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- Sep 27, 2018
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Hi, I’ve been trying to stop my kitten from play biting for months but nothing has worked. He’s now 7 months, almost 8 months old and I’m afraid he’s getting too old to train out of it! Anybody have tips on stopping play biting at an older kitten age when it’s gotten really bad?
My kitty is super sweet and I love him, but about 3-4 times a day he goes into crazy attack play mode and literally chases me to bite me. He can now jump up to my waist or arm level and hang on biting me. He bites and bunny kicks HARD, drawing blood or causing bruises every time. He also does this in the middle of the night, and it’s scary to get bitten on the face in my sleep.
I know this is probably because he was an orphan kitten and separated from his one litter mate too soon, but I didn’t have a choice in that. The humane society I adopted him from called me up when he was 7 weeks old and said I had to take him home or else he’d go to the next adopter in line.
I cannot afford more than one cat, so getting another kitten is not an option.
He gets tons of attention as I am working from home and almost never leave him at all. I am certain this is only play aggression and not angry aggression. He is super loving and sweet and most of the time he is a purring, cuddling wonderful boy. He is already neutered, I got him fixed when he was about 5 and a half months.
Redirecting with toys: I try this, but he will not even look at any toys when he’s attacking me. He completely ignores them.
Shaking a can of coins: Worked for about 2 weeks to stop him during a play attack, but now he’s not afraid of the sound anymore.
Hissing/growling at him/yelling no or ouch: Doesn’t stop him at all if hiss, growl, or scream- he continues attacking.
Scruffing him: Hard to do, he reaches around and bites me if I do this. As soon as I let go he launches himself at me and bites.
Time-outs: Very difficult to get him into a room for a time-out, and typically as soon as I let him out he goes back to attacking me.
I’ve read through most of the posts on biting and tried the advice I’ve already found, but most of it seemed to be for younger kittens/before it’s a big problem. I’m hoping somebody has experience when it’s already become quite a big problem?
My kitty is super sweet and I love him, but about 3-4 times a day he goes into crazy attack play mode and literally chases me to bite me. He can now jump up to my waist or arm level and hang on biting me. He bites and bunny kicks HARD, drawing blood or causing bruises every time. He also does this in the middle of the night, and it’s scary to get bitten on the face in my sleep.
I know this is probably because he was an orphan kitten and separated from his one litter mate too soon, but I didn’t have a choice in that. The humane society I adopted him from called me up when he was 7 weeks old and said I had to take him home or else he’d go to the next adopter in line.
I cannot afford more than one cat, so getting another kitten is not an option.
He gets tons of attention as I am working from home and almost never leave him at all. I am certain this is only play aggression and not angry aggression. He is super loving and sweet and most of the time he is a purring, cuddling wonderful boy. He is already neutered, I got him fixed when he was about 5 and a half months.
Redirecting with toys: I try this, but he will not even look at any toys when he’s attacking me. He completely ignores them.
Shaking a can of coins: Worked for about 2 weeks to stop him during a play attack, but now he’s not afraid of the sound anymore.
Hissing/growling at him/yelling no or ouch: Doesn’t stop him at all if hiss, growl, or scream- he continues attacking.
Scruffing him: Hard to do, he reaches around and bites me if I do this. As soon as I let go he launches himself at me and bites.
Time-outs: Very difficult to get him into a room for a time-out, and typically as soon as I let him out he goes back to attacking me.
I’ve read through most of the posts on biting and tried the advice I’ve already found, but most of it seemed to be for younger kittens/before it’s a big problem. I’m hoping somebody has experience when it’s already become quite a big problem?
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