Playing /swaping with your hands

[yumyum6970]

Hi yall! Does anyone know how to stop your cat from swaping at your hands??? My little yum yum who is 9 months old loves to do that while she sits on your lap. We tell her no but she still does it.
Help!!! Thanks!

http://pepeirce.tripod.com/thekittycorner

[Freckles]

Claws out?

[K & L]

We train ours by keeping squirt bottles of water around. Everytime they do something we don't want them to, like scratching on furniture etc. we give them a small squirt. It really works for us!

[yorkster]

K&L beat me to it- I was going to say squirt bottle too.
It works well as long as you don't overuse it and pick your battles.

[C.C.'s Mom]

I only found out about the squirt bottle when we got the dog. What we did though, when the cats did something unwanted when they were on our lap, was simpy ignoring them and putting them on the floor. It only took them a few of these surprise actions to realise that we don't like biting and scratching.

[yumyum6970]

We have the waterbottle and it doesn't work on that, and she isn't aggresive toward Dutchess. I guess she is just being a kitten.

http://pepeirce.tripod.com/thekittycorner

[K & L]

If you pull your hand away if a cat is biting or scratching it, they see this as encouragement just like stalking their prey. Try letting your hand go limp and firmly say no until the cat releases it grip. Then ignore the cat until normal behavior resumes. The cat may soon learn that it will receive no attention acting this way.

Also play each day with your cat in the way you want them to play. All cats need some type of outlet for play. Have interesting toys available. You may need to experiment to see which toys your cat prefers. Also is try to provide new toys, or at least rotate the availability of the ones you have.

[wayne0214]

Jumper and Fluffy, both bite and swat with their paws - claws out. I havn't figured a way to make them stop that behavior. The problem with using the spray bottle to attempt to correct this is that they mis-read the intention and abruptly leave, often without even spraying. However, the idea is not to make them leave but to stop biting and swatting. Havn't figured this one out yet.


...........wayne

[thelmalu99]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by K & L
[B]If you pull your hand away if a cat is biting or scratching it, they see this as encouragement just like stalking their prey. Try letting your hand go limp and firmly say no until the cat releases it grip. Then ignore the cat until normal behavior resumes. The cat may soon learn that it will receive no attention acting this way.

Great advice from K&L. My Elvis was very difficult for some time. I used K&L's technique when he would swat at me, especially when he used his claws. He still does it sometimes when he's irritated, but he lets go right away when he sees that I don't pull my hand away abruptly. I agree that it's the hunter instinct coming through. Ignoring him right after this behavior lets him know that I don't want to play if he's going to do this. On the other hand, I give him lots of loving when he's being sweet. I want him to sense the difference in my reaction to what he does: bad behavior=no attention; good behavior=lots of praise and ear scratches.

Good Luck!

[NoahsMommy]

K & L has hit it on the head...this is what we did with Noah, he stopped doing it completley when we got Noel. Now, he has her to play with and doesn't attack me anymore.

Another way to stop this behaivor is to not play with your hands, but instead a toy.

[Logan]

I'm watching this closely.........

Unfortunately, I'd have to have a water bottle handy in just about every square inch of this house to spray Butter everytime he grabs me!! He does NOT like to let go at all. The hardest part is getting him to release. I just sit there, endure the pain and usually he relaxes his claws and removes his teeth, but OUCH!!! Those Siamese teeth are long and so are the claws!!!

[Former User]

Casper and Kitty used to do this too, but then when we started saying 'au au au', they stopped it! Every now and then they tend to forget but a good AU will help them to rememeber