Cat biting the back of my calf. Is this attention seeking behaviour?

Sure sounds like he’s saying, “You’re up, you’re getting your food together, now get mine!”.

Do you always give him attention when he does it? Then he’s got you conditioned to pamper him when he does it. I don’t speak cat very well, so I don’t know how to break him of this habit, other than a squirt bottle of water when he does it.

It’s an attention thing but as @Adirondackwannabe said if you give in to him he’ll start just thinking ohhhh I just gotta bite @Mama_Cakes legs and she’ll pay attention yay!

My cat will run up and bite/claw the back of me or my SO’s leg while we’re going at it… kinda throws off your groove :P

@uberbatman Kind of a new meaning to Cat Scratch Fever. (Come on mods. It was begging for that answer)

Well hey, haven’t you ever heard of CAT NIP ?

Probably just a phase.

My cat does this when I get home from work. I go straight upstairs to change and she won’t let me go into the bathroom alone. So, as I pee, she bites at my shins. It doesn’t hurt, just tickles the hell out of me. She stops once I give her attention.

Perhaps you are just delicious.

Milo puts his jaws gently around my arm when I am at the computer for too long. It is very clear that he wants attention, food, or a door to the outside opened.

Every time he does it walk away in another direction and pay him no heed. When he stops then reward him with a treat or some playtime.

@tinyfaery: So, you would probably not approve of this then?

#1

#2

(Note article of furniture, heavily used also, to right of bureau.)

That will stop when you get the Discus….

Haha!

Even tho it’s play biting, TF has the right idea.

It took me about 6 mos. or so for me to break Smoochie of this but, even tho it was play biting, it was pretty damn hard.

My guess is that she didn’t have enough time with her Mama and siblings so didn’t really learn to inhibit her play biting. If kittens get too rough with each other, they’ll get a swift bite inretirn or a cuff across the nose from Mama cat so they learn.

Since I couldn’t very well do either of those, I just started reprimanding her with my tone of voice so there was no doubt in her mind that I clearly didn’t like this.

I followed this by tossing her (gently but firmly) off the bed, lap, or sofa and ignoring her.

At first she wasn’t really getting the message (or chose to ignore it) so I had to start increasing the amount of time she was not allowed to interact with me.

Each time she tried to return, I wpuid just shoo her off again until she gave up. Then about 15 minutes after that I’d call her and pet her and play with her (usually with a cat dancer toy so she could vent her play energy on something other than human flesh).

Where before she would bite my elbow really hard, nowadays, she just nibbles ever so gently while looking at me to make sure it’s not too hard or she’ll give a quick nibble and playfully scamper quickly off. It’s so cute, and as long as she doesn’t do it hard enough to hurt, I just accept it as her little idiosyncrasy. I’ve never had a cat who continued to do that past kittenhood or adolescence so it really is her particular quirk.

But if you don’t want him biting you, don’t reward him for it. Cats are smart enough to figure out what works and what doesn’t.

One of my previous cats used to wake me up by scratching or biting my face (she was young). I guess she was bored from me sleeping all night.

I finally had to resort to repeatedly putting her in the bathroom and closing the door for a timeout. She finally got the message.

But I just don’t believe in allowing any of my cats to bite or scratch me no matter how cute they are. I just figure it’s my job to teach them that.

RE: Cat Scratch Fever

This sounds more benign than it is in reality. It’s actually a real illness and can get real serious really fast.

A good friend of mine with multiple cats constantly had her arms and hands full of scratches. More than once ended up in the hospital for several days hooked up to IV antibiotics. She just shrugged it off as inevitable when you have playful cats. That’s ridiculous.

Well, my cats can damn well learn to bite and scratch toys rather than human flesh. I realize that it’s a natural behavior and practice for hunting. But they can be taught to channel that natural behavior onto appropriate non-human targets.

But to each his own.