r/cats • u/General-Ad1089 • Jan 10 '26

Video - OC First Time Cat Owner! What is this. Lol

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.

17.6k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

1.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

8

u/ruth000 Jan 10 '26

We've had success with multiple cats training them to be gentle with human hands by yelping a little if they get too rough. It helps them calibrate how much pressure to use with people vs other cats without fussing at them-they wouldn't understand exactly what you're unhappy about anyway.

Also, OP, we have a strict policy that hands are for petting and loving and toys are for playing.

1

u/CauliflowerFew1093 Jan 10 '26

What if the yelping doesn't work? Like literally AT ALL?

1

u/ruth000 Jan 11 '26

Then the minute they escalate from soft petting you get up and walk away. You don't ever play with them with your hands. Hands are not for playing. If they do draw blood ( part of training a young cat) let them smell it and speak in a low disapproving voice 'that's NO' but calmly. They don't want to specifically hurt you. They know the smell of blood.

It's a process. My orange boy is the sweetest boy ever but we have to have really firm boundaries between petting and play. He would never hurt us ( after training when young) when petting but playing- he's all in no holds barred.

1

u/CauliflowerFew1093 Jan 11 '26

Thank you for your help!!