Desperately need advice.

[rg_girlca]

I have a 7 month old Main coon mix, male who will be 8 months on the 24th of this month. I am at my wits end with his biting.
First off he is not an affectionate cat to begin with. He will come up on you just at the spur of the moment, but after a few minutes of petting him, he will turn and start biting your hand and if he is up near your shoulder he will bite you there. We have scolded him endlessly for this, by squirting him with water, taking him by the scruff of the neck and firmly telling him no, but to no avail. We also had a little rolled up newspaper and have tapped him on the head with it with a firm no. It just seems to make him want to bite you more. He jumps on my Katie girl, who is 11 years old and starts biting her and also on Buddy our Lhasa. There are very few times that we can pet him without him biting.
Please can anyone suggest anything else that we can do to stop him from doing this. The older he gets, the bites get harder.
Do you think he will eventually outgrow this or are we doomed for life.
The vet checked his mouth to see if there might be a problem with his teeth or mouth and everything checked out fine.
Apart from having his teeth pulled (Honestly just joking ) is there anything we can do about this.

[Fuzzy317]

We have a maine coon 12-13 years old. Our Jackson is not a lap cat, he will come up to be petted for a little while, then will walk away. He does nibble at our fingers some, but if it gets too much, usually saying No or Ouch he will stop. Biting in general is common in young animals, pets and humans. I hope he will out grow much of that habit.

[wolfsoul]

I had a maine coon, but I recently just lost her :( I'm still looking though....
Is she declawed? Sometimes declawed cats have biting problems..
Is it affectionate love nips, or vicous attacks?

ps do you have any pics? :) I would love to see a sweet maine coon face like my Miss Kitty's..:)

[2kitties]

Some recommend you turn away and completely ignore the cat when it bites.

[Logan]

All I can tell you is that I completely sympathize!! OUCH!!! :eek:

We have battled this problem with our Butter for the last two years, with only one month of respite, when he decided not to bite or scratch us. Unfortunately, that didn't last! And it hurts, doesn't it? Butter does it sometime, just playing, but other times, it is just like you describe. I have learned the warning signs pretty well. If his eyes are huge and his ears go back, it is coming, so I back off. He is so beautiful that it kills me to have to walk away from him, but I do.

Butter was a stray and we think he is 5-6 years old. This is something we will deal with, always, I fear.

Good luck and just admire from a distance!!!

Logan

[K & L]

http://www.perfectpaws.com/handle.html
http://www.littleshelter.com/library/cat_no_scratch.htm
http://www.metrokc.gov/lars/animal/Educate/cassidy/Cat/cat21.htm

[wolflady]

Ouch is right! It sounds to me that he is displaying overstimulation aggression. Once the petting reaches a certain threshold, the cat will reject any further touching and will say "Stop It!" by biting.
Observe your cats body language. Do the pupils dilate? Do the ears flatten or go back? Is his tail flicking? Try reading the body language, so as to avoid getting bitten. If you can only pet him once, leave it at that, and reward him for good behavior. Let him come to you for attention.

The links that K&L posted have some great advice on how to handle different kinds of aggression.

Good luck with this and let us know how it goes!!
**hugs**

[catland]

a couple of ideas.

One thing I've heard about cats is that they respond better to distraction than they do discipline.

Try to discover a "safe petting" zone. some kitties like to be just scratched on the head or chin. Some love belly rubs while others will hate it. Some like to be petted lightly, some firmly. Every cat is different.

Look for those cues like Logan mentioned. I once had a cat named Lucy who only tolerated so much petting. I finally learned her signal, the twich of just one ear, by just one millimeter, meant that she was done and if I knew what was good for me, I had better stop NOW.

Some kitties just need to burn off energy! A feather stick or mouse on a string or other toy is a great way to play and be far enough away to not get hurt. You could also wrestle with them with an oven mitt for protection - just try not to get your kitty too over stimulated.

To help your other pets, make sure that this one has a collar with a bell. At least that way the rest are warned.

Hope this helps.

[rg_girlca]

Yes we know the warning signs, with the ears back, big eyes and tail flipping back and forth and we back off but he will still attack you with biting.

Wolfsoul, no he is not declawed and no they are not love bites. He can be very vicious at times. I have never had a cat like this before.

It wouldn't bother me so much if it was once in awhile he did this, but everyday is just too much for me. We call him Spawn of Satan, the Devil cat. LOL.

K & L I will definitly look into those sites you posted for me and hope there is a solution to this problem. Thank you.

Thank you all for your advice.

[NoahsMommy]

Noah used to do this too, but he's stopped.

Here are a few things that worked for us:

*When he bit us, we would get up and walk away. He didn't get rewarded with attention while he felt biting was "ok".

*Distact him from our hand onto a toy. Catnip toys worked best, it would grab his attention quicker.

*The squirt bottle worked for us.

*Getting a KITTEN. ;) This really worked...as soon as we got Noel...he had someone to work his aggression out with. He never got mean, they just played like cats are suposed to play.

Something that is working to calm Oliver is Feliway...you may try spraying that in the air during an "attack". It really calms Oliver down.

Don't worry that you are alone. When Noah used to bite, I was his target. :( I actually cried a few times, it hurt so bad, emotionally and physically. Now, he's almost 100% better and he is my heart...I love that cat to pieces.

Good luck! :)