Pet Tips

Tip – 33 – Playing with kittens – biting kittens

There is no debating that new kittens are amongst the most fun creatures that you can play with. They jump, they’re cuddly, frisky and love to nip at your hands. When kittens nip at you it’s cute and it doesn’t hurt…but they don’t stay kittens for long.

Cat owners often make the mistake of using their hands and fingers as cat toys.They drag their hands along the floor pretending it’s a spider or some other chase toy. Kitty pounces, nips and it’s a cute game. This is a huge mistake because what ends up happening is that the kitten now associates your hands with the hunting and biting game. This is a hard instinct for the cat to break so never reinforce it by playing in this way at any time. NEVER use your hands as toys when playing with kittens.

Always use cat toys to actively play with your cat. Bendable plastic poles with strings or feathers attached are great. Any toy that dangles and moves somewhat like prey should entice your kitten when you are at the other end moving it slowly. Bring these toys out whenever you are ready to play. Have different toys out already so that kitty can play when you are not there.

If your kitten or cat does bite or nip at you, don’t scold it. Instead, redirect its attention away from your hands with a cat toy. That way the cat will associate biting and play with a toy that is not you.

3 Responses to this Article, So Far

  1. Avatar David Nathan says:

    Thanks for the tip. We have a kitten age approximately 10 weeks.. She is very playful and tends to “ambush” our very patient dog (a medium sized Maltese), jumping onto her back and neck and generally disturbing her peace, as well as using her basket. Any suggestions?

  2. Avatar sandy says:

    We are at out wits end!! We have a 12 week old kitten who get very excited very quick when picked up and payed with.Likes to bit all the time but now that he is getting bigger he bites harder. His mom stopped caring for him at 6 weeks and he has never been abused.We have tried saying loudly AWE and putting him down each time for days and No difference. We never rough play with him at all ever.
    He is a Ragdoll and we own his mom and Dad and both are super sweet.He was a singleton at Birth and I am not sure if this also contributes??
    any help would Be very Much appreciated.
    Thanks Sandy

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