Biting

First post for me. I've lived with three cats, all adopted as kittens, all mixed breed, all only kitties in our 2adult home. Our first a female for 16 years, second a male for 12 years and our kitty now Simon, 11months (in photo). Simon is a totally different cat. I've read a lot since our first cats, so I play with him daily, rotate toys, try to provide enriched environment. I'm beginning to dread waking up in the Am and facing him. He demand my full attention. I play till exhaustion when I can. We work full time, so he is by himself a lot. He follows me around, love bites me if I'm not attentive. I've tried soda can/penny noise but I ' m starting dread time with him. Help, He 's nothing like our other sweet cats!

Aww, poor guy still has lots of kitten energy to burn up, doesn't he.  

Here's an article that may give you some ideas--scroll down to the bottom and there's a section on kittens:  http://www.thecatsite.com/a/herding...-rescue-nocturnal-craziness-and-kitten-issues

I have a 2 year old cat , who still has a lot of energy! If I don't play with her as soon as I come home after work, she'll let me know by bringing me toys, and then she will "hug" my leg and give me a gentle nip!

I play fetch with her, up and down the stairs to tire her out. What also really works, is taking her out for a long walk. I leash trained her, so she walks on a harness and leash when we go out for a walk. After about 45 minutes outside, she's ready to come back in and take a big nap! Maybe leash training your cat will help expend some extra energy!

I (sort of) trained my cat Sonny out of biting when he was around that age. He would get in my face and bite at it for attention. If it hurt or whenever he bit me on the lip, I gently tapped his nose. Every now and then, 13 years later, if he gets too excited and bites my lip or bites my face more than a nibble, he immediately puts his ears down and closes his eyes waiting for the tap. I've always let him nibble at my face otherwise, which he does now when he's being lovey or when he runs out of food in the middle of the night. Spoiled much?

I'm not sure if people here advise against tapping on the nose or not. It was really gentle, not a bop at all. But annoying enough to him that he learned boundaries.  I've never used this training with other kittens, but back when he was a kitten it was something I read to try rather than spraying him with water (which scares the crap out of him) or yelling at him. I've never raised my voice at him ever.

I have a cat right now who's almost two who still gets the crazy kitten mood and zooms all over the house at night, sometimes running into doors (??). I think your kitten will outgrow it. Roman (the almost two year old) LOVES laser pointers and gets worn out when we use that to play with him. It's nice for when we're too tired to get super active with him but when he has a lot of energy. Even the 6 year old cat gets involved in the mix and they have a good time. I'm not sure it's any consolation but a lot of kittens are in crazy kitten mode for a couple years. Just maybe find ways to keep him distracted and leave balls for him during the day that he can chase around and expend some energy while you are gone.

Good luck.