Bites always, is this normal?

I adopted a 2 year old MC in October. He was front declawed and badly matted when he was found hiding in a barn. The rescue group had him only a couple of days when I came to pick him up. I took him home, had to shave down his back half it was so matted with twigs and small stones, then gave him a bath. He was very gentle during the bath and the shaving. I think he was relieved to be able to move his back legs again.

After he was cleaned up he began biting me anytime I tried to touch him. I can not pick him up without a ton of hissing and growling. I can't brush him without fear of being attacked. He will sometimes come to me (very rare) and ask for attention, but if I give to much he bites me. I am safe to scratch the side of the face, under the ear, but if my hand moves to the top of his head, back or tail he turns and bites, growls and hisses.

I don't want to give up on him as I am certain he had a hard life being left outside with no front claws to defend himself, but I don't know what to do? He never breaks the skin when he bites but it does hurt.

I always saw that MC where gentle giants but he is anything but gentle. Any advice?

Jessica

Good advice from Candes,although our first adult MC was not in the state of your boy it took a couple of years hard work to end up with the luv bug she finally became.The one thing that she did do was the biting & was told a firm no because it went beyond play,in the end she got put back into her room for doing it & was left shut up for a little while on her own,this worked great because she hated it,that room was meant for bedtime not when she should have been out having fun or enjoying your company,that room was used to help tame quite a few of her bad ways but worked very well,in the end if she knew she had done something wrong she would run & put herself away & sit & look round the corner of the door as much as to say well I'm here now what are you going to do about it,the answer was have a laugh & that was how "Cheeky"became the prefix to her name China,deep down they all want to be loved but respect for each other has to be earned,it will be & you will never regret taking on such a sad case,whoever declaws these animals should have their own nails ripped out,I think you must be a very special person & he will repay you in bucket loads eventually,good luck will look forward to reading more postings & pictures when you feel ready....x

I agree that a couple of months is way too little time to expect normal cat behavior. We took in a stray MC mix and it was a good year before he would not revert to near feral behavior on occasion (he scratched/swatted). We have a retiree female, and she was very leery of us for most of the first year; would run if we tried to touch her, etc. In both cases I can report that these cats became treasured family members with standard affectionate and intelligent MC behavior.

You will just have to be patient. If the cat doesn't like to be touched most places on his body then don't do it. Many cats do not like it if you touch their bodies. Heads/necks seem to be the best place. Getting to where the cat feels safe enough to be held will take the longest probably. Our retiree wouldn't let us hold her for many months--and she hadn't been abused in any way by people. Also, not all MCs are big cuddlers. They will want to be around you all the time, but not necessarily on your lap or being held. I have found this particularly true of males, though others have different experiences. On the other hand, biting should be discouraged by yelling ouch and/or just walking away and ignoring him briefly. I know how frustrating it can be; I would be doing something nice for the ex-stray and all of a sudden he would swat me--very hard not to get angry. Getting mad isn't terribly useful, though, as it will probably just delay progress. This cat has probably had bad experiences with people, so even more time and patience will be required. You did something great for him by rescuing and giving him a good home; don't give up on him after only a couple of months.