- Joined
- Nov 29, 2015
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- 137
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Hi there, I recently adopted a ragdoll kitten, male. He's 5 months now, and he likes to bite me and my fiancee. It's never random, sometimes he does it after we pet him too long and I understand it's over stimulation and we try to see the cues and stop petting before then. Other times, he's purring and he seems to be really into the petting and then he'll turn around, grab my wrist with his front paws, and bite my hand while he rabbit kicks with his back legs. Sometimes we just put our hand near his nose so he can smell us before we pet him and he'll bite or if we hold him too long. It's never a hard bite and it never breaks skin or hurts, but we're concerned that once his adult teeth grow in they'll be much sharper and we want to deter the behaviour early on.
We're saying firmly 'No' over and over when he bites and sometimes he'll stop and lick us instead. I've also tried the 'no' and walk way and ignore him. We've done this for a month and it hasn't really changed his behaviour at all. We'd like to be able to handle him without the biting, and we definitely don't push ourselves onto the cat. We hardly pet him for more than a minute or hold him for more than a minute at a time. Is there anyway to increase his tolerance and get him to use other ways to communicate besides biting? We play with him twice a day until he's panting, and he has lots of toys out.
We're saying firmly 'No' over and over when he bites and sometimes he'll stop and lick us instead. I've also tried the 'no' and walk way and ignore him. We've done this for a month and it hasn't really changed his behaviour at all. We'd like to be able to handle him without the biting, and we definitely don't push ourselves onto the cat. We hardly pet him for more than a minute or hold him for more than a minute at a time. Is there anyway to increase his tolerance and get him to use other ways to communicate besides biting? We play with him twice a day until he's panting, and he has lots of toys out.