# Cat biting kittens neck- what’s normal?



## DJ_Maimai (May 14, 2020)

Hi All!

I’ve just adopted a 6.5 week old kitten named Wes and I have an adult female cat named Lily already in the house.
We separated the kitten at first and the initial face to face meetings went really well (No hissing or growling, our big girl started licking him right away) so starting yesterday we’ve been letting them have more freedom to interact while they’re supervised.
They seem to really enjoy playing and chasing each other, and our adult girl will pin him down and lick him.
However, she’s started playing a little rough. She’ll pin him down and bite his legs and arms, and open her mouth really wide to bite around his stomach and neck. She pins him down and he squeals and squirms. She’ll lick him intermittently between bites.
It looks like a bit too much to me, but I know adult cats will often bite kittens to show dominance and that on paper this is a pretty normal behavior.
My question is how do I know when this has gone beyond normal behavior and into unacceptable behavior?

He doesn’t seem to be scared of her at all, and when I intervene he’ll immediately chase back after her to play again.
Am I just being a nervous new mom or do I need to be nipping this in the bud?


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## spotty cats (Jul 24, 2012)

He's extremely young to be away from his mother and litter mates, kittens should not leave before 12-13 weeks minimum.

He will need your cat to help socialise him, since he's missing critical weeks with his mother. If he's squealing intervene, she may get too over stimulated and rough.


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