I got two adorable cats, several years ago in fact. I got them as kittens. The lady who helps me clean and other stuff gave them to me one year for my birthday. And they are rescue cats. (More on that later.)
Snowball is a rather obese white cat. She is very outgoing. She trusts almost everyone. Whenever anyone comes over, to repair something, e.g., she always is the first to greet them. Twinkle is a striped gray cat. And she is not so trusting. She only trusts me, and maybe a couple other people.
Anyways, as I said, they are rescue cats. And reportedly their mother (whom I never met) hated humans intensely. It is important to remember cats learn whom to trust from their mother (in addition to how to use the litter pan, interestingly).
In any event, I have to tell you all what goes on. When I am petting Snowball, she seems to enjoy it. Then she starts biting my finger. Not enough to break the skin. But enough to cause a little pain, I should tell you. I guess she is expressing dominance. We had a dog that did that at first, quite some time back. But that is not the weird thing. When she is trying to bite me, she motions for me to give her my finger. She thinks I am going to voluntarily let her bite me! I’m not kidding. Why on earth would she think that? Anyways, I grew up with cats. So I know from experience you simply cannot discipline a cat. Some misguided people (including a veterinarian once, ironically) say you can. But I know better.
The gray cat is not so neurotic. But when I pet her, she also acts a little weird too. She clearly enjoys being petted. But after I do it several times, she starts cowering like I am about to hit her. No one has ever hit or abused her since I got them as kittens. So why does she do that? Did someone hit her in the past? I don’t know for sure. In any event, I always pet them for a couple of minutes in any event. I actually learned long ago cats only like it when you pet them for a couple of minutes. I see people petting them briefly, them stopping. And people don’t realize apparently how much that in fact annoys them. I’m serious. So consider that the next time you pet your cat or dog.
This is MPSIMS. But I still wouldn’t mind any advice you have to offer.
Cats can get excited or stimulated when being petted and affectionately bite you. Since it is uncomfortable, simply stop petting the cat as soon as it happens. She will soon learn not to do it as long as she wants to be petted. Another possibility is that it is a signal that she has had enough stimulation and for you to stop petting anyway.
Similarly, if the other cat starts squirming or runs off after a while, one can only assume she has had enough petting for the time being.
Disclaimer: this is mostly speculation and inference, but try it and see how it goes.
I think that’s just a cat thing. My old man, Marbles, will grab my hand and bring it to him for pets or nibbles (or both). And he, his brother and sister will all reach out and snag me if I’m done petting them, but they want more. They always want more. The weird thing I experience is my girl, Samhain, who poofs up like a scared when she’s really enjoying getting loved on.
So yeah, no advice here. Just cats being cats, IMO
The cat who’s nibbling on you may be trying to play, or to groom you – watch a cat groom, and you’ll probably see some nibbling during the process. It’s not particularly strange behavior; a lot of cats will try to chew gently on their humans. Not all cats figure out that a degree of tooth pressure that wouldn’t hurt a cat is painful to a human, because we haven’t got any fur.
The cat who cowers should be checked by a vet. for possible causes of pain. If that’s not it, maybe she doesn’t like the particular way you pat her? All cats are different, and some don’t like a style of patting that others are quite happy with. Degree of pressure, speed of movement, portion of cat contacted can all be an issue.
And on that last note – you may be right that your particular cats want to be patted for a particular length of time; but, while this is true of some cats, it isn’t true of all of them. I’'ve had some cats that clearly demanded quite long petting sessions, and others who only wanted brief skritches.
My cat Luci will start biting when she wants to play. She’ll just grab your arm and bite and kick – basically wrestling. In that case, the best thing to do is pull away gently, and then give her a cat toy.
When your cat starts to cower, back off. Is it possible she was abused as a kitten before you got her?
Sorry I was debating if you question was merely rhetorical:). I don’t know. As I said, they were rescue kittens, so anything is possible.
Actually, that does remind me of another story. We got this kitten some heartless person simply dumped out in a local park. But fortunately my parents and I were there to scoop him up.
We called him ‘Pumpernickel’. Interesting word Pumpernickel. It literally means the Devil’s fart. I’m serious. My mother called him that, because as a kitten, he would continuously bite us. My parents would swat him on the nose, and he would do again and again just to spite them. Anyways, again, I knew it was futile to try to discipline a cat. So I ignored him when he did it. And he did it a lot less with me, in any event, I must say.
Anyways, when he reached adulthood, he stopped biting us. But like Twinkle, he would sometimes cower when we pet him, as if he was anticipating another swat. He did with me, which was rather odd. As I said, I never swatted him for biting even once, I don’t think. But at least with him, I knew what he was cowering for. He thought we were going to swat him again, like we did when he was a kitten.
Ditto on the affectionate biting observations. We have rescued very many cats and generally keep the hard luck stories, especially cats with permanent injuries or health problems like diabetes. We refer to the ones who are more inclined to bite affectionately as “pointy”.
We have one who had been declawed and then abandoned outdoors in winter. I don’t get how people can do this. Anyway, he is quick to nip, I suspect, because he can’t use claws for a less committed defensive maneuver.
Not trying to resurrect this thread. But something I felt compelled to add.
The other day the guy who helps me clean the house was petting Snowball. And she bit him naturally. Only thing is he says she broke the skin! When does she ever do that? As I said her bites seem only playful. He told me it might have been because he was wearing gloves. But I have no idea what that means.
It sounds like she was mad at him. He may mean that she bit harder because of his gloves = thicker skin, in her mind. Not sure how she would know that.
It sounds to me as though she was trying to reach the skin. She normally stops short of a penetrating bite but in this case the pressure needed to break through the glove was enough to break through the skin and she wasn’t able to stop before it did.
I have a bitey cat too - and he’s a former feral. In his case it’s obvious that he lived in a house with nice people when he was young but wandered off at some point. When he first came to me he would bite painfully hard, without breaking skin. I made it clear I didn’t like that and his bites are less frequent and much gentler now. As far as I can tell he bites when he’s had enough petting, when the petting accidentally hurts and sometimes just because he’s not getting his own way. Early on he bit me for being on the phone and for not playing laser pointer when he wanted me too. It’s a good thing he’s also very charming - and he’s learned that charm works best
Nitpick: felines have an innate sense to use a litter pan, or something like it; they aren’t trained by anyone.
A friend of mine – let’s call her Sara – not knowing about cat/kitten behavior, acquired a tiny kitten once. She (Sara) left for work, thinking the kitten could “hold it” until she got home. Not so; the kitten used her dress shoe for a toilet.
When Sara told me about this, I grabbed an empty Kleenex box, tore off the top, and put some loose dirt from the garden in it. When I showed it to the cat, she (the cat, not Sara) squatted in the box and instantly appeared quite happy to use it; no training required.
