Aggressive Kitten: Help am at my wit's end

I have a young kitten of about 9 weeks, I have had him for just under a fortnight and he is growing increasingly aggressive towards me. He bites, scratches and claws at me all the time I am in the house, climbing up my legs when I am in the bathroom, biting (not nipping, actually biting) my feet when I am in the kitchen, and even though I have done all I can to stem aggressive play, it continues until I am left with my hands covered in bleeding scratches and bites. I have read all the advice, grab gently by the scruff of the neck, ignore him, walk away, wrap in a towel, say 'no' firmly, and followed every single one of these instructions but nothing at all has worked. I have also bought him scratchy toys, made him noise-making toys, and play with him for upwards of two hours of an evening. He doesn't like it if I don't pay attention to him and this became incredibly obvious when this morning - as I was using it, he jumped on my laptop and sent it crashing to the floor...he is ripping into things all the time and ignored everything I say, and all the preventative measures. I have even taken to tucking my hands under me, but then he just turns to biting and scratching the back of my legs and (just last night) biting a hole in my bottom lip.

I am seriously at my wit's end with him, I am wondering if perhaps he needs more attention than I can give him (I work all day, leaving at 7am and not home until almost 6) and I live alone. Someone goes in at lunch time to give him his lunch and stays with him for half an hour, but I don't know if this is enough, and I don't know what else I can do.

Does anyone have any advice? Please, though I love him to bits I am wondering if perhaps he should go to a home that has much more time to give him, and more people to give him this attention...

No, his mum wasn’t feral, I collected him from the home where he was born, he was the only kitten in her litter. The majority of kittens (unless they are pedigree) are sold/given away at around 8-10 weeks over here (I am in the UK).

He would do amazingly well with a buddy, but that is an expense I can’t cope with (vet bills are expensive here and I wanted to be able to offer a kitten the best care), also I don’t know if at present he would be receptive to another cat. I have read that article on the aggressive kittens (as well as many others with similar suggestions) and have followed almost all of them to the letter. I have taken him to the vets for his ‘new kitten’ check up and he is apparently incredibly healthy, he doesn’t have worms, fleas, ear mites or anything else of that type...he is not deaf, he doesn’t have any burrs in his fur, his paws and claws are not damaged in any way, he is eating well, uses his litter tray...he is only loud at night, but it is the aggression I can’t cope with. My hands, legs, chest, back, and face all look as though I have been taking to my skin with a razorblade, no sooner has one set of scratches started to heal than I have another one. The neighbour who has been going in to feed him at lunch time has told me that he has become a little bit more vicious with her as well, going so far as to climb up her legs and dig his claws into her as she puts his food down. We are both very cautious about how we approach him – though he was not a feral cat and do our best to be gentle.

I am seriously at a loss and, knowing that there are lots of people out there who have much more time to devote (and are able to spend all day with a kitten) I am tempted to cut my losses and have him rehoused somewhere more suitable for a cat that needs the attention that I can’t give him.

This morning was almost the last straw, the laptop he broke contained the last pictures ever taken (and unfortunately the only copies) of my deceased grandmother...they are something that cannot be replaced and though I don’t have much of a temper the fury I felt led me to leaving the house and furiously cycling an extra 2 miles before work this morning...

Thank you for the suggestions. I live in rented accommodation so having things mounted on the wall is impossible, and this will not help resolve the fact that he is using me like a scratching post even though he has several (as well as a large number of other amusing toys both made and purchased).

Again I have to thank you for the advice. These are all methods (apart from the caging) that I have followed...he stays in the kitchen (the only door that properly shuts - though I have made sure that things are safe for him), he is only seen by myself and my neighbour. He is absolutely fine with her (she has other animals and he seems to be all right with her), but when it comes to me he hisses, bites, scratches. I just don't know what to do anymore, I am sore, I have red angry scratches and welts on my hands and legs and the loss (the harddisk it seems is a total write-off) of the last ever pictures of my grandmother have left me feeling rather resentful. I have tried my damnedest to get him to feel at home, toys, attention, good kitten foods etc...but it's all seemingly for naught. I wonder (most of the time) if the resentment from him doesn't stem from the fact that I am out at work all day so I am only at home of an evening and part of that evening is taken up with working on the computer as I finish the last year of my correspondence degree. I also have started to wonder if I didn't get a kitten for all the wrong reasons, I was lonely yet I am hardly at home...seems incredibly selfish.