- Joined
- Jun 6, 2014
- Messages
- 38
- Purraise
- 4
First off, let me say that I know without a doubt, that my cat is not showing typical signs of aggression or agitation. His ears not not back, his eyes are not dilated, he is purring and closed eyed while doing it.
My cat is around 5 months old at this time. Hand play has always been a big issue with us and it took him until very very recently to learn that hands are not okay. Even then, he still is temped by certain peoples hands. The most effective method we found with him was the high pitched "ouch".
He is a really really big love biter though. And none of the typical methods of stopping it have worked with him. When the bites started, it was usually when I was petting him while he was purring. So I would watch his body language to see if he was sending me signals that I wasn't picking up on, and he really wasn't. So I stopped petting him to see how he behaved, and still, the biting persisted. He likes to rub his head and face against me and turn around for a quick pinch of a bite, and then continue with the purring and rubbing his head on me. If he was doing soft kitten bites, it wouldn't be so bothersome (bad habit but not the worst thing he could be doing). The thing is, he is doing hard bites. He does this regardless of whether or not you're touching him and the traditional methods aren't working for this situation. I could scream ouch, drop and ignore him, blow on his face, lay still and hope he lets go, distract with toy, but nothing has worked yet.
I'm really just trying to get rid of this bad habit, or at the very least, try and figure out what he is trying to communicate through his biting.
Are time outs in a separate room enough or too much of a message?
He was neutered just yesterday btw.
Thank you in advance for you help again.
My cat is around 5 months old at this time. Hand play has always been a big issue with us and it took him until very very recently to learn that hands are not okay. Even then, he still is temped by certain peoples hands. The most effective method we found with him was the high pitched "ouch".
He is a really really big love biter though. And none of the typical methods of stopping it have worked with him. When the bites started, it was usually when I was petting him while he was purring. So I would watch his body language to see if he was sending me signals that I wasn't picking up on, and he really wasn't. So I stopped petting him to see how he behaved, and still, the biting persisted. He likes to rub his head and face against me and turn around for a quick pinch of a bite, and then continue with the purring and rubbing his head on me. If he was doing soft kitten bites, it wouldn't be so bothersome (bad habit but not the worst thing he could be doing). The thing is, he is doing hard bites. He does this regardless of whether or not you're touching him and the traditional methods aren't working for this situation. I could scream ouch, drop and ignore him, blow on his face, lay still and hope he lets go, distract with toy, but nothing has worked yet.
I'm really just trying to get rid of this bad habit, or at the very least, try and figure out what he is trying to communicate through his biting.
Are time outs in a separate room enough or too much of a message?
He was neutered just yesterday btw.
Thank you in advance for you help again.