Any way of telling how to choose a young cat or kitten to know if it will be vicious i.e. Deep bites and scratches without provocation, when it grows up?
If you're looking at kittens choose an outgoing one -the one that comes up to you first. Must say I've never come across a tame cat that would attack a human without provocation.
Not really. I have two littermates with wildly different personalities. One is a cowardly boy cat and the girl cat could be used as a guard cat, she bites because She wants to.
Our scabby cat lives peacefully with my OH and two Doberman. Not so peacefully with me, I get ambushed a couple of times a week, quick bite then runs and hides, and I'm the one who looks after him!
Kittens which are separated from their mother too early can end up as very nervous cats, who will scratch and bite. It's better to leave kittens with their mum until the stage at which we starts to reject them (around 4 months possibly) , by which time they will have developed plenty of self-confidence and be less likely to bite or scratch.
I'm not sure I agree with Chris,as very early socialisation/bonding with us humans can result in an extremely affectionate cat. All kittens test the boundaries by nipping,scratching...and terrorising us. It will pass...;-)