A painful lesson

My kittens are great. They're fun to play with, very affectionate and just plain ole cool cats.

When they're playing I can pick them up and hold them in front of my face. They're GENTLY paw at my nose etc. no claws out, and they're very gentle. it's really cute actually. But they never bite or bring their claws out.

Yesterday i'm sitting on the couch. I had a box of tic tacs. I put 4 in my mouth and i'm tinkering with the kittens. They got a whiff of the candy, and immediately start sniffing right up to my lips. like VERY intensely. I figured they just liked the smell.

So I put them down and watch tv. one of the kittens jumps on my back from the back of the couch and climbs up my shoulder. she starts sniffing intensely again, and starts pawing my mouth. with claws out. she then stops sniffing and starts BITING my mouth. this isn't play anymore.

BOTH of them did this. I blew it off thinking they were just excited. but it happened again this morning. Same thing.

Is that strange or what?

Sounds like it's time to stop letting them touch your face with their paws, even when it seems friendly and gentle.

I can see you've posted quite a bit, but once you get used to the forums, it can be easy to forget all of the resources. Have you read this thread? It's got huge amounts of advice for aggression.

Huh? They're kittens and they're hungry (not really, but they think they are :-) plus they're programmed to get food from their mother's mouth... no agression there, just natural. I wouldn't have thought Tic Tacs smell good to cats, but then again everything I ever thought about cats has changed over time!

How old are they? It is completely normal for kittens to react this way! You have to remember they are kittens, without "mom" kitty they know no boundaries, manners, or respect. When we adopt kittens, we become surrogate mom and are responsible for teaching them these behaviors, as "mom" kitty would.

I'm going to guess it was a mint candy. Catnip is in the mint family. Are you beginning to see a possibility here?

Sometimes strong scents can cause kittens/cats to react like that - I have no clue why.

Originally Posted by mrblanche

I'm going to guess it was a mint candy. Catnip is in the mint family. Are you beginning to see a possibility here?

Click to expand...

That was my first thought, too.

Originally Posted by mrblanche

I'm going to guess it was a mint candy. Catnip is in the mint family. Are you beginning to see a possibility here?

Click to expand...

Yep!! My babies go crazy for anything mint but especially when I chew mint gum!

I've had cats drag out used mint tea bags from the trash and rip them apart & eat the wet mint.

Originally Posted by mrblanche

I'm going to guess it was a mint candy. Catnip is in the mint family. Are you beginning to see a possibility here?

Click to expand...

Ahhh. Wow i didn't know that about catnip. I've shied away from getting catnip because I'm not sure it's a good thing for a kitten. Is it? I always put it with like a drug and didn't want them freaking out like cats do, then getting mad.

but yes, it's a tic tac which is a spearmint flavor. It's funny, it happened again last night, so I took one out and put it on my hand. Figuring she'd realize it was hot after licking it and not wanting more... She would pick it up in her mouth and spit it out, then do that same thing over and over. I was really careful to make sure she didn't crunch it because I figured that'd be a lot of mint heheh.

Anyway, that makes total sense about catnip now that I know because that's exactly how they act around it. There's nothing else even close that causes them to react so drastically

I'm not brilliant, I've just had cats who reacted to mint before.

I guess there has to be SOME advantage to getting older--you look smarter!