Biting Kitten? This may be the answer...

Peeka, one of my two male kittens, is a very communicative, clever, and loving five to six month old (not yet seven months like I say in the video). However he bites my fingers. He hasn't bitten me hard, not on purpose, but always my fingers and always when he is being affectionate, and I am petting him, not in play.

I've been trying to figure it out. Because when I blow on his face, he gets a hurt look, gives up for awhile, but then always persists, back to the teeth on my fingers. He will actually seek my fingers out, if I close my fist, he goes for the thumb, etc. The thing is, he is always so persistent with the biting my fingers, until finally I put him down or walk away.

So I kept wondering what it was he was trying to show me with this finger biting...I assumed he was trying to communicate. He's really smart, he even tries to say his name, having figured out how to say the "ka" part of his name but still fumbling with the "pee" part of it... It comes out more like "purr--KA." But yes, he can say, KA.

In any event, tonight, while I was snuggling with him, he began biting again, and it occurred to me that he might want me to "bite" him back. Not with my teeth because I've tried that and that wasn't what he wanted, but it did make him curious...so I began touching him in a way I haven't before and sure as heck, he immediately stopped the biting and laid very still, purring. I was quite sure that he and I had a little "thing" happen, a moment when I finally got it. He hasn't bitten me since, so I thought I would share this with y'all because we get this biting question all the time in here.

I made a little video to show the kind of touching he likes, the kind that made him stop biting my fingers for anyone who wants to see it. It's dark but you can see what I'm doing.

Remember that he was ONLY biting my fingers, he's never bitten or scratched me anywhere else. He doesn't even reflexively do that back feet scratching thing when he's on his back, neither of the kittens do, not yet anyway. They aren't aggressive with me in any way shape or form. If your kitten is you have a different problem, I would think.
Here is the link to the short video.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v2...v?t=1167096926

Interesting. All of my rescue kittens (now 8 months) nip at my fingers when they cuddle. Like your Peeka it's only the fingers and it is not hard. But I notice that they will do it only when I stop petting them, like when I need to write down something or reach out to get a drink, answer the phone, you know what I mean. I still discourage it by growling at them and they do stop. My older cats give me a tickle with their tongue as a sign they want to be petted. I prefer the kittens to do the same thing.

Heh. He still has not bitten my fingers again and it's been over a day since I first learned this. I'm not even hiding my fingers from him anymore.

I am going to go ahead and assume he was doing this to communicate something to me about my fingers and what he wanted them to do!