Pets
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Newly Adopted Kitten...Biting...How to Stop...Help!
We Just adopted a baby kitten, Marshall (we call him Marsh for short). He is 8 weeks old.
He is a great kitten...spunky, awesome personality, eats well, uses the litter box properly, etc. Except he bites toes, fingers and skin.
Is there a proper way to get him to stop doing this. I always do a firm "NO!" and push him gently away. But it doesn't seem to be working.
Has anyone had problems like this and had them fixed? What worked for you? Please let me know. Thanks!!!
Our Little Marsh--->
Re: Newly Adopted Kitten...Biting...How to Stop...Help!
I personally feel that kittens do better in pairs. For one thing, they learn about biting too hard from each other.
L was a big time biter and swatter as a baby. Whenever she did it, we walked away from her and ignored her for a couple minutes. She learned that biting = no attention. She is an attention wh0re, so this worked well for her. The main thing is to be consistent. It took a while, but she did get the message.
Also, be sure Marshall is getting enough exercise (something else a second kitten helps with).
5 cats. 1 baby.
Dominance theory is outdated, please don't use it. I've never even heard of people doing it on cats.
The yelp part is the only good bit of advice in there. Try a yelp or a loud "ouch!" and stop all play. That has worked for a few cats for me in the past.
Our cat was a huge biter as a kitten, and at 3 years old still occasionally gets riled up to the point of biting and needs disciplining.
Things that have worked for us:
1. loud clap/stomp and saying "NO!" firmly EXACTLY at the moment of biting
2. making loud smacking sound with a rolled up newspaper on our own leg (we don't hit her with it, we hit our own leg which makes a noise that scares her)
Things that didn't work for us, but supposedly have worked for other people's cats:
3. shaking a can/jar of pennies - the loud noise supposedly deters biting
4. squirting with a water gun - found it to be too complicated, could never find the darn water gun when we needed it
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Do not do this it will make him more aggressive. It's important whether he is biting when you're petting him and he becomes overstimulated or if he is biting your ankles and feet while you walk, trying to play. If its the former you need to learn to read his signals (ears back, tail flicking) and put him down before he bites. If its the second look into interactive toys like da bird or feline flyer, peekaboo box, crinkle tunnel, laser pointed and get him more exercise: when he tried to but redirect him with a toy. One of our boy cats was playful biting until we got him a friend. Now that older he's totally outgrown it.
Cats don't do hierarchies the way dogs do so dominant theory is even more crap when applied to them. I mean, it's crap generally.
Im doubtful that poster has cats or understands cats if she has them...about the best way to get any cat to play bite the *** out of you is to flip it on its back
Ditto PP. If the kitty is play biting, doing anything like turning the cat on its back, trying to pet, whatever will just encourage the biting. That is how kittens play. My cats chase each other, bite each other, and one rolls over and the other bites or pounces, then the roles are reversed. By leaving yourself physically involved you are setting yourself up to be bitten. Just pull your body part away and present a toy. Yelping might help, but honestly I dont think my cats "got" it. Just make sure to not contribute by leaving yourself open for attack. Haha
If you are being bit while you are petting, the cat is probably just done. I would limit your pet times and whenever you see the ears go down, put the cat down before it can bite. NBD.
My cat also does sneak attacks and pounces on my legs when I walk. She grew out of this after about 9 months. The best thing to do with this is to redirect to another toy.
Ditto the suggestion for another kitten. My babes love having each other. They are best friends. Kittens are pretty social and will tire each other out. You cat could be biting because of a lack of stimulation. If getting another kitten is not possible, set aside a lot of play time. At least an hour a day, but could be broken up into a couple of play sessions.
Thanks for adopting!!
Thanks for this! We just adopted an 8 week old kitten too, and he doesn't seem interested in any of the toys except the laser pointer. I'll try some of the ones you listed. Off to amazon.
ETA: we have da bird (must be an off brand) and he's afraid of it. What is a peekaboo box?