Thread: Help! Biting and running off with things!

My 6 month old kitty, Mystique, loves to bite my hand when I'm not petting her, when I am petting her or when I stop petting her. Which is pretty much all of the time! We've tried everything we can think of to get her to stop. We can't use a spray bottle because it's usually never near us when she bites. We've tried thumping her when she does it (not hard!!!) she will lay her ears back and stop for about 5 - 10...

First for the biting. The second she starts pull your hand away and walk away. You have to do this over and over ad nauseum until she understands that when she bites/nibbles/chews she gets the undesirable reaction of you leaving. Cats do not respond very well to punishment per se, you will only scare tham and cause them not to trust you escpeciatlly with the "thumping" no matter how gentle it is. I'm assuming that you've...

Yeah, ours steals any twist ties left out. Like if you eat the rest of a loaf of bread and forget to throw it away or accidentally leave the garbage cabinet open enough. With her, it's out of sight/out of mind. If she doesn't see it, she won't want it. I've had some success with leather string. She LOVES the smell of it (dead animal- go figure) and it's string and string is fun. Not to mention, it lasts forever, since...

I nip at mommy to when she is petting me or not petting me..Mommy's getting real frustrated.. She has tried the thump on the nose...It works for a little while, but then I bite again. Mommy is going to start taking her off her lap when she bites and tell me no..

Hitting a cat on the nose or anywhere, no matter how 'lightly' it's done, is NOT going to cure them of any unwanted behaviours. The cat will just come to distrust you and it could be seen as a 'challenge' by them. So I wouldn't do that at all. Best to give a firm 'no' and change the tone of your voice to one that sounds serious - then try to redirect them to bite a toy. I have stopped my foster kittens...

Whoever came up with the idea that thumping a cat on the nose is a good way to dissuade from doing anything? It doesn't work. The only thing that works consistently is what Shade said: get up and walk away. Don't pay attention to the cat for about 5 minutes, even if (and especially) if they follow you around. That teaches them that being bitey has a price: they no longer get attention. Other rules of thumb: - Give them some vigorous...

All kittens bite. They are just like human babies, when they teeth their gums hurt. Just make sure you gently remove the object of interest, be it your hand, ankle or toe, from you kitty's grasp and walk away. This is much more effective than chastising. Dissapearing objects? Dont worry, just like a human child they become obsesed with certauin objects. In our case, we call some of our kittens 'sock monsters' as socks start...

Taz used to hide my keys when she was a baby. She'd pick them up in her mouth and hide them under pillows or the bed or whatever....One of my friends had a small tennis ball on the end of her keychain and Taz actually stuck her whole head inside my friends purse took the keys and ran off with them one time. Like other posters said, she'll probably grow out of it and mellow out.