Tell Me How To Train Cat To Stop Nipping

[auntie]

Hi! I have read some threads on this topic, but I am looking for new responses; I hope this doesn’t seem redundant and thanks in advance.

My cat Ruby will be one year old in September. She is a very large, strong Siberian cat. Ever since she was a baby, she will do a kind of fake bite if a human pats her “wrong”. We never encouraged her with hand play—we only let her do play fighting with toys. And she has a cat friend, our older kitty, whom she gets along with very well. The bite is never hard enough to draw blood or make a mark, or even really to feel most of the time. Her head snakes back quite fast toward your hand, when you’re patting her a moment too long. The nipping is not play fighting. It seems like she is just saying, “go away”.

Ruby likes me best of all the people in the house (my husband is very bonded with the older cat and my seven-year-old is noisy and the cats don’t like her much. Thankfully she never really pesters them, and has not provoked anything worse than the nipping I mentioned). Ruby often sits with me for long cuddles, which she does not do with my husband and kid. However, last night she nipped me. Instead of obeying her (as I saw it) by just ignoring her and walking away, I scruffed her and hissed. Needless to say she has been rather cold since then. I am showing her extra gentleness etc...hopefully she’ll love me again soon. I know I made a mistake.

How should I address the nipping? How can I teach her to just jump down and leave if she is all done being patted, instead of saying “go away” with a nip? I totally get that ignoring the cat is the way to go if they are aggressive, but won’t that teach her that nipping works—that it makes the annoying human go away? This is the thing I don’t quite understand about the other advice I’ve read. Thanks for reading!

 

[susanm9006]

The best approach is to try to reach her body language and stop petting her before she reaches the nip stage. But when she bites, give her a stern “no biting” , and give her the angry mom or dad stare. Hissing is okay but scruffing her might just make her wary of you.

 

[Hellenww]

This is how cats communicate. We can say "please stop touching me" The gentleness is the please. This type of gentleness is often the goal when people have biters.

 

[ArtNJ]

My nice cat Rocky is the same way. Petting below shoulders is at your risk. Petting too hard is at your risk. Really, you kind of need to pay attention. If you try to pet her while watching tv, your going to make a mistake, and she may growl, hiss, even gently nip or swat. It was hard at first, but now I am fully trained.

What should you do? Pay attention during training, listen to your drill sargeant, and take your lumps while your learning like a good recruit. Soon you too will be fully trained.

You can certainly try susanm9006 's suggestion. A loud "No" after biting might discourage it. That does work to deter play biting. Deterring annoyance nipping is likely a lot harder but might be possible. In all seriousness, most of us just "get trained" by kitty.

 

[1 bruce 1]

My best advice is all of the above.
Do 2-3 gentle head to tail strokes when she's VERY sleepy, not just asleep but totally worn out...then walk away.
Goal is for her to realize human hands are nice, human hands are relaxing and pleasant and leave her wanting more.

 

[auntie]

thanks for the advice! I usually do a quick hiss when she nips instead of a loud no...I reserve the no's for when she's in a place I don't like, such as the table. But, maybe I'll try it, since she is certainly responsive to no's. What I say is “Ruby, No-No!” which gets her attention best for some reason. She barely climbs up on the table any more (at least when people are home). And, she doesn't always nip, just sometimes. It's almost always gentle, so I guess I'm way better off than people with an actual attack cat. Still, I have hope that the behavior can be minimised with some effort on my part—both in listening to her more subtle cues and saying No-No. Thanks again, and any more advice would be very welcome!

PS she has been a peaceful angel all day today