Do we like biting? - Part II

Little Boy tends to bite when he gets playful, and I've been trying
to break him of this.

That usually involves:

a) Pulling my hand away
b) Saying "Do we like biting? Shake your head no", while shaking his
head (gently) for him and shaking my head no
c) Saying "Kissing and petting and loving and hugging are good, but
biting is bad"

Okay, I know it's silly and demented-cat-personish, but it's fun and
seems to work a little.

This morning, Little Boy was in bitey mode, so I went through the
routine. His response? "Yes! Yes, we like biting. In fact, I want to
bite (looks around)... YOU!"

Ooookay... So I pick him up to cuddle, which usually makes him stop,
because he loooves to cuddle. The little brat started chewing on my
shoulder!

So I was left with no alternative - I started kissing him on the
face, the neck, the paws... I smothered him in kisses until he emitted
a distressed meow of surrender.

I put him back on the bed, and he swatted my leg, then exposed his
tummy to be rubbed.

Uh-huh. That's what started all this...


Hugs and Purrs,
Mark
--
Proof of Sanity Forged Upon Request

On Fri, 17 Mar 2006 15:49:05 -0000, Mark Edwards
yodeled:


Little Boy tends to bite when he gets playful, and I've been trying
to break him of this.

That usually involves:

a) Pulling my hand away
b) Saying "Do we like biting? Shake your head no", while shaking his
head (gently) for him and shaking my head no
c) Saying "Kissing and petting and loving and hugging are good, but
biting is bad"

Okay, I know it's silly and demented-cat-personish, but it's fun and
seems to work a little.

This morning, Little Boy was in bitey mode, so I went through the
routine. His response? "Yes! Yes, we like biting. In fact, I want to
bite (looks around)... YOU!"

Ooookay... So I pick him up to cuddle, which usually makes him stop,
because he loooves to cuddle. The little brat started chewing on my
shoulder!

So I was left with no alternative - I started kissing him on the
face, the neck, the paws... I smothered him in kisses until he emitted
a distressed meow of surrender.

I put him back on the bed, and he swatted my leg, then exposed his
tummy to be rubbed.

Uh-huh. That's what started all this...



I hear ya. I always get icky and gooey over Dante too, when he gets
feisty and bitey. I don't know why, it just seems to present itself
as the thing to do. He does it so playfully. It really seems to me
that he wants to play with me as he would play with another cat, so
it's hard to get too mad at him (except when he digs those
kitten-claws into me :O)

When he bites, I often pick him up, put him between my knees, facing
me, and say various ridiculous things like "WHO's a bitey boy!??"
(OMG I am embarassed). And oddly enough, he does calm down, and
starts patting my mouth and nose with his paws. It's incredibly cute.


Theresa
Stinky Pictures: http://community.webshots.com/album/125591586JWEFwh
My Blog: http://www.humanitas.blogspot.com

Make Levees, Not War

Mark Edwards wrote in news:121lmjhq1v96l71
@news.supernews.com:

Little Boy tends to bite when he gets playful, and I've been trying
to break him of this.


Doc's been a biter since about a month after he moved in (took over).
After I got him a kitty of his own to bite, he stopped biting me so hard,
but he still does it. The thing is, whenever he bites, I stop the
scritches, so he tries hard not to bite. Now his bites are so gentle I
can hardly feel them.

Pi, OTOH, used to bite for fun, and when he did, I'd put him down, rather
hard. Not hard enough to hurt, but hard enough so he knew I was
displeased.

The little turkey, after a few times of that, whenever he wanted to get
down, he'd bite me quickly and jump down. You could hear him laughing, I
swear.

Chak

--
I would like at least one political party in this country to be willing
to say that sex is fun and an important part of being human.
--PZ Myers, http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/

Chakolate wrote:
Mark Edwards wrote in news:121lmjhq1v96l71
@news.supernews.com:


Little Boy tends to bite when he gets playful, and I've been trying
to break him of this.



Doc's been a biter since about a month after he moved in (took over).
After I got him a kitty of his own to bite, he stopped biting me so hard,
but he still does it. The thing is, whenever he bites, I stop the
scritches, so he tries hard not to bite. Now his bites are so gentle I
can hardly feel them.

Pi, OTOH, used to bite for fun, and when he did, I'd put him down, rather
hard. Not hard enough to hurt, but hard enough so he knew I was
displeased.

The little turkey, after a few times of that, whenever he wanted to get
down, he'd bite me quickly and jump down. You could hear him laughing, I
swear.

LOL! I've been trying to teach Caliban not to bite by just not
interacting with him for a while if he bites me. Just ignore him
completely. He doesn't bite as much as he used to, and his bites are
more gentle. Excpt today, of course, when I made the mistake of
scratching on the chair to lure him over. Suddenly he took a huge lunge
and wrapped his paws around my arm and sank his teeth into my wrist. I
hissed at him and threw him to the floor (I was sitting down, so it
wasn't far). Then I made sure to complain long and loud to make him
understand he'd hurt me. He just looked at me with his big innocent
eyes. 'Who, me?? I'd nevah!' Maybe he'll learn eventually.

--
Marina, Miranda and Caliban. In loving memory of Frank and Nikki.
marina (dot) kurten (at) iki (dot) fi
Stories and pics at http://koti.welho.com/mkurten/
Pics at http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/frankiennikki/
and http://community.webshots.com/user/frankiennikki

Imp's the biter here. When he was a kitten; and he did that the first
time, IU hissed at him. Boy you should have seen the look on his
face. "you can HISS??" That got his attention, but then he didn't
care.

I would try ignoring him, telling him no, but that didn't seem to work.

Now i just try to grin and bear it. And turn my hand in a way.
Acutally it's not the biting that really hurts that much, it's the back
feet that come up too.

The usual routine is that I'll be scratching him and he gets so
stimulated that he grabs my hand in his front paws and bites it, and
brings up his back feet to kick the hell out of my hand and arm.
Ouchie!

When he grabs and bites, i just say "Ok, you got me. Now what are you
gonna do?" And he'll stop, and look around, but still holding my hand
in his paws. "You got me." I'll shake my hand slightly from side to
side. "What are ya gonna do?" He'll go back to biting and kicking
until he looses interest and rolls away.

It's cute, although painful. It really sucks though in the morning
when he wants scritches. You're half awake and suddenly searing pain
shoots through your hand and it's bitten. Ow!

Mayhem will nip on occasion, but mainly to get your attention. FOr
example, if a hand refuses to pet her after multiple headbutts and cold
noses, a gentle nip normally gets it moving.

Silly cats......

Kristi

Marina wrote in news:4848kiFi2ljpU1
@individual.net:

LOL! I've been trying to teach Caliban not to bite by just not
interacting with him for a while if he bites me. Just ignore him
completely. He doesn't bite as much as he used to, and his bites are
more gentle. Excpt today, of course, when I made the mistake of
scratching on the chair to lure him over. Suddenly he took a huge lunge
and wrapped his paws around my arm and sank his teeth into my wrist. I
hissed at him and threw him to the floor (I was sitting down, so it
wasn't far). Then I made sure to complain long and loud to make him
understand he'd hurt me. He just looked at me with his big innocent
eyes. 'Who, me?? I'd nevah!' Maybe he'll learn eventually.


They are so very, very good at that innocent look, ain't they?

If I just stopped scritching Doc, he took the hint. Pi was a little more
hard-headed.

Chak

--
I would like at least one political party in this country to be willing
to say that sex is fun and an important part of being human.
--PZ Myers, http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/

On 2006-03-18 23:31:16 -0600, Marina said:

Chakolate wrote:
Mark Edwards wrote in news:121lmjhq1v96l71
@news.supernews.com:


Little Boy tends to bite when he gets playful, and I've been trying to
break him of this.



Doc's been a biter since about a month after he moved in (took over).
After I got him a kitty of his own to bite, he stopped biting me so
hard, but he still does it. The thing is, whenever he bites, I stop
the scritches, so he tries hard not to bite. Now his bites are so
gentle I can hardly feel them.

Pi, OTOH, used to bite for fun, and when he did, I'd put him down,
rather hard. Not hard enough to hurt, but hard enough so he knew I was
displeased.
The little turkey, after a few times of that, whenever he wanted to get
down, he'd bite me quickly and jump down. You could hear him laughing,
I swear.

LOL! I've been trying to teach Caliban not to bite by just not
interacting with him for a while if he bites me. Just ignore him
completely. He doesn't bite as much as he used to, and his bites are
more gentle. Excpt today, of course, when I made the mistake of
scratching on the chair to lure him over. Suddenly he took a huge lunge
and wrapped his paws around my arm and sank his teeth into my wrist. I
hissed at him and threw him to the floor (I was sitting down, so it
wasn't far). Then I made sure to complain long and loud to make him
understand he'd hurt me. He just looked at me with his big innocent
eyes. 'Who, me?? I'd nevah!' Maybe he'll learn eventually.

They do. Pearl has almost completely stopped biting at all. She
connected biting with being Completely Ignored really quickly. If she
does it now it is really just "mouthing".

Mischief wrote:
Imp's the biter here. When he was a kitten; and he did that the first
time, IU hissed at him. Boy you should have seen the look on his
face. "you can HISS??" That got his attention, but then he didn't
care.


Nocturne is a biter. She does it to show her dominance. She can't
understand why we get offended by it...why we stop petting her, or with
draw, or hiss. If we'd only submit to her, she'd release us...but no,
people get all huffy, and then she has to bite down harder to show
she's the boss. She bites the kittens and they just put up with it and
then she releases them and licks them all over and they purr!

Ever since I began ignoring the biting, I get bitten a lot less.

Cats are freaks.

--Fil