Kitten biting hands and feet and legs and arms ...

[bipsoucolline]

Hello everyone,

It's been four weeks since we got our new adorable kitten Gaia. Father is a Birman, mother is part Turkish Angora. She got her father's love for cuddle and her mother's energy and love of hunt. For those who saw my first post, we went through a little litterbox issue that is fully resolved now. We enjoy a very dynamic and cuddly kitten ! She loves to play, explore everywhere, climb as high as she can get - and then meows because she doesn't know how to climb down. During week days we're at work, so she's full of energy when we get hom and we get to play with her A LOT. And when she's done, she comes to us purring for cuddles.

But this past week, she developped a very inconvenient habit : biting us. Sometimes, she would look at us like she looks at her toys, eyes wide open, ready to jump,and then she jumps on our arm/hand/foot/leg (the closest), grabs it (without her claws) and bites.

In her first weeks here, a firm "No" or hissing would make her stop immediatly. Now it doesn't work anymore. We tried taking her by the scruff and putting her aside, it doesn't work anymore. We tried stopping every movement and stopping playing with her, it doesn't work. We tried redirecting her attention on a toy, it works when we does it, but she continues to bite. We tried leaving her there and ignoring her, and finally we tried shutting her out of the room we are in when she does that. This got us a theatrical result : she meows extremely loud and desperatly for ten minutes straight. It does calm her down ... for five minutes. Then she goes at it again.

We're considering taking in a second kitten as our plan always was to have two cats. That way they would play together and not be bored all day. But it takes a bit of time to find a kitten we love, so we're looking for a more immediate solution to try.

It's starting to worry us and it's really inconvenient as she grows quickly and her bites can be painful, even though she never broke our skin for the moment. She wakes us at night/on the morning jumping on our arms and biting. We're short of ideas to teach her not to do that. 

Any suggestion ?

 

[quiet]

Does anyone play with her with their hands or did anyone. It is real easy to do and not think about.

My suggestions are:

No more hand play if it is happening

Set play time consistent every day or twice a day with a wand toy. Da Bird is great

No more scruffing.

No yelling

if she bites have something handy like a toy or anything and redirect away from you.

She isn't a dog so you have to train different

You just avoid the situation that makes her bite

You have had her for 4 weeks I am sure you know how she looks before she is going to bite, so when you see her getting that way go do something else, You will learn to recognize her behavior a good minute or two before she tries to bite.

If you are picking her up and placing her on your lap etc stop doing that. She has her own life and maybe she doesn't want to hang out right then.

I have seen allot of this behavior with kittens just being kittens or with kittens that are handled to much

So think about it. If there is a certain times he does it like at night be aware of that and have other toys ready.

No more scruffing. No hissing either. A hiss means " I don't want to fight,"

Good luck kittens are hard to deal with some times but it can all be worked out with or without another kitten.

Make sure nobody is playing with her with their hands in your house 9 times out of 10 that is going on with someone. 

 

[bipsoucolline]

There never was any hand play to avoid this kind of problem. We used to let her play with our feet under the covers at night but we stopped because we fear she doesn't make any difference between that and our bare feet.

We already play with her consistently - as soon as I get home from work - and try to redirect her with toys. Also, we can't avoid the situation that makes her bite because she does it whatever the situation. We can be playing, watching tv, working on computers, in bed, or just be there when she want to play. Most times she's coming herself, we're not forcing her on our lap or anything as she comes often by herself. But we'll try to be careful not doing it, I didn't know it could be an issue.

You're right we know exactly when she's going to jump on us ! So we'll try to stick to redirecting her everytime we see that.

 

[red top rescue]

The DaBird toy is great for redirecting that energy (available on Amazon and at many pet stores).  Another kitten will teach her not to bite too hard -- she probably left her litter too young and didn't get adequate socialization from her litter mates.  They usually learn these skills around 7-10 weeks and many people adopt them out at 6 weeks.  Another toy that helps is one of those larger canvas dog toys that she can bite and kick as hard as she wants. 

 

[quiet]

Check her gums and teethe as well. She may have sore gums sometimes that will make them need something to chew on like the above suggested dog toy that is canvas. Good that you are already doing allot of the right things.