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Gentle nipping

post #1 of 5
12/5/10 at 9:37pm
Thread Starter 
Hi all!

My cat, Peanut, is a 6 year old male who is neutered and declawed. Whenever I or anyone else goes to pet him, he will let them for a second and then he'll turn his head and very, very gently nip their hand- then lick them for a little while, then let them go back to petting him. Is this just his way of saying "hi, I love you"? It's very sweet! He'll also nip at my arm as a way to get my attention if I'm not petting him (i.e. sleeping instead of paying attention to him, now silly of me!).

Does anyone else have a cat that does this?
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post #2 of 5
12/6/10 at 5:28am
My fable does this sometime's but she will do it quite hard!
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post #3 of 5
12/6/10 at 5:34am
Yep, my Tomas does. It's part of how he "returns" affection so I have never been able to get him to stop doing it. To do so would be like forcing a cat to stop kneading or cuddling.
I have successfully made it known to him that his nips do hurt and to not pinch me as hard as he used to. Otherwise I just try to make sure my hand or arm isn't within easy to grab range when he's in that mood.
Tomas is also one of those cats that absolutely must cuddle and groom other cats, so it's not just the humans that get this from him.
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post #4 of 5
12/6/10 at 6:00am
Osiris and Shadey both give "love nips" and always have.
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post #5 of 5
12/6/10 at 9:36am
Luna does that, only she bites hard while purring away. We call them love bites. It's a show of affection
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