Hi all,

Am in a bit of a scratching/biting situation. I just brought home the most darling kitten about 2 weeks ago. When we first got her, she was quiet and docile...probably because she was adjusting to her new home. But now, she's a monster!

She gets so excited when we play with her that she started biting our twiddling fingers and arms! It's gotten to a point where she's even biting us when we're not playing with her. And she bites hard too.

There anything I can do to stop her from biting? I tried giving her little smacks everytime she bites me (it used to be gentler so I could handle it) but she just gets even more excited and bites even harder still.

Help!

Dear Chiachern,

I used to have this problem with Kitty when I first brought her home, but as time past she become gentler and I guess she'd realized that the hand/finger/arms are all part of the caring being that loves her very much. Nowadays she'd still scratch/bite, but will realized in a couple of seconds and started to lick my hand/finger/arm/foot

Btw, how old is your kitten? Anyway, found this article in http://www.ddfl.org/.
Hope it helps...

Managing Your Kitten’s Rough Play
Copyright 2000. Dumb Friends League. All rights reserved.

Play-motivated aggressive behaviors are common in young, active cats less than two years of age, and in cats that live in one-cat households. When cats play they incorporate a variety of behaviors into their play, such as exploratory, investigative and predatory behaviors. Play provides young cats with opportunities to practice skills they would normally need for survival. Kittens like to explore new areas and investigate anything that moves, and may bat at, pounce on and bite objects that resemble prey.
Kittens learn how to inhibit their bite from their littermates and their mother. A kitten that is separated from her family too early may play more roughly than a kitten that has had more valuable family time. In addition, if humans play with a young kitten using their hands and/or feet instead of toys, the kitten is liable to learn that rough play with people is okay. In most cases, it’s possible to teach your kitten or young adult cat that rough play isn’t acceptable behavior.

Encourage Acceptable Behavior
Redirect your kitten’s aggressive behavior onto acceptable objects like toys (see our handout: "Cat Toys and How To Use Them"). Drag a toy along the floor to encourage your kitten to pounce on it, or throw a toy away from your kitten to give her even more exercise chasing the toy down. Some kittens will even bring the toy back to be thrown again! Another good toy is one that your kitten can wrestle with, like a soft stuffed toy that’s about the size of your kitten, so she can grab it with both front feet, bite it, and kick it with her back feet. This is one of the ways kittens play with each other, especially when they’re young. It’s also one of the ways they try to play with human feet and hands, so it’s important to provide this type of alternative play target. Encourage play with a "wrestling toy" by rubbing it against your kitten’s belly when she wants to play roughly - be sure to get your hand out of the way as soon as she accepts the toy.

Since kittens need a lot of playtime, try to set up three or four consistent times during the day to initiate play with your kitten. This will help her understand that she doesn’t have to be the one to initiate play by pouncing on you.

Discourage Unacceptable Behavior
You need to set the rules for your kitten’s behavior, and every person your cat comes in contact with should reinforce these rules. Your kitten can’t be expected to learn that it’s okay to play rough with Dad, but not with the baby.

• Use aversives to discourage your kitten from nipping. You can either use a squirt bottle filled with water and a small amount of vinegar or a can of pressurized air to squirt your kitten with when she becomes too rough. To use this technique effectively, you’ll always need to have the spray bottle or can handy. You can either place one in each room, or carry one with you as you move around the house. In some cases, you may want to apply taste aversives to your hands. If you have sensitive skin you may want to wear gloves and put the aversive on the gloves. The possible disadvantage to this method is that your kitten may learn that "hands with gloves taste bad and those without gloves don’t." For more information on aversives, see our handout: "Aversives for Cats." Remember that aversives will work only if you offer your kitten acceptable alternatives.
• Redirect the behavior after using the aversive. After you startle your kitten with the aversive, IMMEDIATELY offer her a toy to wrestle with or to chase. This will encourage her to direct her rough play onto a toy instead of a person. We recommend that you keep a stash of toys hidden in each room specifically for this purpose.
• Withdraw attention when your kitten starts to play too roughly. If the distraction and redirection techniques don’t seem to be working, the most drastic thing you can do to discourage your cat from her rough play is to withdraw all attention when she starts playing too roughly. She wants to play with you, so eventually she’ll figure out how far she can go if you keep this limit consistent. The best way to withdraw your attention is to walk away to another room, and close the door long enough for her to calm down. If you pick her up to put her in another room, then you’re rewarding her by touching her. You should be the one to leave the room.

PLEASE NOTE: None of these methods will be very effective unless you also give your kitten acceptable outlets for her energy, by playing with her regularly using appropriate toys.

What Not To Do

• Attempts to tap, flick or hit your kitten for rough play are almost guaranteed to backfire. Your kitten could become afraid of your hands, or she could interpret those flicks as playful moves by you and play even more roughly as a result.
• Picking up your kitten to put her into a "timeout" could reinforce her behavior because she probably enjoys the physical contact of being picked up. By the time you get her to the timeout room and close the door, she has probably already forgotten what she did to be put in that situation.

Aggression: Kittens can bite or scratch through the skin. In these cases it’s best to seek help from a behavior specialist to work with your kitten’s behavior. Be sure to keep your kitten confined until you can get professional help. Also, be sure to thoroughly clean all bites and scratches and consult your physician, as cat scratches and bites can easily become infected (see our handouts: "When the Behavior Helpline Can’t Help" and "Understanding Cat Aggression Towards People."


Best of luck on coping

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"A man of kindness to his beast is kind... A brutal action shows a brutal mind... Remember, He gave thee speech and formed him mute... He can’t complain, but God’s all-seeing eye... Behold the cruelty and hears his cry... He was designed thy servant not thy drudge... Remember thy Creator is thy judge..."

Hi all!

Thanks heaps for the quick reply. Both your replied really did shed some light on how to manage this little monster of mine.

Yes Horatio, I finally did get a cat. She's barely 2 months old. She was rescued by a good samaritan in Bangsar and I subsequently adopted her.

Thanks again for the tips, guys. I'll keep you posted to let you know if it worked.

Cheers!

Hi ChiaChern,
I used to have a male kitten who was a lot like that. He was a very sick stray kitten, barely a week old when I found him. Post-recovery, he was a bucketful of energy and what started out as pleasant nips slowly preceeded to painful, skin-ripping by e time he was aged one year old. The furniture also became an outlet for him, and I had to replace the upholstered sofa.
Had to discpiline him by putting his paws on the scratching posts and praising him lots if he scratches. Peacock feathers waved in e air and up e walls onto e scratch post helps alot. If you really need to play w ur kitty with your hands, perhaps putting on thick socks or one of those baby hand-puppets glove over your hand will protect it while at the same time disguise e fact that it is ur hand...
The scratches eventually healed though.
good luck there!

i usually got through this situation... if your cat start biting, slowly withdraw your hand. if you do if fast, the cat thinks you love to play with her and become more aggresive...

my solution with my cat arwen:- take an old sock (preferably with holes) or two, tie it with strings and it become a toy. as with arwen, whenever she gets aggresive, i suspend the sock in the air and she can bites it as hard as she wants. minus scratches for me. arwen got a pair of bright red socks for her to chew... she also kick the socks like she used to do with my hand. as long as you animate the sock, then its fun