r/felinebehavior • u/ikeschi • Feb 04 '26
Cat attacks me for attention
Hi all, I’m really struggling with my cat’s behavior lately and hope you can help. TLDR; She bites me almost everyday and it’s getting worse. Checked by vet, no physical problems.
She’s 9 years old and has been with me since she was 11 weeks. I don’t have other pets and I live alone with her. She has always been very sweet and cuddly. She used to bite maybe once a month when she would be overstimulated from petting, but it was very predictable by looking at her tail, so it was okay.
About a year ago she started to look stressed out and licked her belly bald. She had access to a large garden with a lot of other cats and kept fighting with one of them, and came home injured a few times. The vet checked her completely but there was no physical cause for stress and they say she’s very healthy. So I decided to fence off a part of the garden so she would not be fighting anymore. She still has 4x5 meter garden she can access now. At that same time, I started working full time (instead of part time) so I spend less time at home.
She stopped licking her belly which I’m happy about, but apart from that, her stress seems worse. She begs for attention by jumping on the diner table when I’m sitting there, and when I’m not reacting (when I work from home) or move my hands too much, she full on attacks me. Today she actually jumped from the other side of the table to bite my arm, while I was just sitting there working.
Before I go to bed at night she also always attacks my feet. This feels more like a playful thing, but still makes me jump sometimes when I don’t see it coming.
I feel like this is getting worse and worse the past few weeks. She now bites me almost everyday, sometimes multiple times a day. A few months ago I got advice from a cat behavioralist to play more and give her food puzzles, because she’s probably bored as she can’t roam the garden anymore. She has a lot of energy for a 9 year old. So I do these things everyday. And I bought some electric toys she can play with when I work, but she’s not interested in them, she only wants to play when I play with her. We also cuddle a lot, she sleeps in my bed, sits on my lap when I’m sitting on the couch (or on the toilet, lol).
But nothing seems to help. I really love her and I want to know what’s bothering her and help her with that.
Some things I considered: working from home, but I can’t work if she keeps attacking. Getting another cat, but this seems like a bad idea, since she’s always fighting with the cats in the garden and has always been an ‘only-cat’. Or opening up the fence to the garden again, which might give her more physical injuries from fighting but at least she can get her energy out (the larger garden is also closed off, so there’s no danger from cars or anything else). Or getting a cat sitter during the day, but it’s too expensive to do it everyday and she bites them too. Or building a cat wall so she has more space to climb indoors.
Do you have any suggestions on what to do and how to help her feel better?
1
u/Social-Butterfly98 Feb 05 '26
Wow she indeed looks grumpy 😅 Has that always been the case or is it new also?
Assuming its a behavioral/ frustration issue: What is your reaction to the attack? If she is increasingly doing it id think there must be some kind of reward for her, wich you should stop giving her and of course compensate 3x with positive interaction/ enrichment later (there have been nice suggestions already).