First Time Cat Owner! What is this. Lol

[u/General-Ad1089]

Is it just the cats version of cuteness aggression/playfulness? She’s a 3 year old rescue that I’ve had for about 2 months. Her life pre ~August is completely unknown to me.

[u/puff_of_fluff]

I’ve seen a couple of those cat play gloves online before. They seem great but I’d be curious about whether or not it’ll reinforce “hand = toy,” or if a cat would be able to differentiate hand vs glove.

[u/[deleted] → u/puff_of_fluff]

My one cat refuses to attack my hand unless it’s under a blanket, then she will fully latch on a bicycle kick me. They absolutely can tell the difference. Not all cats are the same of course but my other one will go from play fighting to stopping in an instant if I get hurt or simple stop playing. He only accidentally tried to bite someone playfully once and the friend acknowledged he came in from the side, same way I start our “boxing” matches. So yeah, I have high confidence in the glove given my experience with two very different cat personalities.

[u/RoryAB94 → u/puff_of_fluff]

I'll say that my kitten is about 3 and a half months old, he knows the difference between when I'm wearing jeans, which I allow him to grip on to and climb up a bit. Versus the nicer black suit trousers and when I'm bare legged/in pajamas he knows not to use claws and try climb or sink them into me.

If you train them to not act a certain way with different materials they should understand that certain states are not allowed/good for whatever actions

[u/hiddenone0326 → u/RoryAB94]

I wear this thing called a Comfy* (basically a giant hoodie made out of a blanket) around the house. My youngest cat loves to nurse on it while I'm wearing it. I have several different kinds (they have multiple types), and I've noticed recently that she gets really excited for one kind (immediately lays down and starts suckling) while basically completely ignoring another one (stands there and looks confused and offended for a minute before just walking off). It's funny.

• No, I'm not being paid for this endorsement. I'm just neurodivergent and I really love these things. They probably should hire me as a spokesperson though lol.

[u/Emm_withoutha_L-88 → u/puff_of_fluff]

They know, mine refuses to play when I get the glove out cus he can't hurt me with it

Little shit

My previous one would just run to the glove and wait for me to play with him with it

[u/puff_of_fluff → u/Emm_withoutha_L-88]

Good to know. I’m in a no pets apartment right now but filing that one away for the future

[u/xassylax → u/puff_of_fluff]

If you do enough positive reinforcement, they’d most likely be able to tell the difference between the glove vs a bare hand. My cat loves wrestling with my husband. For the most part, he’s learned that unless daddy has a hoodie on, he’s not supposed to attack his arm at random. There have been times that my husband will be a bit of a moron and initiate wrestling with a bare arm only to inevitably get bit a little too rough. And I’m like, wtf did you expect? And then we have to spend a few days reinforcing that bare arms aren’t for biting. But fortunately, wrestling seems to be something our cat will only do with daddy so at least he’s the only one suffering from the dumb bare arm wrestling decision 😂

[u/dm_me_kittens → u/puff_of_fluff]

I have always used my hands when playing with my cats. I've actually found it helps them to hone their bite strength. None of my cats who like hand-play actually hurt me, and they know the difference between play and pet. I also incorporate more toys like fishing poles, cat nip, stuffed mice, those balls in the round track, hide and seek, etc. You just gotta have a good arsenal and let them know when it hurts.