How to Stop a Kitten From Biting

Kittens explore new things with their mouth, it’s one of their primary ways of figuring it out. They develop this as a newborn kitten before they can even see and hear. When born, kittens rely on being able to feel their mother and find her milk with their mouths, it’s a habit that starts long before you might even know them so it’s a hard one to get them out of. As they get older they might start to explore things through scent and sight a little more, but that urge to explore things with their mouth never goes away. Even after they smell something new, you’ll likely find them testing their teeth against it to see what it’s made of, even if it doesn’t smell like something they might want to eat.

When it comes to biting, your kitten will usually find it rewarding and choose to continue to do it. If they bite something hard and plastic they likely won’t enjoy it and do it again however when they bite you, they usually get a reaction. The reaction itself is often great fun and it becomes a fun game they go back to fairly often.

Biting might be an unwanted behaviour from our perspective but it’s important to first understand that’s all it is. Bad behaviour when it comes to our pets is anything we deem unruly or undesirable while our furry friends have no idea. They might like to do it because it’s great fun and perfectly natural. When you’re trying to find ways to stop a natural behaviour you have to take into account why they’re doing it in the first place. If it’s a behaviour that’s purely for fun like biting then providing other fun things to do can help. If they’re going through teething which they do at around four months old then they’ll need ways to relieve their frustration and help to feel better.

Scratching is a similar behaviour and often causes the same issues as biting in kittens. They often do it because they have a natural instinct to use their claws, however, it can quickly become a problem if your skin or furniture is on the other side of them. Like biting, it’s about giving them something else to do and removing any reward they get from the behaviour to begin with. You can also use elements of management where if your kitten has taken to scratching a certain piece of furniture, you limit their access to it unless you’re there to supervise.

Most unwanted behaviour can be treated in the same way. Whether your kitten is biting or scratching, these can be tamed by using multiple different methods at once to make sure your furball can still have fun more appropriately.

Biting might be a hard behaviour to ignore and while it’s not suggested that you just sit there and take it, although it would likely work, you can get up and walk away. The lesson your clever kitten will learn here is that any time they cause harm by playing inappropriately, you leave them high and dry without a playmate. Chances are they love it when you yelp and make a big fuss so you can simply choose not to play the game they’re playing and walk away.

If you’re going to take away the offer to play rough with your kitten, then you still need to be fulfilling the need to bite or scratch if they want to. By providing toys like the Hello Kitty Scratchtastic Cat Scratcher, you aren’t just taking away something they enjoy but you’re making sure they have lots to do to replace it. Sometimes kittens resort to attention seeking behaviour like biting when they’re bored so you need to keep them entertained enough to avoid this.

You can encourage energetic play with toys like the Rosewood Patchwork Fish Teaser Cat Toy for them to enjoy while you avoid getting scratched or bitten.

If your kitten looks like they’re up to no good, be ready to change their direction and put them onto something else. You can sometimes predict when they might get a bit bitey with you and instead give them something else to sink their teeth into. If your kitten wakes up desperate to play after their many naps, you can wiggle around a toy like the KONG Cat Nibble Critter Catnipillar Cat Toy. This way, they can get out all their bitey energy before they interact directly with you.

Simply put, punishment doesn’t work and you risk it still being rewarding. Kittens will often do behaviours for attention and sometimes shouting at them is still attention they might not be seeking out but it will do in a pinch. Ignoring unwanted behaviour will always help to discourage it faster. You can trim their nails to limit their ability to get claws in you but the best method to stop your cheeky little kitten from biting or scratching you is by not feeding into the behaviour and by giving them lots of other things to do. You can find everything you need for your new addition in store and online.