Kitten bites arm suddenly

[christinaja]

Here is the point that I think you have missed:

Cats tend to choose when they want to be held, when they want to play, etc. If he is only wanting to be held for 20 minutes at a time when he is outside of the cage, that is because he has not expelled his pent up energy, and you haven't caught him in a cuddling mood. They will come to you when they want attention, but they have to have the opportunity to get to know you well, trust you, and explore their environment.

And how do you know he isn't unhappy? Every behavior you have mentioned as a problem points to him being unhappy. Just because the breeder keeps cats in cages doesn't mean that it is the proper thing to do.

[Sinatra-Butters]

If the breeder kept him in a cage it just means you picked a bad breeder.

You keep saying that he will have more freedom if you can get his biting under control, but it will only get worse while he is being kept in there.

[cloa513]

He has never bitten for no reason for over a week probably longer. He bites because he's angry with being held too long or play fighting or maybe accidentally he seems to open his mouth when my arm is in the way. Sometimes he chooses my arm instead of his bite toy.

[MaxKitteh]

My little kitten 4-month old Burmese, Max, will bite occasionally or seemingly randomly, but usually when he's very stimulated but sometimes just out of the blue, but never when we cuddle in my office. He stopped biting my legs under the sheets too (he did that the first week a few times and got put out of the bedroom). We've had him exactly two weeks as of this weekend.

Max has access to the whole house all the time. I work from home and he sleeps on my lap all day, so he gets tons of affection but he still likes to try and bite my arm now and then, or draw my hand into a battle. I simply discourage this behavior by ignoring him for a bit and ceasing all play and then later play with him using appropriate toys and it is important to give them playtime so they're not bored (biting humans is almost always exciting hehe). I don't want him to think he can bite me to get me to play or 'do' something.

I also just got him a cat condo so he now has a very high place where he can run around on and feel safe (and expel some energy, which he has lots of when he's awake). Weirdly, after he investigated it (he was nervous at first due to the sound of the ratchet), he attached and clawed my arm (lightly), but when I scolded him, he kinda froze in that position on my arm and just kinda...went to sleep. It was the cutest thing. I think he was taking out his uncertainty on my arm so he probably just needed attention after witnessing me build this giant cat condo.

After that, he ran around on the cat condo, slept in the little cozy box and played with the dangling rope and he seemed glad to know it was 'his'. Sometimes, I think this biting thing is just what some kittens do, but we just have to discourage it as best we can. Max certainly doesn't lack for freedom, play time or affection (he even sleeps with us) but he still bites here and there, but less often now and with less 'gusto' too. He's learning.

[Destinie]

Tex is 4 months and also a biter. He will go from "Cuddle Mode" to "Play Mode" in a split second. I have to warn my family when they come over and try to pet him and say, "Watch out, he's in 'Play Mode'." Sometimes I even forget because he will seem cuddly then just attack my arm and bite HARD without warning.

I am hoping he is going to grow out of it, he's already gotten a little better over the past few weeks. I've read a lot of cat forums that had suggestions on how to get cats to stop biting, but none of them work. I usually try to get him to exert his excess energy somehow. When I have time, I try to play with him for at least 30mns to an hour and that helps him expel a lot of energy.

When your cat bites, you can make a noise to deter them. I usually say "NO!" or "STOP!". We try a water bottle (even though he's not afraid of the water.) I also don't try to cuddle him in "Play Mode". It encourages him to play more roughly. Now he will stop at "No" or "stop" sometimes and lick instead.

[Squeakist]

poor kitty.

we've had our 6 month old kitten Mouse, for 3 weeks now. she has access to most of the rooms up stairs, has her own room, also the landing and stairs during the day and when i'm home also the down stairs rooms to roam around in.

in her room there are plenty of different levels and hiding places and a window. with all this room she still has loads of energy and if we don't attempt to tired her out before we settle down to sleep we ge the odd nip. i think if she was confined to 1 room or a cage we'd have more trouble than we do.

i'm no expert but keeping a cat in a cage is not the right environment for it, please think again

[savoirfaire]

Help, as I am having serious biting problems as well!

First off, I don't keep her in a cage. The worst I do, is put her in the laundry room by herself for at most, 15 minutes when she is really bad or needs to cool off.

My cat misbehaves a lot, but that's for another thread. Basically, my cat will relentlessly attack my arms, hands, legs and feet. She also bites quite hard. I don't know if she's capable of breaking skin or not, but her bites feel about as hard as they can without breaking skin. I have little red marks on my hands wherever she tries to bite. Usually she gets her paws involved too. She wraps herself around my arm and bites and wrestles away. I have tried so much here. If I yell at her she will not stop.

Currently what I am doing, which stops the current bite, but not biting in general, is say no and with my other hand, take a couple of fingers and kind of nudge her off my hand. I press against her face or mouth, just hard enough that her mouth releases for a moment and she usually looks at the offending hand.

Then she immediately digs into me again. So I do it again. She eventually decides to attack the offending hand. So I try and stop her with the other hand. Eventually I have to use more force, and physically remove her from the biting. Once she gives up on the hands, she goes for the feet. Repeat. She usually ends her assault by looking at me in attack mode and making a half hearted lunge for my face. She looks pissed.

She has been biting for three months, and I have tried to discourage it in many ways. Diverting her attention kind of works, but I fear it helped the biting problem. Because now she realises that if she bites me I present her with a toy and some play time. I don't like that. I tried isolating her, hissing her, a few other things. But she just doesn't want to stop biting. I sure hope she grows out of it.

[catbrb]

I don't agree with having him in a cage, either. Maybe a cat wasn't the best choice as a pet. But since you are keeping him in there, the best we can do is offer some advice to make kitties life a little better and hopefully stop his biting. He just seems like he needs some more stimuli while he's in the cage.

I'm not sure what kind of cage you have (one leveled, two leveled, three leveled) but if you don't have a two leveled at least(three would be even better!), I'd suggest that. Something like this (preferably bigger):

Japanese style cat cage (2 deck)

or

Rakuten: GB / CAT Cage S-Class C-02 - Free Shipping- Shopping Japanese products from Japan

I'd make sure he has plenty of toys hanging off the wire (if it is a wire cage and no string, since he can strangle himself or ingest it). You can easily take a toilet paper roll and just shove it inbetween the cage wires, or just toss it in there, I'm sure he'd play with it.

Another suggestion is maybe getting him a playpen that has a plastic bottom so he can roam around like that under your supervision. I get that he can probably just climb over the fence lol, but it's still a suggestion.

There are also toys where you can put some food in that he has to get out himself, normally it's a ball that they have to bat back and forth, that's something relatively easy, and something he'd enjoy. There are a lot of toys that will stimulate them, you just need to do some searches on your preferred search engine.

Also, if it is a wired cage, I'd put something on the bottom so his feet don't get tired. It doesn't feel good walking barefoot on chicken wire does it? Probably the same thing he's feeling.

Also make sure he's not playing in his own matter. Cat's don't like to be around their own litter box, especially don't like to have their food next to it. Multiple levels in a cage would mean he could have his space for food.

You could also think about making your own indoor cat enclosure, it'd be bigger then a cage. I'm not sure if you could spare the room, but just the length of one wall would be better. Especially if he'd have a window to look out of.

[catbrb]

Woops, I can't edit now. I just wanted to say those were just suggestions I've found skimming through google search on how to make a cage a little more appealing to a kitten. Things other people have done for their kitties.

[wondercat]

Just cause in Japan putting a cat in a cage is "normal" it just does not seem right to me. Anyways, I have two kittens, in the beginning Max used to bite here and there, even though he had his toys and was free to roam all over the house. I think he was teething. This lasted for a few weeks and when he did I would immediately put him down and ignore him for a few minutes. This stopped completely. Now if I could just teach him not to use me as a cat tree and climb me to sleep on my shoulder....