I have Gizmo doing 'soft bites' occasionally. When she does, I say NO and stop whatever I'm doing. If she still doesn't listen, she is put in the hall.

YOu can also blow air in his face, he'll dislike that but it won't hurt.
He will associate biting with 'air in face'.

It's a love bite, but you don't want him doing it too often.
Sounds like he wants to play, too-when Gizmo starts to get bitey, I get the Mouse Toy. It seems to work.

 

My cat was doing the random biting while I pet her. Sometimes she'd claw at me too. I would loudly say "no" or "ow" and put her on the floor or move away from her whenever she did it. She seems to have stopped it for now.

 

My Yoshi used to bite me all the time. I followed some advice that I got on here, and started always petting him like I would a stranger cat: slowly and tentatively, letting him sniff me first. It's weird to do that to your own cat, but it seemed to help. I also started playing rough with him at defined times, which I had never done before. He has mostly stopped biting.

But my childhood cat, Nigel, was also a biter. From his first day with us as a kitten until the day he died as an old man, if you dared to pet Nigel, you got your hand gnawed. So I suppose it just depends on the cat.

Another idea: You could put something on your hand that would taste gross to him. Hand lotion?

 

My cat will attack me! I mean come after me! Ears down, meowing and biting! Sorry to say but some butt smacking has occured! He will want me to hold him and then he will turn around and bite my face! THen when I put him down he comes after me. Yesterday I threw him out the bedroom door and closed it! Couldnt get to the squirt bottle. He will bring the blood.He does it to my hubby and son also. No clue why, but he gets the squirt bottle and when that is not around, I smack him on the butt, not hard but I dont want to be bitten. I swore I would never hit my cat but......

 

If they were love bites, I could handle it.

It seems that the biting is how he expresses his displeasure with me.
"Oh, you won't pet me? I'll bite you"
"Oh, you think you're going to trim my nails? I'll bite you!"
"Hi. I'll bite you."
"Pick me up. No? I'll bite you"
"You tapped me on the head! I'll bite you. You Did it AGAIN? Now I'll bite you harder"

When he misses biting me, his teeth clack together and he has this look on his face that says he's mad.

I'll try blowing in his face. But sometimes his face is nowhere near mine. *sigh* At least he doesn't break skin. But I really do worry for kids...if I ever have any non-furry ones.

 

How old is he?

 

My kitten does that too....he just wants to play. Get him in the habit of biting a stuffed animal instead of you. I gave my kitten a graduation teddy bear to play with then I'm asleep or on the computer. This might sound silly, but you could bite them back. Whenever I play with my kitten I bite him back, and yes, he does stop biting. Immature way to solve a complex problem.

 

Thomas is 4 years old. When he was a kitten, I thought he would grow out of it.

Unfortunately, I was wrong.

 

Unfortunately, they don't just grow out of it, they have to be taught not to bite and I don't think a spray bottle or tap on the head is very effective. In fact, I think , it can make them more agressive. Same with yelling or getting angry.
Redirecting him with a toy is a good idea. Make sure you have a couple of good playtimes with him every day. It does sound like part of it is because he's bored and wants to play. I would not, however, play with him right when he does it. Say "No!" walk away and ingore him, at least for a couple of minutes. When he stops going after you then play with him. You don't want to reward his naughty behavior by playing with him right away.
Here's what I did with Little-one who was exactly the same way. He would literally chomp on my calf as I walked by and sometimes draw blood! He had been a stray and bit HARD! He didn't know ayt better. I made sure I took the time to play with him more often. If he did bite me, I would gently push whatever part he was biting towards his mouth instead of pulling away. I realize it's a natural reaction to pull away but it's part of the fun for him! And pushing towards them confuses them. It was actually quite funny to see the look of absolute shock on his face when I would do it. But it was very effective.
Just be consistant, calm and patient and he will learn not to do it.
Good luck!

EDIt to add:
If the strays are part of the problem you may want to try Feliway.

 

My little female's a biter. I highly recommend Nanook's push toward them method. It works!

Another thing to try especially if it's hands they are biting: push your finger or hand into their mouth until they release. It doesn't hurt them but eventually they'll get sick of it. I did this with my female (I've also pushed my finger on the roof of her mouth and she didn't like that either) and now if she bites it's just a little love bite.

Another thing to try: make your hand as ridgid as possible. This seems to reduce the pleasure in gnawing on you cos there's no give.

Setting aside some rough playtime can also help. If they have claws wear a good leather glove and just for it! They'll bite on the glove but it seems to get it out of their systems.

Nasty tasting stuff on your hands? NEver worked for me. My cat has a sick love of bleach, rubbing alcohol, anything you think she'd spit out she seems to like. Strange little cat.

Blowing int he face, a small burst of air can really discourage them too. They really don't like that.

They now also make special toys for teething cats that you can get at Petco and stuff. My little boy likes to chew on everything and these toys have helped him to not chew on me.

You might also want to get his teeth checke dout just to make sure there isn't a reason why he feels the need to bite. You probably have already done this, but if not, I'd give it a try.