Kitten biting?

[meandmyself]

Is it normal for an 8/9 week old kitten to bite? She likes to nibble fingers best. How can I encourage her to stop?

Thanks! (It's been a long time since I had a young kitten and I'm a bit rusty!)

 

[FubsyMog]

Yes, they can be quite bitey! And their teeth are like needles... they will bite in play, but some also seem to like to sort of suck and might nibble at the same time. In terms of stopping it, I would just move her away when she does it - if she's on your knee, just put her down and don't allow access to the temptation, ie, your fingers.

A few stimulating toys that she can chew at might also help.

 

[Tronk]

Yes biting is normal! We have 2 kitties that are now about 4/5 months old and when we first got them at 7/8 weeks they did lots of biting (some quite hard!) but are now growing out of it. They also did lots of clawing i.e. not putting their claws away when jumping on you etc. and that has completely stopped. My policy is just to push them gently off if they claw or bite - seems to work. The biting came as a shock to me too as our other cats are 3 years old and (as with babies) I seem to have forgotten all the bad bits!!

 

[Moomin1]

My hand rear didn't stop biting and play fighting with my hands until around 6 months old!! Non hand rears should stop a lot sooner than that though, but expect to have sore hands for a while yet!

 

[flirtygerty]

If you want to train a young kitten to stop unwanted behaviour, gently grab the scruff and wraggle it, all four legs will go up and remembers mum is boss, a low growl is also a warning to young kittens

 

[Moomin1]

If you want to train a young kitten to stop unwanted behaviour, gently grab the scruff and wraggle it, all four legs will go up and remembers mum is boss, a low growl is also a warning to young kittens

I tried every trick in the book with my hand rear and it just sent him more determined to rip me to shreds!! Lol! I just resigned myself to looking as if I had self harmed for 6mths til he started to grow out of it!

He very very rarely misbehaves now though and he's just over a year old. He does sometimes shove his head under the duvet and attack our toes in bed, or pounce on my ankles if I have no socks on!