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neutering

post #1 of 8
9/16/11 at 8:17am
Thread Starter 
So I will be taking cynder in a couple of weeks to get neutered, and I'm just wondering if it will calm his biting issues.. He will bite me pretty hard and i have to carry a water bottle around with me, all i have to do is shake it and he backs off,but I'm really hoping it will calm him, and what can I expect from him after the operation?
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post #2 of 8
9/16/11 at 3:56pm
IMO I doubt it would help. Neutering will help reduce behaviors associated with mating or finding a mate, but I don't see how biting would be changed by neutering.
It can take up to a month for the hormone levels to taper off after neutering, so any changes will not be immediate but may take a few weeks.
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post #3 of 8
9/16/11 at 4:15pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by cyndersmom View Post
So I will be taking cynder in a couple of weeks to get neutered, and I'm just wondering if it will calm his biting issues.. He will bite me pretty hard and i have to carry a water bottle around with me, all i have to do is shake it and he backs off,but I'm really hoping it will calm him, and what can I expect from him after the operation?
First of all each cat has a different personality. Your Cynder is still young so he will likely bite less over time. But if he is biting you so hard you need to take steps to modify your cats behavior. However I do not think neutering him will stop his biting.

I would say when Cynder bites you stuff a toy, sock, or some object in his mouth. Then get up and walk away calmly. Another idea is to clap very loudly when he bites you and say NO. Then walk away slowly and calmly.

Now the main bonuses of neutering your cat are: he is far less likely to spray, he will not get testicular cancer later in life, will be far less aggressive with other cats, and less likely to roam/try to escape outdoors.
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post #4 of 8
9/16/11 at 4:30pm
If you were squirting him with the water bottle, it's great that now all it takes is a shake, but please lose the water bottle. We've found over the years the most effective way to modify a cat's behavior is as Cat Person described - redirection - but more effective than the loud noise was the short, sharp, puff of air directly in the face accompanied by a firm "no." Then redirect the kitty to something appropriate to bite (bendy straws are perfect for this and make great toys for kitties). If he plays with it, praise the heck out of him. If he keeps trying to bite you, then you blow, "no," give the straw and walk away.

He's probably teething and should become less bitey. But cats learn far better with positive reinforcement and emphasis on what they should be doing than the negative reinforcement. The lesson is: appropriate toys are good for play, not people. If you use your toys, you get fun and praise; if you try to use people as a toy, you get ignored.
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post #5 of 8
9/17/11 at 10:55am
Tiny had that issue; he tended to bite quite a bit. Neutering didn't really change anything along those lines. I got him when he was about nine months old; he was a stray and I can only guess that his former owners let him play with their hands when he was a kitten and it was cute.

What worked for Tiny was, at first, not to react to his biting. He just kind of chewed on me and I ignored him. Eventually he stopped doing it so often; and now I just tend to pull away and ignore him for a bit when he bites. I also make sure that when he seems to be in the hyper mood that causes him to forget that I don't like him biting me, I have a biteable toy to throw to him.

I should make it clear that Tiny's biting is play-biting, not aggression. He doesn't bite down, and the absolute worst I've gotten from him has been a small bruise from the tip of a fang. If your cat is actually aggressive, that's a different story; but from what you say, it seems like his biting is probably play-biting, like Tiny's.
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post #6 of 8
9/17/11 at 11:08am
I just want to chime in and say I agree with the above posts. have some toy in your other hand while petting him so if he starts to bite you, you can replace your arm/hand with a toy in his mouth. Or, if there's no toy around, the blow of air in his face and walking away should help him learn too, that biting people isn't ok. Genever was really bitey when we first got her, and after reading these suggestions on here, she's gotten much better. She still bites sometimes, but it's usually our fault- like we just HAVE to pet that tummy sometimes (which she hates). Once in a while she'll just whip her head around and bite my hand if I didn't notice she'd had enough petting, and if she bites hard, I still do the puff of air and she lets go and runs off.

Oh, also he should also calm down as he grows up too. Kittens are just 1,000% energy!

Good luck!!
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post #7 of 8
9/17/11 at 11:18am
I will say that if the biting is a sexual thing (males bite the females during mating), then neutering might help. But more likely, at his age, he's just a naughty bitey kitten, so neutering won't do anything about that.
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post #8 of 8
9/17/11 at 12:40pm
Neutering can calm them down a bit--hormones do drive them to be pretty crazy sometimes. But it won't really change their playfulness; just their tendency to want to get out and roam and look for females.
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