Cat biting behaviour: UNUSUAL !! My catty wants a ***...
Two options:-1. More play
2. No play at all!
It is not uncommon for cats to suddenly bite while being petted. This behavior is not well understood, even by experienced animal behaviorists. For whatever reason, petting which the cat was previously enjoying apparently becomes unpleasant. The bite is the cat's signal that she has had enough petting. Cats vary in how much they will tolerate being petted or held. Although owners often describe cats as biting "out of the blue" or without warning, cats generally give several signals before biting. Owners must become more aware of their cats' body postures, and cease petting or stop any other kind of interaction before the bite occurs.
Signals owners should be aware of include:
• restlessness
• the cat’s tail beginning to twitch
• the cat’s ears turning back or flicking back and forth
• the cat turning or moving her head toward your hand
When you observe any of these signals, it is time to stop petting the cat immediately and allow him just to sitquietly on your lap or go his own way, whichever he prefers. Any kind of physical punishment almost always
makes the problem worse, as it makes the cat more likely to bite either because he is fearful and/or because petting becomes even more unpleasant if it is associated with punishment.
Young kittens between the ages of 3 weeks old and 8 months old will be teething off and on, and will have very strong needs to bite. Just like baby children, kittens are born without teeth, start getting their first baby teeth at about 3-4 weeks old, then they will lose their baby teeth and have their adult teeth come in up until the age of about 8 months old. So the trick here is not to keep them from biting; but rather, to provide them appropriate items to bite. We use heavy-duty plastic drinking straws with our kittens (being careful to cut off any bitten ends and discard the entire straw before it becomes dangerous, as with any toy), and train them from the start that toys and straws are purr-rectly fine to bite, but human body parts are off-limits! If a kitten learns this from the start, there is hardly ever an inappropriate biting behavior as an adult. Some cats start biting out of frustration after they have been de-clawed. Some cats start biting out of misplaced aggression, which usually can be countered by providing the cat a feline playmate, and/or providing them more cat toys, cat furniture, and making their environment more stimulating for them.