Kitty is still being bad.

I posted a qestion about this a few months ago, and the problem still hasn't gone away. We have two female kittens that are 6 months old. One of them is hyper all the time and always getting into trouble. You can't leave anything laying on the coffee table, b/c she will come along and knock it off. She still bites your fingers when you pet her(it doesn't hurt, but it is annoying). She still trys to bite your nose when she gets up in your face. Although she won't bite my fiance on the nose anymore. One day she bit her on the nose, and then she started to paw at her nose. Danielle acted like she was gonna bite the kitty, and the kitty stuck her paw in Danielle's mouth, and she accidentally bit her! Ever since then she won't bite Danielle's nose, but she still bites mine. I've tried blowing in her face, but that doesn't work at all. She backs off, then jumps right back up in my face. Is there anything that can be done? Don't get me wrong, I love her to death, but I've got to get this biting thing under control. They will be getting spayed in a few weeks. Will she settle down after that? I've heard that cats tend to not be as hyper once they have been fixed, but I don't know if this is true or not. Or is she just being a kitten, and the problem will go away in time? Oh, and one other thing we have noticed. She seems to be the one that always wants the attention. The other one is content just laying on the floor, or couch and doesn't need to be petted, but the little terror always wants to be on your lap, being petted. That is when she does most of the biting. If she is on your lap and you are not petting her she starts to claw and bite at your fingers. Is this just a way of her saying she wants attention? Basically what I need to know is will she stop the biting with time, or is there anything I can do now to get her to stop? Thanks in advance, and sorry for the long post.

Dan

Well, in answer to the calming down once spayed, yes they usually do calm down a bit.
With the biting and scratching it could be one of two things. It could be that she is asking for attention and treating you both as siblings. She is trying to initiate playtime. While she is young I would stop paying ANY attention to her once she does this. If blowing in her face is not working, I would try making a loud noise and then put her down. Just keep doing this until she gets the idea.
On the flip side of things, she could be reacting to an overstimulation. It sounds funny, but although they want pets and such they get too much stimulation and then they bite. With that, you can let her jump into your laps but don't pet her. Just see what she does. If she does it without you touching her, its probably just the play issue. If she curls up and goes to sleep it may be overstimulation. If thats the case you can work with her to desensitise her. Give her one or two pets and then stop. Keep doing this over months and give a few more pets as time goes by.
In my experience with kittens, most of these things fade with age. The older they get, the calmer they get.

There was a member of another cat forum I go to who insisted that the best way to stop the biting is to do exactly what your girlfriend did! This member said that she would very gently bite her kitten's ear whenever the kitten would bite and that it took only a couple of these tiny bites to break the kitten of the habit. She insisted that cat mothers will do this to their kittens when they play too roughly, so you would simply be imitating momma cat behaviors.

Having said that...I don't think I would do this because aggression (you biting) typically leads to more aggression (kitten biting). But, I had to bring it up since it worked for your girlfriend.

No, actually biting works. It's just a last resort type of thing for me. young dogs also bite fingers and sometimes ankles to try to initiation play and attention from their humans. A lot of people think it is cute in a small puppy, but they are less pleased if the habit takes hold and continues into adulthood. With cats it is much the same. The difference between aggressive biting (or clawing) and wanting attention or play or biting as an expression of love is pretty easy to see. Aggressive play is not the same thing as hostile attack. A cat must learn to play aggressively as training for later hunting and fighting. It could be argued that all play is a form of honing aggressive skills.

Anyway, if you can bear to bite your cat's ear, try it and see what she does. The rule is that you should not bite hard enough to draw blood...

Hi there :angel2:

Your little ones sound so cute. It's been so long since I've had kittens, but I sure do remember these behaviours. As I recall, I have bitten my kitties and as Catherine has said, just not very hard, but hard enough to let them know who was in charge of the household (well, at least for the time being).

Sandie's advice is also very affective, but then again, cats, just like people respond to such a sundry of behavioural tactics. Just like one won't like playing with a certain toy that the other is crazy about.

So, it's all up to finding out what and what that kitty is all about...tough little "safe" to crack; but when you do get that very special bond; there's no one or nothing that can take that away from you.

Good Luck

Love, Peace &