Violent kitten-Training/Positive reinforcement only making it worse?

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  • #814691
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Hello I’m new here and I got a kitten about a month ago,she’s now 2 months old
    When she first got here,she was shy and scared,but warmed up to me fairly quickly and everything was going well
    She was play biting one day and got carried away,biting hard enough to draw blood,so I did the stern “No” and walked away for a few minutes to show her that it was bad to bite
    Instead of curbing her urge to bite,she just started biting more,scratching my arms and face,and I don’t understand what I’m doing wrong?
    I’ve rewarded her for being nice,but then when I try feeding her she hisses and bites me or doesn’t let me put her food in her bowl.
    I’m really starting to get disheartened since she’s perfectly healthy and just started getting mean after I tried to stop her from biting
    I’ve resorted to ignoring her but she just cries so loud it makes me sad to hear it 🙁 I really need help here
    I was told that if she doesn’t stop biting that she’ll have to go and I’m running out of options

    #814693
    katzenjammer
    Participant

    Hi Zuleika,
    Let me start by saying that I am not a vet, or a vet tech and have little experience raising kittens, except my own. My cat who is now 4 years old used to bite quite a bit. As he has grown up a bit he seems to have settled down. Which does not help you in your current situation. When my cat was getting quite aggressive I went to my vet for advice and the vet tech gave me info on a behaviourist. With one home visit and some follow-up calls I received good guidelines. Seems that I was not distracting him enough with play so thais was key in helping him use up his excess energy. That said, in my opinion you might want to start by taking your kitty for a vet check-up, just to make sure that there are no health issues causing him to lash out at you. Just trying to help, others on this site might have more advice and have way more experience. Take care.

    #814698
    Kittyzee
    Participant

    Welcome Zuleika, Katzenjammer has good advice by diverting her with play and toys. Wand toys with feathers to get her jumping and playing are very good to wear her out. It’s always best to play with a kitten or cat with toys and not your hands and feet. It only teaches them that hands and feet are toys. I have a 15 week old kitten who bites pretty hard too. Remember, they are cutting teeth now and their gums probably are itchy and sometimes painful. I know diverting or ignoring my kitten doesn’t always work. They WILL grow out of it though, you just have to have patience. Hitting or hollering at your cat isn’t acceptable because it will only make them fearful and more prone to bite. Again, like KJ said above, a vet visit might be in order too if you haven’t had your cat there yet.

    #814701
    Anonymous
    Inactive

    Thank you for the input
    She has been eating,sleeping,and playing properly,she plays a lot,until she’s too tired and just falls asleep
    She’s healthy,her gums and tongue aren’t discolored or anything,I make sure to play with her for most of the day and she uses her litterbox properly
    I really don’t know what else could be wrong
    She honestly just seems to not like me

    #814720
    Buttons
    Moderator

    Ah I’m sure she loves you … Great advice from both KJ and KZ…

    Try rubbing some cat nip on her toys when you see here getting “giddy” my Mr Noodle is a vicious kitten he’s 11-12 weeks old now and we just ignore the biting to be honest he has been neutered now so when he stops teething the biting will reduce..

    Active kittens will bite but I find the boys are normally a lot worse I think your little one is a bit of a tom boy 😆

    #814797
    Kittyzee
    Participant

    Don’t give up Zulieka! My kitten bites, and very hard too. I try and remember I have been through this before, it does get better. Your kitten does love you. You provide food, warmth, comfort, love and as she gets older she will be your shadow. Little kittens have very short attention spans, like little children, they grow up fast. It won’t be long before your have forgotten that she ever bit you. There is nothing wrong with her, she is behaving like all healthy kittens do!

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