How to stop a kitten scratching and biting when playing

My cat stopped biting and scratching after I would just give it a stern "no" when it went too far. I had a pair of really thick leather gardening gloves that I let it try and rip to shreds though by trying to tickle her :D

My cat now never uses her claws and never ever does more than "play bites" where she knows never to break the skin :)
 
softclaws.jpg



^get it some soft claws?
 
Stop playing, make some noise at them like you hurt them (usually just an ouch will suffice).
They're not completely stupid, they pick up on these things. Particularly when they're young.
 
Robbie G said:
I've read about tactics ranging from crying out very loudly when it scratches, to a flick on the nose and a squirt of water, to de-clawing!! I'm sure the last one is very much a last resort but I'd be interested to hear what's worked for you.
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De-clawing is illegal in the UK I thought? It's basically mutilation and the equivalent of chopping the fingertips off a human, or so I heard when a yank on another forum I'm on said she'd had it done to her cat.

Just keep the claws trimmed and tell her to pull her hand away if it hurts too much!
 
One of my mates has a cat which is about 3 or 4 years old by now and still does it, he actually ''surrounds'' your arm with all 4 of his paws and draws it in his mouth and bites quite hard, cheeky bugger.
 
Wicksta said:
De-clawing is illegal in the UK I thought? It's basically mutilation and the equivalent of chopping the fingertips off a human, or so I heard when a yank on another forum I'm on said she'd had it done to her cat.

Just keep the claws trimmed and tell her to pull her hand away if it hurts too much!
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Dunno. Illegal or not, I've read enough not to mention it as a potential solution, I think.

Justin said:
We got some of these for one of our cats and he loved them.
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Why then, are you recommending

Justin said:
Tell them not to play with it
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:confused:

Anyway...thanks for the feedback, interesting. Going to go in with 'pull away, stop playing and say ow' as an initial suggestion. Those soft claws look like a good idea if all else fails.

Ps thanks for the drifting, I am not annoyed by it, for what it's worth :D.
 
Jonny69 said:
They usually grow out of it, but you could always use the same psychology as you'd use on dogs. As soon as it gets too rough, stop playing, and the cat will learn that scratchy + bitey = end of playtime.

Unless of course it's my brother's cat, in which case it just became better at attacking people as it got older :(
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That and tell the cat off when you do it.

Use a certain tone of voice, the annoyed tone you'd use on your child for example, and repeat every time they go too far.

The cat will begin to associate that tone of voice with doing something wrong and play time ending.

Just rinse and repeat and the cat will learn it eventually.
 
Throw it over a bridge?

But seriously, learned behavioural methods will work here, let him know that scratching is bad and the fun ceases. He'll learn, they're smart.
 
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