What is with this cat?

A video copyright the BBC (but still posted on Youtube – as is most things BBC!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVx0AsXc5bY

But this article is definitely worth looking into if you’re more bothered about getting a cat to stop biting.
http://cat.lifetips.com/faq/4799/0/how-do-i-stop-my-cat-from-biting-me/index.html
(personally I’d bookmark the main address of that)

Also this may give a lot more insight to the cause and affect of cat behaviour in terms of biting…
http://pets.webmd.com/cats/guide/cat-aggression-biting-rough-play

My Siamese cat did the very same thing until he was about 4 and then one day, he just quit doing it. I think he did better when he was the only cat. He is now 19 and as pliable as Silly Putty!

Thanks, @lightsourcetrickster . The video isn’t like my cat. I have owned cats all my life, and never saw behaviour like this one. She doesn’t really “bite”, I mean, she isn’t trying to actually bite, and she doesn’t claw. I would just like to pet her like a normal kitty, but she will continue to try to “grab” your hand with her mouth, making petting impossible.

When she was younger, she liked to ambush us. The article from webmd may have come the closest – maybe she was taken away from her mom and sister too soon, so wants to continue her rough play with us. She is getting better, so maybe, like @Kayak8 ‘s cat, she may still grow out of it.

I’d say so @Skaggfacemutt (arguably the best user name I’ve ever seen).
My mother picked up a kitten that was probably abandoned (long story…it’s French maybe, but it was ‘discovered’ somewhere in the Motorhome upon arriving in England) and it was a little psycho (psychokitty is what I call it, but it has the loveliest coat of fur everrrrr), and it used to do the same thing. I’m not sure if it works for all cats, but I think Mom just let the cat be and it eventually stopped biting so often (nipping more than biting I suppose).
At the risk of perhaps encouraging that behavior (although it might not), getting some toys for it may help, which if it were me, I’d get toys for it anyway, because cats aren’t ones for being bored (having been slave to many a cat before now in my lifetime).
Anyway, you’re welcome for the links!

If she is just nipping and not trying to tear your throat out, she is just trying to tell you that she wants affection on her terms, not yours. As to stopping the behaviour, she is a cat so forget it; she will do it until she decides to quit.

Cats choose their people. You can’t adopt a cat. If you do, it will tolerate you until it finds it’s person. We found a stray cat a few weeks ago. I’m not a cat person but this cat choose me. I suppose I have a cat now. Don’t argue with nature. Also, some cats don’t require affection. Some are all about it. I don’t think you have a problem as much as a new personality to discover! I’m sure your kitty will be fine.

Maybe your cat just doesn’t like to have its head petted. As you know cats all have different personalities like people do. I have a very lovable cat just as long as you don’t pick her up. She just doesn’t like to be picked up or held, so I don’t go there.

Perhaps your cat has ear mites or another type of ear problem.

Someone was always dumping cats and kittens off at my kennel so I have had and found homes for many over the years. Almost all were nice, cuddly cats but there was one black one that was like the cat from hell. I raised her from kittenhood but she always bit and hissed and was miserable. And she did not nip playfully, she bit! So I think cats are like people, some are happy and mellow and others are miserable pricks!!! Maybe you picked a miserable one.

Biting at that age, and gently as you describe, might mean she craves more nursing.
Can you offer her a surrogate like a baby bottle with kitty formula? (Cows’ milk tends to make cats vomit despite storybook associations of cats and milk).

Sometimes holding the kitty and offering a thumb to suck on will make her content, purring, making biscuits.

Thank you for the suggestions. She is a nice kitty, just different. Could be she just doesn’t like to be touched, as @gondwanalon said. She will jump up and lay on my lap while I’m watching TV. Instead of walking around my legs in a circle and then carefully lying down, she flops down like a dog. We have handled her since birth, so it just surprised me that she resents being touched.

She isn’t miserable, @rooeytoo . She doesn’t hiss, spit, scratch, or bite to hurt. She just tries to grab your hand with her mouth if you try to pet her. She likes to ambush and attack, but that is playing. She is actually quite entertaining, just strange.

The only one she really despises is my eldest son, who has never done anything to her. If he picks her up, she goes into a hissy fit, and hisses so violently that she starts choking. Of course, the boys think it’s funny, so they do it once in a while just to see her reaction.

From what you describe, it’s definitely play biting which is what kittens do all the time. It’s very normal behavior in young cats for several years. She is obviously inhibiting the strength of her biting or else your hand would be thoroughly shredded and punctured.

Cats have a very strong instinctual need to stalk and kill (or to mimic this trait in play). Give her plenty of toy objects for her to vent these needs on. Some cats will even play fetch with a small stuffed mouse. One of my cats would do this repeatedly several times a day till she was tired of it. She would go get one of the mice and drop it in my lap to let me know. And when she was done, she would drop the mouse into her food bowl so it would be handy for next time. Fortunately it was dry food.

The other thing to try is one of those flying bird type toys attached with strong fishing line to a pole. Depending upon what you do with it you can have her slowly stalking on the ground then pounce. Or you can yank it up to fly in the air around her so she leaps up to get it.

After a good session with this toy which has her lying there pleasantly tuckered out you can then slowly begin stroking her under the chin and around the ears petting her. Since she’s already had a good session of attack-type play, this is the best time to try petting her so she can enjoy it.

The other thing to remember about petting is to not have your hand coming at her from above. That’s a clear invitation to play attack. Start with under the chin and around the ears.

She’s still a kitten and has a tremendous amount of energy for play. As she gets older in a few years she’ll settle down somewhat but you don’t need to wait that long to enjoy giving her affection. Just drain off some of that surplus energy with an interactive toy and let her “destroy” the prey (the toy) rather than your hand. It’s just a simple matter of substitution.

If she’s still attacking your hand after a play session, then she needs more playtime till she’s too tuckered out to attack any more.

Give it a try. I think you’ll get good results from a few toys. Different cats respond to different ones.

My current cat is totally indifferent to stuffed mouse toys (even with catnip) and wouldn’t dream of playing fetch. But she goes wild for the fishing pole and starts jumping around excitedly as soon as she sees it in my hand.

(it goes by various different names such as “cat dancer” etc. But you get the idea.)

Some people even make their own with the plastic rings around soda cans or other objects attached to fishing line which can be safely stalked, hunted and “destroyed” :)
But all pet stores carry various versions.

One of my daughters cats “Manny” is a larger, overweight cat that loves to be petted everywhere except his stomach. He loves to be held in your lap, but not picked up, and will lean into whatever hand is petting him until it gets close to the belly then he will grasp it between his paw(s) and open mouth just to let you know that is a no no. He will bite if you ignore his warning.
Her other cat “Isis” is extremely affectionate but WILL NOT be held. She will climb in your lap, or on your shoulders purring and butting with her head. She loves to be petted and scratched behind the ears but it has to be on her terms. She will curl up on you and go to sleep but try to hold her, or even just lay your hand on her without a petting motion and she is gone.
Different strokes (pun intended).

@Buttonstc Re your comment: The other thing to remember about petting is to not have your hand coming at her from above. That’s a clear invitation to play attack.

Well, that explains a lot, because that is how I (try to) pet her.

You have to try to look at things from a cats perspective as much as possible :)

Out in the wild, most real attacks (other than snakes) come at cats from above, so they’re always wary about that space. And instincts are strong and persist.

This is also why in a multi-cat household, when they are sorting out their pecking order the higher spaces (bookshelves, dressers, top level of cat scratch tree, etc) are the most prized areas and are fought over the most.

Cats really don’t like things surprising them from above.

The other thing to remember with your kitty if you want to see things from her perspective is the tremendous change now that she’s the only one left.

All of her (short so far) little life she was surrounded by her cat family and had plenty of playmates 24/7. All she has for a family now is a clueless human :) who isn’t really enthused about her attempts to play in the only way she knows how.

You are the only playmate left for her. So, that’s why the suggestion for playtoys for her. At her age she still needs lots of playtime but just not with human hands. There are far better substitutes.

That’s a pretty big void in her life when you think about it. And cats regard us as their family despite the size difference and the strange absence of fur.

This is why they’ll lick us (grooming) head butt us, rub their cheeks on us, purr and sometimes knead our laps when contented.

You’re lucky that the momma cat taught her to inhibit her claws and teeth so that you don’t get shredded. Not every cat owner is so lucky.

It took me several months to convince my current cat of that and to let her know that human appendages are NOT acceptable toys. She would even come up while I was lying in bed on my side and bite my protruding elbow. Ouch.

So consider yourself lucky that yours just nips.

But still, she needs to know that human parts are not appropriate cat toys. That’s just basic kitty manners as far as I’m concerned and it’s our job to teach proper kitty manners.

(But mine will still very occasionally sneak in an elbow nip here and there. But it’s a very very gentle nip now and she just has that mischievious gleam in her eye as she quickly runs away :) she knows she’s being naughty.

If she is “turning her head to bite them”, does that mean people are trying to pet her from behind? What she may be reacting to is not being in control. If you approach her from the front, and let her sniff your hand before trying to pet her, you might find her reaction softens over time. One of my cats was this way – I think she had been abused by a former owner.

Thanks, everyone, for all of your good advice. I will stop trying to pet her from behind, and try playing with her more often. She was a year old last month, and age alone is mellowing her out a bit. I have two other cats, so she does have playmates, although they are rather boring playmates. I have a lot of toys, and she likes them, but only if they are interactive. She likes the round thing with the play mouse that she has to reach in and bat around the track. It would go around by itself if I put batteries in it, but she seems to prefer to hit it around by herself. She likes the little play mice – she will carry one around with her like a teddy bear – even puts it in the food dish like she is trying to feed it. I will have to get some of those “teasers” and play with her.

She sounds delightful @Skaggfacemutt. My cat will hold my hand with her teeth when I stroke him sometimes. I have always taken it he isn’t in the mood or what I’m doing isn’t working for him. He never bites hard and usually washes my hand straight away. Sort of a ‘don’t do that… I still love you though!’ thing.

we acquired and light gray, light brown and white calico – they call it a “diluted calico” where the tortoise shell has the black and dark brown – I’ve owned two like that. My first tortoise shell calico, Boris, would growl and purr when he was in your lap. Big Mama was 30 pounds and just kinda moody. Our new calico, Mittie, is just playful and obstinate – we had her fixed 2 weeks ago and she’ll sit on my lap now, but she wants to bite when I pet her head. All of my calicos have been temperamental and when I mentioned how Mittie acts, the vet said calicos ARE temperamental and kinda wild by nature.

That is very interesting. I have had many calico cats, and they were all very nice, although kind of needy, but this tortoise shell is like your Mittie, she doesn’t want anyone petting her head. Well, she doesn’t really want anyone touching her at all, but yet she will sit on my feet or legs while I’m watching TV, and she isn’t really shy or skittish. It’s kind of funny because she belongs to my son, who is an anti-social kind of guy, so they understand each other (ha-ha.)

I’ve always had Himalayans. They all kind of act the same. All my mutt type cats have been kinda moody and temperamental.