Kitten will not stop biting!!

Hi everyone, so a couple Saturdays ago I found a male kitten on the highway. He went to the vet the following Monday where they guessed he was no more than 5 weeks old. He's eating solids and soft food and had been treated with revolution as he was INFESTED with fleas when I found him. He has an appointment on September 8th to get his kitten needles and will be neutered when he's around five months old.

My problem is he bites ALL the time. He's about seven weeks old now and it's just been the last week that it's gotten bad. I'm not sure if it's aggression, my guess is he is trying to play.. But it's not acceptable. I can't touch him or be near him without him biting my hands. I can pick him up and place him away and he just pounces right back on and grabs my hand with his paws and starts biting. It never stops.

He's also started doing the same thing to our feet when we walk around him. He'll chase us and jump our feet and start biting.

Everyone seems to think it's adorable how he 'play fights' but I know it will not be cute when he's a full grown car and is attacking our hands/feet.

Please help!!

Good for you for taking in the little guy!

Try playing with him with a wand toy or laser toy instead, so he gets used to going after other things besides your hands.

With the hands and biting, feral and semi feral cats (outdoor cats) usually wean their offspring earlier because food is unsure and their milk dries up faster.  Usually any siblings will stick together (for safety) for a few weeks and they teach each other boundaries (that biting is not pleasant, etc).  But, he may have been a singling or his siblings died ( a common occurrence with outdoor kittens).  So, just say a firm "NO" when he bites your hands and redirect him to more appropriate play things. 

As for the feet, many kittens have a fascination with human feet that borders on a fetish.  It's normal.  He'll grow out of it eventually.  So just make sure to always wear at least thick socks or slippers in his presence!

Thanks for the advice guys! I have been trying to redirect his attention to toys and if works sometimes but he is much more interested in chewing on any part of our body he can reach. As I was typing up my earlier post he kept jumping up onto the bed and attacking my hands and each time I put him down he would jump back up. He was purring as he was biting me!

He is a friendly little guy, biting aside. He wants to be around you all the time. He didn't even seem the least bit scared of me when I picked him up off the road.

While I love cats, I've always been more of a dog person. So this has been a learning experience for me.

Apparently thats normal behavior for a young kitten without a playmate. I went through the same thing when I got my 6 week old kitten. I thought I had adopted a crazy kitten with a strange behavior disorder. It was kinda shocking to see something that tiny and adorable be so mean. Turned out she just had a lot energy, no social skills, and an attachment to anything that moved. In the past 6 weeks (now she is 12 weeks), she has stopped trying to grab on my leg and bite me constantly. A lot of it was due to the male kitten I got for her to play with, but I even notice progress when he isn't around.

I read a lot of articles, posts, and advice. Basically these four points kept popping up:

1) Never encourage the kitten to play with your hand/feet.

2) Tiring them out is the only way to get them calm down.

3) Always use some sort of sound to startle them when they bite, but don't move your body.

4) It will take lots of time.

It can be very stressful and sometimes it seems like there is no solution. However, I recommend that you look for little signs of progress to keep your spirit and determination up. At first I thought the redirection and the sounds weren't working because she would still bite me after she got startled by the hiss sound I made. However this started happening:

1) She started releasing my foot/hand much faster when I made the hiss sound.

2) Instead of attempting to attack me 10 times in a row before playing with a toy, it got down to 2 times.

3) She started dropping toys near me and giving me clear signs that she was going to be in full attack kitty mode if I didn't play with her.

4) She started falling asleep by me. (This was huge for me, I swear I never saw her sleep for the first 2 weeks).

I also highly recommend keeping his nails trimmed often. Your hands and feet will be grateful. He will also have a harder time trying to grip you when biting. I didn't realize how long my kittens nail had gotten until they were trimmed. Even my kitten was shocked. She looked so bummed out that her claws no longer got caught in my PJ pant legs.

Dora and Olivia who are 15 weeks love to attack my feet in the morning when they wake up. I just ended up putting another blanket on the bed and they still swat at them if I turn over or move my feet, but they really can't bit them now.

Thank you so much for your reply sunflowers!! That was super informative, just what I was looking for!

Hi,

your kitty would benefit greatly from a foster home with kittens of approximately the same age. I would suggest getting his first vaccination on the 8th and then place him in a foster home for another 4-6 weeks after that.

Personally I would choose a second male kitten from the foster mum's litter so he doesn't have to grow up without a buddy to fight, cuddle and play with. Plus, two cats are better than one

Ask your vet and your local shelter if they know of a suitable foster home.

October

I don't know where you live OP, but in the US, a foster would not be a suitable option.  Adopting another cat can help, yes.  He is young enough that he would accept it fairly quickly.  Sex doesn't matter as long as they are both neutered/spayed.  As long as they have compatible personalities.  So you would want one that's playful and social for him and probably laid back  and sweet for you.  Kittens are a little harder to detect personality traits on but as long as it's nurtured with lots of love and understanding by you, it will be just fine. 

However, 2 cats is twice the responsibility.  Twice the vet bill.  Twice the amount of everything.  I'm not trying to scare you but with the unwanted pet crisis here, it is very hard to rehome a cat if it doesn't work out.  Shelters are overrun and there are not enough fosters to go around.  And if you end up dropping one off at a shelter, it has 3 days tops to find a home.  Most do not leave the shelter alive.  So you need to really be committed to another cat before you get one.  It's a scary alternative life and death for them if you are not ready. 

I think he will be fine with the suggestions above.  And the good news is they eventually grow out of their foot fettish.  Good luck!

Unfortunately getting another kitten is not an option at the moment as my apartment only allows one cat.

I visited the shelter when I first found this kitten to ask for help/advice and all they did was lecture me on he reposibilites and costs of having a pet. They didn't seem interested in helping me in the slightest, only on lecturing me. No advice was given.

It is so very hard to find anyone to foster kittens, and the local spca would not take him to one of their fosters unless I surrendered him which is not happening.

Emmilyy said:

Unfortunately getting another kitten is not an option at the moment as my apartment only allows one cat.

I visited the shelter when I first found this kitten to ask for help/advice and all they did was lecture me on he reposibilites and costs of having a pet. They didn't seem interested in helping me in the slightest, only on lecturing me. No advice was given.

It is so very hard to find anyone to foster kittens, and the local spca would not take him to one of their fosters unless I surrendered him which is not happening.

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So very true and it's because shelters are so overrun and fosters are all beyond their limit.  It's sad.  But, the advice above should help you a lot!

Yes, all the advice I have received so far has been wonderful! Hopefully in a few weeks I will see some progress with the little guy. I am so attached to him already! I really do wish my apartment would allow a second cat as I would love to be able to adopt another kitten to be his playmate.

He'll be just fine as a spoiled only baby!  Cats can do just fine as an only baby.  They are not "pack" animals persay with the exception of lions.  They can be social but they can do just fine and indeed thrive as an only kitty.  Some even prefer the single kitty life!