How to Stop a Cat from Biting When Playing

Does your kitten frequently display cute and endearing behaviour yet transform into a piranha when it comes to playtime? Has your senior cat had trouble understanding that biting people while playing is unacceptable? Fear not—you can train your cat to play without biting your hands.

How Come Cats Bite When They Play?

It's crucial to comprehend the primary causes of cats' play-biting behaviour. For kittens, biting and bunny kicking are common forms of play. They engage in play like this with their mother, siblings, and littermates. The performance imitates the way cats will subsequently pounce on, seize, and bite their victim.

Play with your cats on and around the alternative to cat scratching posts.

During playtime, littermates teach one another how to softly utilise their teeth to control their bite. A kitten will swat or bite back if another cat bites it too hard, yowl, and then stop playing with the other kitten for a while. A kitten who bites too forcefully will also be corrected by the mother cat.

When your cat is young, teach them to scratch the objects you want them to.

Cats that are taken from their litters too young may not develop the ability to control their biting. But even if they do, a human hand or foot would probably still be unable to withstand the restrained bite that would be acceptable to another cat. We must also teach our cat that biting us in any way is not acceptable.

How Can You Train Your Cat to Not Show Off His Teeth?

Here are some methods you can employ to train your cat not to bite human skin:

Never wrestle with a cat that is acting too aggressively with his teeth during fun using your hands or feet. By doing so, the conduct is merely encouraged to worsen. Similarly, avoid using gloves that have toys hanging from the fingertips because this will only encourage your cat to continue biting your hands. Even so, in order to satisfy their natural hunting urges, cats must play vigorously in order to reduce tension and boredom and preserve their physical condition. When playing with your cat, keep a toy between your hands and its mouth. Three different toys are useful.

Wand toys work particularly well for interactive cat play. You can command them from a distance, keeping your hands out of the way of their teeth, and you can also make them move like a cat's prey, which a cat finds alluring.

Throw toys are also excellent for preventing your body parts from coming into contact with your cat's mouth when playing.

Your cat can be given kick toys to help him kick and bite his way out of the habit. For this, long toys like these cigars or these body pillows are useful.

Apply withdrawal methods as required. Say "no" firmly and step away from the play session for a while if your cat manages to bite a portion of your body while you are playing with him. Your cat will soon learn to quit biting if fun is interrupted every time its teeth come into contact with human tissue.

Never yell at or strike your cat because it bit you during play. Your actions may make your cat feel stressed, which may make it scared, force it to participate in undesirable stress-related behaviours like urinating outside of the litter box, or cause it to start acting aggressively toward you and other people living in your home.

If your kitty jumps on your hands while you are doing something other than playing, be prepared to react. Sometimes when we are writing, typing on a keyboard, or doing other things, kittens or older cats find our hand movements irresistible. During these moments, if your cat jumps on your hands, firmly say "no," take your hands off your hands, and throw a suitable toy away from yourself. When your cat chases after and tries to attack the toy, praise him.Keep your distance if you can. Try to resist pulling your hand or foot away when your cat bites, even if it goes against logic and will require some work on your part. This is comparable to prey attempting to flee, and it may cause your cat to chase and attach more aggressively. As opposed to acting like prey, attempt to softly press into your cat. Your cat ought to become a little perplexed by this and release his hold.

General Cat Training Advice

If you keep a few things in mind, cats are rather easy to train. Be courteous and patient at all times. Keep in mind that you are asking your cat to perform a task that is not in his nature. When your cat complies with your instructions, be sure to lavish him with praise. You won't get very far if you only correct undesirable behaviour in your cat without teaching it what to do in its place.