birman cat - mine was mean and bit me all the time?

Question

Hello,

I bought a birman cat after I went to a cat chow and feel in love with them - it was a 'seal point' and absolutely gorgeous.

Everything was okay for the first lot of months, the cat stayed indoors and I gave it lots of attention etc..... it was like my baby and then it started to bite me all the time and scrap me - she developed a really nasty temperament and then trashed the house, scrapped the furniture really badly and cried all the time.

When I was in hospital having my first baby, my husband came home from visiting me to find her at the top of the stairs, at the bottom of the stairs theree was a picture of me and her smashed to pieces that she must have thrown down from my bedroom and a teddy for our new child was ripped to bits as well.

In the end I had to give her away when the baby was 3 months old, as she became increasingly vicious and I couldn't trust her in the house with my baby.
Has anyone else had a similar situation with a cat? moggies I had were ok

Answer 1

Animal behaviourist Peter Neville has written a book called "Do Cats Need Shrinks" (in later editions it was called "Cat Behaviour Explained - A Self Help Guide".

Its based on many of his case histories, and in the chapters devoted to aggressive cats he said most cases he came across involved Burmese cats, especially if they were kept as indoor only pets. Unless there was a medical reason for such behaviour, the causes of such aggression in cats is largely unknown. However, based upon his own experience Mr Neville felt that oriental breeds are usually the most intelligent and therefore unless they are exposed to a lot of mental and physical stimulation, they get bored very easily which can result in wild and unpredictable behaviour. One of his suggestions for solving the problem is to adopt an additional cat and as a playmate for the existing cat. I tried this with my aggressive (moggie) female and she now playfights with our other cat all day long and is much gentler with me now

Answer 2

thats strange! alot of cats become very temperamental but usually they wont trash the house for no reason... hopefully your next cat is a little bit less obsessive over you! good luck!