My Cat Randomly Bites Then Licks My Hand Sometimes?

[Moonlight_wolf]

This doesn’t happen super often but I’m just wondering what it means. Sometimes I’ll be petting my cat and she’ll randomly just grab my hand and bite it, it never hurts because she doesn’t ever do it hard, so you know I would have just chalked it up to me not paying attention and she got overstimulated or something. But then after she’s bitten me then still holding onto my hand she will then lick me, then bite me, then lick me again. It’s very strange and I’m not sure what’s going on so I’m not sure if it’s something I should discourage. Is this the love bites that I’ve heard about?

The only reason I’m hesitant to say they are love bites, is because of the suddenness of the initial bite. It’s like she’s like “YOUVE PET ME TOO MUCH.... no I’m sorry I love you..... BUT YOU STILL PET ME TOO MUCH..... but you are a good human and I love you.”

I mean I have seen cats grab other cats and bite/lick them. Not sure if that’s this.

Could it be a playful thing? I never play with her with my hands so I wouldn’t think it was that, but it’s possible.

 

[abyeb]

I’m thinking that it sounds like love bites, since they are so gentle, and then she goes back to licking your hand, like the description in this article says: How To Deal With Cat "love Bites"?

 

[Mamanyt1953]

Oh, those love bites! I'm betting that is what it is. I get them frequently. Yes, that's an excellent article!

 

[Daisy6]

Daisy licks me after biting like that. I think of the bite as keeping my hand still for the licks, but it does happen when she is overstimulated.

 

[rubysmama]

I was thinking "love bites" too.

 

[Jem]

Sounds to me like she is overstimulated I would also recommend you look up play aggression and petting induced aggression in cats. Sometimes if your cat is in a more playful mood and not just in the mood to cuddle, petting can overstimulate them and they then respond by biting. But because she is not mad, just frisky, you get the biting and licking and so on. And it does not take long to go from cuddle mode to play mode Watch her tail when you are cuddling and petting her. If her tail starts to swish more and a bit harder with every stroke, she is getting frisky, so stop petting and let her just lay on your lap.

 

[rubysmama]

Sounds to me like she is overstimulated I would also recommend you look up play aggression and petting induced aggression in cats.

TCS just happens to have articles on those topics, too.

How To Stop Playtime Aggression In Cats
Cat Aggression Toward People

 

[Mamanyt1953]

LOL, TCS has articles on just about everything, and we're filling in the blank spots constantly!

 

[catlover73]

This sounds like a combination of love bites and play aggression. My Casey has a night time ritual we call “tub lovings”. He climbs in the bath tub for pets and chirps at us. He never bites my hubby. After a certain amount of time he bites me. It is not hard enough to hurt me. When he bites me tub loving time ends immediately. My hubby has watched me interact and does not see anything I am doing differently to cause him to bite me. I have noticed though that he starts rolling around the tub more right before he bites. I also noticed over time it takes longer for him to bite. Sometimes there are clues with body language before biting happens.