Should I Be Worried?

[csteen85]

My 6 month old kitten, Tony is generally energetic and affectionate. Every now and then he surprises me, though.

In the evening, when I'm laying on the sofa, if he wants to join me, he jumps onto my chest and nuzzles in my neck, while purring. Cute, right?
Well, every so often, he decides instead of nuzzling my neck, he's going to BITE MY FACE.

It isn't extremely painful, but it's not exactly pleasant either. He doesn't break skin or use his claws, but I'm always shocked when it happens.

He'll chomp down on my nose, chin or cheek. I ask him to stop and try to pull his face back slowly and he comes back at me.

I have no warning as to when he's going to do this. Whether he wants to cuddle or take a bite out of my cheek, his actions are the same. He looks perfectly innocent, he does his little trill sound as he jumps onto me and then it's either CHOMP or PURRRR. Luck of the draw?

Anyway, I'm making light of the situation, but seriously... do I have something to worry about? I usually remove him and put him on the floor if he does that, but why is he randomly being aggressive with me?

PS - I've NEVER heard him hiss or growl once in the time I've owned him. He only purrs or meows, although he does meow a lot.

Thanks for your help!

 

[rad65]

He could b teething. My 3 month old just started. It's hard to tell, since you don't see the teeth laying on the ground or anything. Look and see if the teeth on one side of his mouth are longer than their counterparts. If so, your boy is in the middle of teething and he wants to bite everything.

 

[hissy]

If he is 6 months old, he has already gotten his adult teeth- they stop teething at four months. It could be a combination of things, he could associate your neck with mom's belly- if you watch older kittens nurse they are pretty relentless- nuzzling is instinctive and the next in line to nuzzling is nursing.

are you petting him when he is on your neck? You could be over-stimulating him and causing him to bite you.

To stop him, don't let him near your neck at all. To discourage him from wanting to be there, go to a holistic store and buy some essence of lemon oil and add it to your hand cream. Slather your neck with the lotion don't rub it all the way in- cats hate citrus and will steer clear of it.

 

[kailie]

Both my Osiris and Shadey do this.

I call it "love nips" but yes, it seems to happen when they're over stimulated and they don't do it in a mean way at all, so I find it hard to dicipline them. I just kind of deal with it myself. If it is bothing you though, hissy's suggestions are great!

 

[otto]

It's play/love biting from, as mentioned, possibly over stimulation.

Have you ever watched two kittens, or two adult cats even, seemingly peacefully cuddling? Suddenly one wraps his paws around the other and chomps. It's normal cat behavior. Since you are the mother, and don't want to be treated this way, you must teach him it is not allowed.

How I would handle this is, as soon as the first bite happens, say loudly OUCH! NO Tony, and put him down off of you and ignore him. Gently. Remember, he's not being bad, he's being a normal cat.

When he comes back up, give him another chance. If he does it again repeat the OUCH! NO Tony (don't yell, just firmly) and put him down.

The third time it happens, after you put him off you, get up and walk away, ignoring him.

He is doing to you what he would do to his mama, and siblings and this is (with human variations) what she would do. Some people suggest hiss instead of saying No. The litter mates of course would just go into a wrestle and bite back.

With time you will begin to see how he stops himself from this behavior. When you see that, praise him.

This is not an overnight cure, but he will learn what is expected of him with time, patience and consistency, and then you will have a nice chest/neck warmer in winter.

( I know, because I went through this, and my neck/chest warmer is lovely and sweet now

)

 

[csteen85]

Thank you for your suggestions, everyone!

I don't think it's over-stimulation, simply because I'm not touching him when he does it. He's on the floor, then decides he wants to be near me and then CHOMP. If anything, I thought he was mad that I wasn't on the floor playing with him.

thw thing about teething is weird. The past two times I went to the vet (a month apart) they told me he was exactly the same age (5.5 - 6 mos) because his incisors (sp?) weren't in yet?

I'm beginning to think I actually have no idea how old he is. He was marked as 5 mos old at the shelter when I brought him home, which was on -eptember 27th. He seems kind of big now to be only 5.5 mos old, but if his teeth aren't in yet, he must be right??

any ideas?? Thank you!

 

[otto]

It's normal kitten behavior, whether from over stimulation or not. It's one way that kittens (and cats) invite play. You just have to teach him that it's not how he should play with you.

My method is tried and true. Just need to be consistent. I know it will be a pain in the neck to have to keep getting up to walk away from, when you just want to relax. But you won't have to do it forever, just until he learns not to do it.

As for the teething, I just don't know. My vet is adamant that adult teeth start coming in at 5 months, so she thinks Queen Eva is slightly older than originally thought, since she has already begun teething.

I am pretty sure that Queen Eva is as young as we originally thought, and is just teething early.

When they are tiny, a few weeks in age either way can matter, but once they are spayed/neutered and adult, a few weeks doesn't matter any more, so the confusion will soon be immaterial.

 

[otto]

PS one extra bit of advice I forgot to add. Play with him before you settle down. Kittens need a ton of interaction to prevent bad habits and behaviors from starting.

Much easier to prevent than to correct. And the way to do that is to give your kitten ample one on one play time.

If you give him a half hour of your undivided attention, playing with him, then settle on the couch, he will be happy to entertain himself with his own Games for a while before coming to curl up on you, and he will be satisfied and tired.

A tired kitten is a calm kitten.

 

[rad65]

Kittens teeth from 3 months through up to 9 months. Most commonly, the teething is over around 6-7 months. I just confirmed this with at least 10 different websites, and a call to my vet since this issue seems to be dismissed at not teething.

 

[otto]

Originally Posted by rad65

Kittens teeth from 3 months through up to 9 months. Most commonly, the teething is over around 6-7 months. I just confirmed this with at least 10 different websites, and a call to my vet since this issue seems to be dismissed at not teething.

I agree that teething times may vary, but this (as descirbed in the first post) is not teething behavior, it is playing behavior.

Teething kittens will chew on things. Jumping at and biting is a "Play with me" signal.

Giving play time first will help prevent this behavior in the first place, and training by removing and ignoring will teach kitten how to curb it himself.

 

[csteen85]

thank you once again.

I can promise you that he's getting ample play time. I play with him in the morning before work for about 15 minutes and then we play with him when we're both home from 4 pm until 10 pm. We play on and off for those 6 hours, but at least a half hour of intense playtime.

it could be teething too, I suppose.