What is aggressive behavior?

Aggressive behavior is an instinctive behavior in all wild animals and is shown to protect living boundaries or to defend their young and themselves.

Cats possess five effective weapons of attack: canines and claws on all four paws. Aggressive behavior in domestic cats ranges from running away and avoiding attacks to attacking fiercely and aggressively. Cats have the ability to bite and cause tearing and severe pain at the site of the injury, with the wounds easily becoming infected.

Fighting between cats does not lead to death, but it may cause infections that require veterinary intervention for examination and detection of infectious diseases.

Aggressive behavior in domestic cats is harmful and can endanger the life of a human, another cat, or another animal. It is the second most common behavioral problem in cats.

Reasons for the sudden onset of aggressive cat behavior

There are many reasons why cats exhibit aggressive behavior, so it is necessary to know what happened before this behavior appeared in order to identify the causes of this behavior. Some of these causes are:

• Fear: Cats exhibit aggressive behavior as a result of noticing a danger that happened to them previously and from which they could not escape. This behavior is considered an acquired behavior resulting from previous experiences.
• Diseases: There are many diseases that cause sudden aggressive behavior in cats, such as toxoplasmosis, hyperthyroidism, epilepsy, rabies, trauma or brain injuries in older cats, or aggressive behavior resulting from pain, such as pressure on a painful area, toothache, or joint inflammation.
• Boundary defense: Cats define the boundaries of their living space, so they exhibit aggressive behavior towards any other animal that intrudes into this area. This explains the aggressive behavior of house cats when trying to share a new animal with the home.
• Note: Cats may exhibit aggressive behavior towards their owners as a result of sharing playtime with another animal. Cats also sometimes become aggressive when they become bored during petting due to annoyance from repetitive movements after a period of play.

Body language in cats

Body language in cats is a key factor in dealing with cat behaviors, understanding their needs, and the reasons behind abnormal behaviors.

Cat body language includes body posture, facial expressions, and movements of specific body parts such as the ears, tail, and whiskers.

Cat owners need to be familiar with the basic positions in order to deal effectively with any problems they encounter, understand their cat's needs, and enjoy living together. There are three different positions for cats:

The offensive posture is as follows:

• The legs are straight and stiff.
• Bend your hind legs and arch your back down towards your head.
• The tail stiffens and is lowered or straightened back directly to the ground.
• Erect ears with the back slightly rounded forward
• constriction of the pupil
• Confronting the opponent directly and perhaps moving towards him
• Making loud noises such as howling or growling
• The body fur is smooth

The defensive posture is as follows:

• head entwining inside the neck
• The tail wraps around the body
• pupil dilation
• The ear is flattened laterally or backward on the head
• Diverging away from the opponent
• It may make quick strikes using its front claws.

Overtly aggressive situation:

Striking using the front paws and claws

• biting
• Fighting
• Making sharp noises
• Prepare for a full-scale attack and show your claws and fangs
• In this situation, the cat might grab your hand and suddenly bite you.

What should you do when cats suddenly exhibit aggressive behavior?

When sudden aggressive behavior appears, you should first go to the veterinarian to examine the cat and make sure that there is no medical problem that caused this behavior.

If there is no medical problem, the veterinarian resorts to training and behavior modification after discussing the causes and the history of what happened before this behavior appeared.

How can sudden aggressive cat behavior be modified and trained?

• Stay away from situations that frighten cats.
• Avoid provoking or stimulating aggressive behavior in cats.
• Identifying and reducing situations that exhibit this aggressive behavior.
• Learn well how to read the body language of cats.
• Leave the cat alone when it displays any aggressive behavior.
• Identifying situations that demonstrate calm cat behavior and focusing on them during the training and behavior modification process.
• Stay away from the cat when aggressive behavior appears and do not show interest until it stops this behavior.
• If aggressive behavior appears among cats inside the house, they should be separated, and the aggressive cat should be placed in an area that is somewhat unsuitable for it.
• Encouragement and rewards for cats   On calm behavior.

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• Training should ideally be done in short, frequent intervals to avoid frustration, boredom, and resistance.
• Avoid using violence or physical punishment to prevent increased aggressive behavior.

If the cat's aggressive behavior does not end after training, the veterinarian may resort to using some medications that improve the animal's behavior.

We at Seventh Bird suggest you visit pet.code.clinic, where you can consult a veterinarian.