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My Sphynx kitten is a bitter... any tips to cut this habit off?

Morticia

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Oct 29, 2010
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Hi all,

Morticia is on the bitting stadge. She's 7 months and loves to play like all kittens. She got into the habit of playing with our hands and bitting it (and sometimes hard!). She has plenty of toys (but she's a single cat) to play, food on her plate and a warm and cozy bed. I don't mind her playing with my hands, but christmas is coming and children are coming to mine and I'm afraid she will hurt the kids while playing.

Any tips for her to stop with the bitting???
 

TotenEngel

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Oct 18, 2010
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Smeagol is more of a jumper/climber than a biter and we had our 7 year old nephew round the other day (his first trial with children in our house!) so I was quite concerned, those kitten nails are like needles!
To be honest, they were having so much fun together with balls or the dangly thing on a stick (don't know what the proper name is for them!) that when he did jump up at Joe (our nephew) he didn't really notice, just continued giggling like a crazed thing!
Maybe just make sure you have lots of 'long range' toys that they can all play with together?
It also partly depends on how old the kids are and if you can explain that Morticia is only playing, but is a baby
 

sphynxie

V.I.P Lairian
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Sep 16, 2010
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Nudie is 5 months old and does this occasionally. When she bites we blow on her face and she lets go right away. She doesn't seem to do it that often anymore- maybe the blowing is working:BigSmile: Good Luck!
 

Nofuratu

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Make sure you dont use your hands as part of playing so you dont confuse the kitty. You can try yelling really loud when you get bitten, like OUCH. Also some people swear by biting back...gently...kittens and puppies learn how hard to bite by playing and getting bitten by other puppies and kitties.
I would try the face blowing first though.
 

ckutkuhn7

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Jan 16, 2010
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My SoBe is 5 mths old now, she bites sometimes. We just make our hand or limb or whatever she is nawing on fall limp, yell OUCH sort of loud and she lets go,,,as long as she isn't in one of her Spazzoid modes! lol
 

lawgrl

Lairian
Joined
Aug 13, 2010
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Choppy went through a biting stage. I stopped using my hands/fingers like toys when I played with him but that didn't really nip it in the bud, so I started putting a little bit of that sour apple spray (the sour stuff you can put on things to teach dogs not to chew them...we have a 2 year old doxie, so that stuff is standard issue around our house, lol!) on my fingers at times I knew he was most likely to be tempted to give them a little nibble (like in the evening while we're watching tv...that was always a prime attack time).

It only took one or two times of him getting a taste of that sour apple to break him of that bad habit. But I would personally only recommend going that route if it becomes a stubborn or persistent problem. Definitely try to cut out things like playing with your hand/fingers first and see if that does the trick.
 
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