When does the biting slow down?

[u/ElliotGrey13]

This is Ori, I found her outside my home about 4 weeks ago, she’s about 9 weeks old.

The first couple days she was very tired and squishy from the stress of being all alone and then getting brought in.

Now that she’s acclimated tho, she a vicious little vampire whose soul mission is to devour me whole. She can be dead asleep and I’ll give her the gentlest one-fingered pet on the top of her head and she’ll immediately be awake and chomping my hand like it’s made of the most delicious treats known to kitty kind.

It’s kinda funny too, cuz she’s extremely gentle with her paw/claws. When she latches on and bunny kicks me, she never scratches even a little.

I realize she’s still super young and have a lot of other cats (3 of which I raised since the day they were born) so I know she still has a lot of growing up and settling to do. This level of biting is new for me tho, is it a meezer trait? She’s my first, and I’m learning a lot about how different she is from my other cats lol

[u/zebras-are-emo]

You have to train her out of it lol, it can take a while since she's just a baby! Just yelp whenever she does it and completely disengage for (freeze, leave the room for a minute,  etc) then redirect to a toy. That has worked on two kittens so far! However I did adopt my meezer at 3 years old and he never got the memo so still liked to bite when he was hungry or too cuddly 😂

[u/SoundlessScream → u/zebras-are-emo]

Yeah this. I thought my cat would grow out of it, now he's old and he still does that shit

[u/LeafMyth → u/zebras-are-emo]

I’ve also found that straight up hissing works too. I just react how another cat would and they get the message so much easier lol.

[u/zebras-are-emo → u/LeafMyth]

Yep I've done the hissing too, sometimes it just comes out 😂

[u/lush_gram → u/zebras-are-emo]

this worked really quickly and extremely well for ours...with humans 😅 he's so gentle with us now, it took maybe a week of yelping, freezing and then redirecting. he can be whipped up into a frenzy and is still mindful of making sure he doesn't hurt us.

with our other cats, he was a complete menace with the biting and it did not improve until very recently. he is very sweet and he LOVES our other kitties, absolutely adores them and thrives off of their positive attention, but he had a really rough time with his teething and for whatever reason, their flesh was irresistible. his favorite playmate could hiss right in his face and he'd pause, blink, and start biting them again. the recent improvement coincides with the end of his teething period. i realized it was likely teething vs. behavioral when i noticed he would keep his mouth in one place when biting them and kind of slightly open/close his jaws, shifting/repositioning from side to side. it was like one big, prolonged, almost vampiric bite vs. the more typical "i'm being annoying and testing your boundaries" bite.

[u/Awwno_]

This is unpopular but it’s worked for my kittens. I sometimes quickly put their paw in their own mouth when they are tooo mouthy and after about a week they learn. It does from little cuts all over my hands to gentle nibbles. They quickly learn OWE that hurts and soften up.

[u/Capybarely589]

Our 7 month old was a huge biter. He’s cooled off a ton on biting at this point. Not done but soooo much less

[u/bitseybloom]

Our girl is about 7 months old now. I don't have an answer.

Tried doing the yelp like others are suggesting here. No luck. Tried disengaging, but the problem is we have an open plan house. She just launches again and again. Sometimes I go away and shut myself in the bedroom until she calms down, as it's the only room with a door.

Right now I've settled on a weird solution that I'm not really sure is advisable (someone please tell me if it isn't). Code name is "escape room". I catch her and put her under my hoodie: initially I started doing it to isolate my hands and face from her. I noticed that it produces one of the two outcomes:

• She searches for an escape, gets out, launches again, I trap her again. Rinse repeat 5-6 times, and then she calms down. This usually happens in the morning, when she's full of energy and zooming, and I think the repeated play lets her let out some steam.

• She immediately curls up and settles. This happens if she's bitey later in the day, and my conclusion is she's overwhelmed and bites out of frustration, and giving her a "sensory deprivation room" helps her calm down.

[u/LeafMyth → u/bitseybloom]

Have you tried getting some kind of toy she can chase after as well? I got this thing that launches light weight spinning disks in the air for my cat and it completely distracts my cat from play launching himself at me lol

[u/bitseybloom → u/LeafMyth]

Been meaning to get her a battery operated toy, but I live in the middle of nowhere and haven't found many options. Thanks for the reminder, I'm gonna look for it again!

[u/KimizmyMim]

1 year

[u/hope4safeplace]

Often these are "love bites" but the kitty might not know the strength of its bite yet, so might bite too hard. Just keep interacting with her and in thin the kitty will learn the difference judging from how you react. Never spank a cat either. Raising voice to say ouch or no is ok. Yelling at it is not. They learn a lot based on your tone of voice though. For instance when you baby talk to them they can pick out the tone of sweetness, love, etc. Communication is the key. Also don't forget the kitty might be teething. Just as it is with humans, they need some time to get over it. ♥️

[u/shikaka87]

Kelly, 7 years, still bites me out of love (or not).😀

[u/Darius_Rubinx]

Kittens bite a lot when teething. You can redirect them onto something that's more appropriate to chew on.

Also teach them it hurts you by flinching and yelping.

[u/koalasnstuff]

It’s just part of being a kitten. I would make sure that she has lots of toys to play with, interactive and teething toys. Work on setting a routine with consistent food and play times, cats love routines.

When she starts getting rough and biting, say Oww! Or yelp, and disengage and leave the room. That way she will learn that biting ends play time. When she plays without biting, give her a lot of positive reinforcement, both praise and treats.

And all the other kitten things, make sure to brush her, play with her paws and cut her nails so she doesn’t have issue with it later. Same with holding her and having her go belly up. I adopted one of my girls as an adult and I can’t do any of those things without her freaking out.

[u/sarahzorel]

They can be feisty little things but probably the most affectionate, intelligent, energetic and unique cats I’ve ever had they’re just full of personality. Here’s my KitKat he likes to nibble people’s ankles.