My 6.5 Mos Old Devon Rex Kitten Wont Stop Lunging & Biting Us-but Never Scratches, Hisses Or Growls

I got my kitten when he was 8 wks old. i did some reading before i got him, as I never had a kitten before. Since day one, we never played with our fingers with him or made our hands a toy to him. He is well trained and a smart kitten, except he doesnt understand "No bites" or "No". I mean.. my kitten is trained to 'sit', 'give me paw', 'high five' 'lay down' 'stay', and is harness trained, so i'm guessing he's pretty smart. My vet wanted to neuter him at 6 mos but he did it at 5 months bcos I was hoping it wld help with his crazy behavior, but not so much. He was also teething (still might be) so I took that into consideration and was hopeful he would settle down with his biting & lunging. People say.. "hes a kitten, he'll grow out of it". I don't believe he will at this point because I can't seem to correct the bad behavior, and have tried everything. We do have play sessions with him with interactive toys but it never seems to be enough. I'm hoping someone or some kind of method i havent tried can help, because I really don't want my precious kitten to turnout to be a A-hole cat. From what I've read, I think I have a kitten with a case of Single-Kitten Syndrome and Territorial Aggression/Play.
I cant help but get annoyed when experts say "walk away" or "give him at toy", "play and feed him before you go to bed" or "get another kitten" when he lunges at our faces (like a wild spider monkey) & latches onto our arms & bites hard causing blood mark bites. (i'm also highly allergic to him and get allergy shots every week, even tho his breed doesn't shed and is on the hypoallergenic list)
I've tried everything from spray mist bottle,(never in his little face) having his 'beat up buddy' toys & laser handy when he ambushes me. He used to sleep in my bed as a baby, but not anymore. I have to shut him out of my room at night because I lost a lot of sleep for a few months. It breaks my heart to shut him out because he's alone but has everything he needs.
How the heck can I correct his behavioral issue? Has anyone had luck correcting this behavior? He's a beautiful kitten and oh..he never hisses or growls at us, so I know he's not vicious. I may have to cough up the $ and hire a cat trainer if I cant figure it out...

Spray bottle is usually a little too slow. By the time you go get it, cat cant link to the behavior. Plus some cats dont mind it.

Best bet is just a loud no. Louder. Startling. And don't give him stimulation by trying to gently get him off -- that just seems like playing. So stick with the loud no and ignoring him. If it hurts too much to ignore, try holding him firmly onto you. Suddenly he isn't in control. That isn't fun.

He likes you. He just has this idea that biting is a fun game.

Oh.. and I've been doing positive reinforcement since i got him. ( except for the spray bottle- which didnt work and i no longer use) He is also a very tolerant kitten and he lets me clean his ears, eyes, and clip his nails. Obviously, he doesnt love it but again, never a hiss, growl, or scratch .. Hes not destructive or spiteful and doesnt destroy furniture or stuff like that. He did use my panel bed as his favorite scratching post but I put Sticky tape all over it, and that behavior stopped 90%.

ArtNJ said:

Spray bottle is usually a little too slow. By the time you go get it, cat cant link to the behavior. Plus some cats dont mind it.

Best bet is just a loud no. Louder. Startling. And don't give him stimulation by trying to gently get him off -- that just seems like playing. So stick with the loud no and ignoring him. If it hurts too much to ignore, try holding him firmly onto you. Suddenly he isn't in control. That isn't fun.

He likes you. He just has this idea that biting is a fun game.

Click to expand...

ArtNJ said:

Spray bottle is usually a little too slow. By the time you go get it, cat cant link to the behavior. Plus some cats dont mind it.

Best bet is just a loud no. Louder. Startling. And don't give him stimulation by trying to gently get him off -- that just seems like playing. So stick with the loud no and ignoring him. If it hurts too much to ignore, try holding him firmly onto you. Suddenly he isn't in control. That isn't fun.

He likes you. He just has this idea that biting is a fun game.

Click to expand...

yea.. i used to sleep with a small spray bottle under my pillow and then carry it around with me, but like i said.. it wasnt doing much. Thanks for reassuring me that he likes me! I often thinks he's tired of my sister & I...lol

I heard that that breed can be difficult during the teenage years. Not sure if that's what's happening in your case. But it seems your kitty has a ton of energy that needs to be released.

I had a kitten that was like this when I was younger. Most of them like to rough-house to some degree. Some are rougher than others. My tough guy eventually grew out of it without much intervention. If he only goes for the face when you are sleeping, you may have to lock him out of the bedroom for a while. I did end up shutting mine out of the bedroom at night for a while but I don't think it was for an extended period of time. He did end up sleeping on the bed with me at night. Now, if he goes for the face at all hours of the day, that can be a real problem.

I'm assuming that because he's a Devon Rex, you got him from a breeder? (Most breeders will not let a kitten go to a new home at such a young age...) Have you tried talking with your kitten's breeder and asking for advice? Did the kitten's relatives exhibit similar behavior, and if so, what worked with them?

He was separated from his mom and siblings too early and therefore was not taught by it's own kind how to behave. Reputable breeders would not sell kittens before they are 16 weeks old and few would sell sociable devon rex as a lonely kitten. I understand that "getting another kitten" may be annoying suggestion to you, but this is how kittens learn their basic boundaries, from another cat, and he wasn't given that chance in the crucial period of his life. Best you can do is try to behave as cat mom's would, hiss at him. But unfortunately biting humans is the most common consequence of the early separation.

All three stray male cats I've adopted have gone through this phase from 6months-14ish months. I think it's a teenage phase for cats that are separated from their moms too early and weren't taught proper cat manners.

I've tried everything in the world, and here are the things that I think work the best.

• Hissing. Cats get this sound. It means "stop that, I don't like it", and they learn to respect it initially.
• Isolation. Single cats especially hate being isolated, so if every time they launch an attack at you, you leave the room and close the door (or close yourself in a room) for 5-10 minutes, they will learn attacks have undesirable effects.
• Redirected hunting energy. If you don't have a bird feeder suction cupped to one of your windows outdoors, get one. Your cat will hunt the birds through the window all day long instead of you. Letting your cat outside would have the same effect but in my area that is not safely possible.
• Teaching rough play in contained ways. I've taught multiple cats that like to attack with teeth/claws that it is okay to do so through a towel. We have towels strung over bathtubs and a couple of chairs in our house, and they have eventually learned that if they want to play rough, they need to go to these locations and attack our hands through the thick towel. This gives them another outlet for this behavior that is safe.
• Adopting a second cat. This is a TON of work and there's a chance the introduction will fail. But if you have a second cat in the house, your cat will play with that cat, learn manners, and stop attacking you. It really does work.

Good luck!

di and bob told me in another thread when a cat attacks you, scruffing the neck may work, you don't pick them up off the ground, but you scruff their neck for a bit, you can lift the front legs off the ground but that's it.
It is something their mother would do to teach them.
I've heard hissing at them when they do that to show them who's boss may work too, I would try and search the forum for those tips.
I have an aggressive cat too, he's getting better as he gets older I think.

your kitty might be too young for kitty prozac but that may be something to look into.
talk to your vet!

Myself a recent kitten owner and had similar issues. Tire him out by playing and gave him food after that. Workers to certain degree. Still at time he bites but I assume that he is playing rough. So ibusually say No or if nees ro out it firmly will carry him and leave him in my balcony alone for few minutes. After a while he understood my No means NO. But like what fellow cat lovers advised me here is I am the mom cat since I got him at 2 5yrs. Also I learnt that this training method has to be followed up by all family members to give the same signal to the kitty

We rescued the last survivor of a litter when she was 5 weeks old. She'd lost her mom too. Not much socializing going on before you can walk. We became her litter mates and mom.

She didn't get 'no' thought walking away was an invitation to play chase and bit me about 500 times during her first year. Then I remembered (it was a long time since we had a kitten) to hiss at her the instant she started the bite. I did. She threw herself away from my foot and grabbed her own foot to fight with. She bit her foot and screamed. You see she had no idea it hurt. She hasn't bitten us since the first time I hissed.

You may want to practice hissing away from your kit before you try it. You may spit a little. that won't effect the hissing.

Hi M MariyaAlexa ! What is your kitten's name?


It can sometimes be hard to know how many kcals per day to feed a kitten that is past the "young" stage and just moving into a year of being a "teenager". They go through growth spurts -- sometimes hungrier than one would expect. What does your kitten eat, how much per day are you feeding him, etc.?

When my cat (now 4 years old) was your kitten's age, sometimes she'd be extra hungry and that definitely made her hangry. She'd nip at our feet more and stuff, if we weren't feeding her enough for her energy level. Very feisty! Some cats have a faster metabolism, too, and at different times of the year. I soon learned to just give her more kcals of food per day and she stopped the lunging or biting behavior. In fact, we kept up a higher calorie count for her till she was 18-20 months old! It's just a thought, as a possibility in your situation.