Cats - Kitten (spencer) has a biting problem. help please

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Jonas_Brothers_rock KrazyKelli KrazyKelli Jonas_Brothers_rock Dragongirl6 KrazyKelli Dragongirl6 Jonas_Brothers_rock KrazyKelli Reflex Dragongirl6 Rae rae Fairy Frog Mother

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#1999504

Jonas_Brothers_rock
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Kitten (spencer) has a biting problem. help please

ok so spencer
has a biting problem. is there anyway to stop her from biting or is she biting cuz she’s a kitten and that’s wut kittens do? if there is anyway to get her to stop biting please tell me.

05/06/09 10:28am

#1999540

KrazyKelli
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Message To: Jonas_Brothers_rock In reference to Message Id: 1999504

Kitten (spencer) has a biting problem. help please

If a kitten believes you are her owner, she will lick your fingers, bite your fingers and, if that doesn’t work, gnaw on them. This is not because she hates you or is out of line, but because she’s trying to suckle. Kittens will do this exact thing to their mother to get milk. It may go on until the cat matures. If it doesn’t, or you want the kitten to stop sooner, remove your hands from the kitten’s wraith and direct the kitten to toys. Teach the cat to hunt the string or go after the mouse for at least an hour a day, and you can optionally get a motorized toy to go on for extra play time.

If this kitten is biting you out of malice, hissing and wanting nothing to do with you, you need to warm up to her. Feed her treats and have daily brushings. Pet your kitten, but stop if the kitten thinks it’s time to use your hand as a scratching post. Also include playing, as it’s a building block for cats. You could also, if the kitten moves to attack you, give the kitten something to chew on instead, like a small stuffed toy.

Should this kitten of yours lunge out of nowhere and latch to your ankle, well... She’s learning to be a kitten.

05/06/09 12:20pm

#1999548

KrazyKelli
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Message To: KrazyKelli In reference to Message Id: 1999540

Kitten (spencer) has a biting problem. help please

Oh yeah, you can optionally yell out, "OW!" every time the kitten bites. This works very good for adult cats as well. But since the kitten is growing up, play and positive interaction is the best substitute. If you continually yell ’ow’ at the kitten and scare her off, she may come to learn that doing anything around you would result in that. That would result in a jumpy cat. Though I wont put it past you to yell out OW if it actually does hurt.

05/06/09 12:28pm

#1999599

Jonas_Brothers_rock
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Message To: KrazyKelli In reference to Message Id: 1999548

Kitten (spencer) has a biting problem. help please

thnx for the advice. it’s rly her just jumping out and biting our ankels or doing the same thing just with our arms. AND SHE DOESN’T STOP! i had a pretty good feeling it was just cuz she is being a kitten and still learning.

05/06/09 02:34pm

#1999816

Dragongirl6
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Message To: Jonas_Brothers_rock In reference to Message Id: 1999599

Kitten (spencer) has a biting problem. help please

Is she the only cat in the house? Single raised kittens don’t have other kittens/cats to play with, and they naturally bite, pounce, hunt, stalk, etc. when they play. These are things they must do to develop normally into social animals, and to understand what is painful and what is appropriate.

If you don’t have any other cats (or your other cats don’t play with her), I strongly suggest getting a second MALE kitten (of course both will need to be spayed/neutered).

When she does something inappropriate, pick her up by her scruff and say a low throated "NO", then ignore her for a few minutes. She is doing it to play with you and for attention, so if you ignore her she’ll realize it doesn’t work. If she was still with her mom, her mom would bite her scruff and growl, so you should try to mimic that.

Good luck!

05/06/09 09:22pm

#1999853

KrazyKelli
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Message To: Dragongirl6 In reference to Message Id: 1999816

Kitten (spencer) has a biting problem. help please

Dragon Girl. I have to admit to you that I have only seen dogs grab another dog around the neck and growl. I have never, ever seen a mother cat do it to a kitten. The only reason they would grab the kitten’s neck is to take it from one area to another. The kitten goes limp as a natural reaction to avoid making noise/ fussing and, thus, attracting predators.

The only three things I have seen a mother cat do to a kitten if it was pouncing/biting are the mother cat getting sick of it and leaving, the mother cat completely ignoring and with a jerk removing said object from the kitten’s mouth if it hurts, or smacking the kitten upside the head with a paw. Though it is normal for two kittens to interact rough like that.

If I saw an adult cat grab a kitten around the neck and growl, I would immediately remove the kitten from that cat’s presence. Some adult cats, especially territorial males, can accidentally off a kitten by being too rough.

And two female cats would do fine together as one male and female. There is no immediate alpha male and female cat hierarchy like you would see with dogs. I found males to be extra rough, in fact.

Anyway, like I said before, if the kitten pounces, you can easily redirect it to toys and play items. The kitten can progressively learn to hunt those, though before it matures it will be extra frisky over that sort of thing - which is normal.

05/06/09 10:33pm

#2000526

Dragongirl6
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Message To: KrazyKelli In reference to Message Id: 1999853

Kitten (spencer) has a biting problem. help please

Quote:
two female cats would do fine together as one male and female.

I have placed hundreds and hundreds of rescue cats in new homes. 9 times out of 10, when we get a complaint that two cats aren’t getting along, both are female. YES female cats are more dominant and YES they are less likely to get along living in the same house. I have seen two female kittens adopted together at the same time (on numerous occasions) that have not been able to live in the same house as adults. I have never seen this problem with two males or a male and a female if they are litter mates or the same age and have grown up together (and, of course, are spayed/neutered, as unaltered males will obviously be more territorial).

Scruffing a kitten and saying NO is a very effective training technique. It calms them down and the growl lets them know that what they are doing is inappropriate. You can’t exactly smack a kitten in the face every time it does something you don’t like : )

Anyway, it’s not really worth bickering over. I’ve had a LOT of experience with cats and this is what I have found to be true and effective. Everyone has their own opinions and techniques. I was simply sharing what I have found to be effective.

05/08/09 02:56am

#2001209

Jonas_Brothers_rock
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Message To: Dragongirl6 In reference to Message Id: 2000526

Kitten (spencer) has a biting problem. help please

we have another cat in the house. but he is an adult. and doesn’t like spencer all that much. spencer usually stays in my brothers room. she isn’t allowed out of the room unless one of us is holding her at all times. when i put them together spencer starts purring and rubbing up against mocha,and mocha backs away slowly and starts growling.

05/09/09 08:26am

#2001294

KrazyKelli
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Message To: Jonas_Brothers_rock In reference to Message Id: 2001209

Kitten (spencer) has a biting problem. help please

Jonas, I brought this up in my last post in RaeRae’s thread right below yours on how to get two cats to coexist. If this kitten is new, you should be paying more attention to your current adult cat. He is probably responding negatively because not only is the kitten different and unfamiliar, but also because he may get the impression that you’re replacing him. He’ll therefore want nothing to do with the kitten. If you give him more affection, he may over time warm up to the kitten. Though it’s a good thing that you carry the kitten around and monitor interaction instead of letting the male take advantage of the situation. You can also rub both with a towel so the male becomes more familiar with the scent; and, once the kitten is established in your brother’s room, take the kitten out and let the adult male inspect the area. Even then there’s a chance he may still want nothing to do with Spencer or you may never find them sleeping together.

05/09/09 11:27am

#2001572

Reflex
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Message To: Dragongirl6 In reference to Message Id: 2000526

Kitten (spencer) has a biting problem. help please

Quote:
Scruffing a kitten and saying NO is a very effective training technique.

Even though scruffing the cat is not like smacking it, I’d still say that’s a physical reprimand. That can’t be good in the long run. As "calm" as they may be. Also, usually a reprimand for doing something wrong needs to be within the second they do it or it will be worthless to do anything. It’s hard to scruff them without hurting them in that quick of a time. Most people do not recommend scruffing them at all anymore unless done by a vet to do something absolutely vital.

05/09/09 10:57pm

#2001646

Dragongirl6
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Message To: Reflex In reference to Message Id: 2001572

Kitten (spencer) has a biting problem. help please

Agree to disagree. I find it very effective and I have never hurt a kitten doing it.

05/10/09 01:06am

#2002803

Rae rae
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Message To: Dragongirl6 In reference to Message Id: 2001646

Kitten (spencer) has a biting problem. help please

i have to agree with reflex and krazykelli that the whole scruffing thing isn’t what you think it is. i’m really good when it comes to dog psychology. i’m sure that cat psychology is not much different in the sense of "doing it like a cat would do it." when you discipline a dog it is a short aaahh! or a sharp noo! this is like a mother dog or a dominant dog correcting another dog in the pack. well we know that cats don’t live in packs. when it comes to correcting dog behavior it’s best to do it as dogs would do it so that way the dog understands. that’s why yelling, slapping, and just getting irate with the dog doesn’t work. because dogs don’t follow a leader that is instable like that. i’m sure it’s the same basis with cats. i’m quick to tell you that i’m not an expert when it comes to cat behavior. however, i’m not stupid either when it comes to cats. i’m a vet tech...in other words i deal with cats on a daily basis that are ready to rip my throat out. i also have two cats myself. and yes, i’m better with dogs than with cats, but i do know what works and doesn’t work for cats also when it comes to discipline most of the time. i have to say that i’ve never seen a cat correct another cat by scruffing it. a mother dog will grab the puppies up by the skin area around the neck when correcting them, or bite around their neck to get her point across. however... the only time i have ever seen a mother cat grab anywhere around her kittens’ necks is to move them from one place to another. i don’t think it’s a correctional move for the mama cat. of course i scruff cats at work when we are dealing with an unhappy one that is ready to rip my arm off, but it’s definitely not in a correctional matter. i know that scruffing them puts them in some sort of trance and makes them somewhat paralyzed in a sense and kind of go limp. this does not work for all cats though. if we get a feral cat in... scruffing will not help at all. the cat is too freaked out for that to work. it’s a natural thing when you scruff a cat for it to go limp because that’s what happens when their mother carries them like that. so, in other words, it’s not really a correction. it really just kind of makes the cat happy in a sense. i mean if it works then great, but it’s not really a correction. i’ve never seen a mother cat...and i’ve seen plenty...that grabs their kittens by the scruff and growls at them while she’s carrying them. it puts them at a calm state because that’s what they’re programmed to do whem mommy is carrying them, but that’s it. anyway...like i said...i’m not an expert on cat behavior and i don’t know how to correct a cat other than a spray bottle and shouting at them to stop doing something, but i have never ever seen where scruffing a cat stops a behavior.

05/12/09 01:30am

#2003002

Fairy Frog Mother
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Message To: Rae rae In reference to Message Id: 2002803

Kitten (spencer) has a biting problem. help please

I had a cat named Jack from the time he was three weeks old (Bottle feedings every 4 hours, massaging the belly, litter box training from the get go) unitl he died of renal failure at age 14 1/2.

What I am about to share would not work with most cats, and could be dangerous with most cats. It is only because I knew Jack so well, and he knew me and listened that it worked.

Through our many years together, I had several different roommates who brought with them young cats or kittens. Jack would always get the run of the house while the new cat/kittens stayed in the roommates room for the first few weeks, and we would let them out to play in the evenings together after several days of sniffing each other out and playing footsie under the door. We broke out the toys and Jack got all the attention he wanted, which usually wasnt much. Jack was his own very independant and self assured cat. When the kittens got too rough or did not leave him alone when he was done playing with them and walked away, Jack would give them a warning growl and swish his tail. If they did not heed this, he would pin them down and give a short nip on their hind quarters or shoulder. If they still persisted, he would pin them down again, and put his mouth around their neck, but not bite down, just growl. I would say "Jack!" and he would let them up, and he knew the kitten would be removed and locked up. Now, most adult cats I would not trust to kitten training, but he never once broke skin or was overly rough. Just enouth to say "Knock it off. Im bigger, stronger, and I COULD break you if I wanted to so shape up kiddo." Needless to say, my roomates cats were all well behaved in short time. Jack was the boss. As is mentioned above...some cats would injure or kill the kitten. Not recommended.

Jack also was a rough hunter. And a catnip addict. As in, no matter where it was in the house, Jack would find the container, rip the lid off (I couldnt bring home a plastic baggie full, oh no...it would be all over in seconds with him eating it!) and tear in. I learned to keep it in the freezer. Thankfully he did not have oposable thumbs. I took a square of cotton batting, sprinkled catnip in it and rolled it up like a hostess ding dong, and put it in a tube sock, tying it closed, and putting a string at one end. This I would drag around the house and he would attack and pounce it, I would struggle with it and he would kick and tear at it with his hind claws while visciously holding to it and killing it. He loved roughousing.

I would suggest a simular toy for your kitten. For at least an hour a day (preferably right before you go to bed to tucker it out!) Drag the sock around for it to attack. Especially around places that go in and out of line of sight so it can practice ambushing. If it attacks you instead of the toy, Walk away. Try again after ten minutes with the toy, so it learns Toy OK, people not ok.

05/12/09 01:18pm

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