Love bites on the chin?

[graywing]

We have a 5 month old kitten that started as a feral.  She's become super affectionate.  She loves to get in my lap and then lick my face.  Occasionally she'll lightly bite my chin.  Is this considered a love bite?  Should I try to discourage this behavior?   She also likes to touch my face with her paws without using any claws.  I've never seen a cat do this before so I'm just not sure what to do.

She only does this with me so far.  She'll lick my husband's hand but she won't try to climb up on him to lick his face.  She'll occasionally throw a light bite in while licking hands, too.

 

[catlover73]

I went through a nose biting stage with my now 9 year old female Starbuck when she was a 6 week old kitten. Is her biting causing you any pain or disconfort? My baby's bites never broke skin or caused us to bleed but they did cause discomfort. If they are not causing you any pain or discomfort then it is probably just how she shows affection. When Starbuck did this is was her form of communication and would have been done to other people. I did train her out of communicating this way by gently tapping her on the nose and saying no biting. Then I put her down on the floor and walked away. She learned quickly that was not acceptable. Now she will do really light love nips with us ocassionally but you can barely feel them. When she was young she needed to learn biting was not acceptable. She would also chomp on my other cats when she wanted to play. One of my senior males taught her manners when it came to play-time. She is a very loving cat but was very I under-socialized with manners and boundaries.

 

[graywing]

It's extremely light.  Only once it was a bit uncomfortable.  I'm wondering if she got too carried away.  She definitely loves licking the face though and since it's part of that I'm thinking you're right that it's probably just how she shows affection.  She usually does this when she first sees me.  Though sometimes she'll take a break from play and suddenly run up to me to give me licks.