Aggressive Behavior in Cats

You usually think of your cat as a pretty laid back character. They probably spend a great deal of their time lounging around or napping with a little play here and there. While your cat may be calm most of the time, there can be times when your cat may exhibit aggressive behavior; if your cat becomes aggressive, you probably have a lot of questions. Is your cat dangerous? Is this behavior a symptom of some other underlying problem? It depends. You may want to call your vet, but first think about whether it may be something within your control which has caused your cat to behave this way.

Our cats are by nature predatory animals. Like wild cats, your cat has all of the hunting instincts which helped its ancestors survive in the wild; most of the play behaviors which cats engage in comes directly from these hunting skills and also accounts for the occasional aggressive behavior of cats.

No matter how much you feed your cat, they still have the urge to hunt prey. Your own cat has probably hunted and killed a mouse, a bird or other small animal before. You may have noticed that they didn’t actually eat their prey; their predatory instincts are that deeply rooted. Understanding your cat’s hunting instincts can help you decide if an aggressive behavior is serious. What kind of attack happened? If your cat just pounced on your foot as you passed them, this is nothing to worry about and in fact is probably play, not truly aggressive behavior.
Overexcitement can also lead to aggressive behavior. Cats can get wound up easily, as anyone who has ended playtime with a few scratches can attest.

It should also be kept in mind that cats are territorial animals; these instincts can also lead to aggressive behavior. They may react aggressively to defend their territory if another pet or even a child comes into your home. Children move quickly, which can be over stimulating to your cat – and they tend to receive a lot of attention, something else a lot of cats do not take kindly to. With that said, it is usually fine to have children and pets interact, but make sure to keep an eye on the children; in many cases they are more likely to frighten the cat than the other way around.