# Do cats actually know my hand is part of me??



## svelte1 (Feb 24, 2011)

When playing, they typically start treating it as a toy/prey..
They can see us, but we are so **** big, it might be hard to for them to connect all our body parts together?!


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## LakotaWolf (Aug 10, 2012)

A cat can be trained. They're smart enough to learn that the hands are, well, "hands off".

For a while after my dog died, my cat went a little nuts and started acting very aggressively playful towards anything that moved - especially my fingers.

Once she grabbed a finger and clawed/bit, I would pull the hand away and tap her very lightly with my finger on the head or upper muzzle and say, loudly and firmly, "NO." (I did not smack her or beat her, before anyone decries me for a cat abuser - I lightly tapped her with my finger about as hard as I tap one of my keyboard's keys while typing.)

It really did not take long at all before she realized that the fingers should NOT be pounced, bitten, stalked, or scratched, no matter how interesting they looked.

They can smell your hand - your hand smells like YOU - and they aren't so dumb that they think your hand isn't a "part" of you. Your cats simply have no discipline or boundaries yet, and must be taught what their boundaries are.

Of course, you have to be careful as well and never "play" with them with your hands DIRECTLY in a way that encourages the cats to treat your hand like prey. (No hand-wrestling or grabbing their paws, or running your hands/fingers along the ground like you would with a string or toy, etc.)


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## dlowan (Jul 13, 2012)

They know. One of my cats attacks my knee under the bedclothes when she decides I ought to be up......she knows it's connected to the head all right.


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## Alpaca (Dec 21, 2009)

They know. It's how you treat your hand with the cat that's the issue.

Just like dogs, don't play 'hand' games with them. Always use a toy. It's not like they can't tell it's your hand. But if you play hands with them, they're not going to know it's off-limits.

If they do bite, I wouldn't bop them on the nose. Bopping requires movement....which is the one thing that cats react instantly to. They're near-sighted so movement is their queue for recognizing prey. They'll just go after your hand if you move it quickly.

I would immediately but slowly and abruptly remove my hand. Then ignore the cat. Maybe even say NO as I do it. The lesson here is: if you bite, then no playtime.


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## jusjim (Jun 30, 2009)

As a reminder, I often let Missy smell my hand so that she knows what is me. 

When I had Zenobi, soon after I brought her home, I was lying down and she was sitting at the foot of the bed. I was trying to talk her into coming closer and wiggled my fingers as I did this. Suddenly she pounced and sank her teeth into my thumb. Immediately she recognised her mistake, that it wasn't a worm, and let go. When I realised what had happened I couldn't stop laughing as I went to the sink to wash the wound.


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## shaolindan (Sep 3, 2012)

Lakota - I find it strange to not use your hand as a toy. It's easy, you always have it with you so you dont have to find it. 
Our cat play fights with us, when we want to. She doesn't scratch or bite to hurt. This is helped by her claws being clipped but she has never biten and hurt us - it is play fighting after all.


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## LakotaWolf (Aug 10, 2012)

I imagine some cats are easygoing with playfighting ;} But, from what it sounds like from the OP's post, their cats aren't being gentle :/

It probably comes down to the individual pet. My dog was able to understand "be gentle" and was able to be wrestled/played with "by hand". My cat, however, could not make this distinction and had to be corrected. XD I don't think it's because the cat is less intelligent than the dog was - it's just individual behavior.


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