It is also possible that although she is not physically ill, she is suffering from stress .
What To Do to Stop Your Cat From Hunting the Legs?
Consider whether your cat has enough play opportunities and whether you play with her sufficiently interactively. Cat games should challenge all of her senses, intelligence, and hunting instincts so she doesn’t get bored. Outdoor cats can do this while chasing real mice and live prey, so don’t need as much playtime with their favorite people at home. However, indoor cats can quickly become bored with their surroundings if they are not offered enough stimuli and interaction. So the best solution is to offer the velvet paw enough play alternatives so that it no longer gets the idea of considering your feet as “prey”.
The next time your cat bites your feet, toes, or calves, stand still and move your foot toward the battle kitty. This deviates from typical prey behavior, allowing your little scratching brush to recognize that it is not dealing with prey. In principle, she would then have to let go of you. After that, ignore them for a while so your kitty loses interest in playing catch-the-foot.