# Biting and scratching



## Funkydisciple (Mar 17, 2013)

Hello, 

I got an absolutely stunning kitten yesterday who is 9weeks old. I Might be enquiring a bit too soon and I have done some research on the net but I thoug I would ask the question here anyway. 

Te kitten is shy but does come out to pay with the toys. The only thing I'm concerned about is that the cat does scratch and bite a lot when attempting to play with her. I have done the usual 'no' and clap my hands and turn away for a few minutes but she does do it again. I have also tried giving her a treat when she does play nice and that was only once. What else can I do so that she can play nicely?

We only got her yesterday so I'm sure she is just trying to settle in at the mo but I really wanted the kitten to be snugly and not afraid of humans. I didn't buy the kitten from any rescue home or anything, she was purchased privately. 

Any help you guys can give would be great.


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## lymorelynn (Oct 4, 2008)

Hi and welcome to PF 
Firstly at nine weeks your kitten could have done with being left with her mum and siblings for another few weeks  Kittens that leave at 12 weeks are more confident, better socialised and less likely to bite and scratch, generally speaking. During those weeks they learn acceptable behaviour from their mother and other cats in the household.
If your kitten is shy don't force her to be playful or keep picking her up to be friendly. Give her time to come to you. It's good that she will come out to play with her toys and the best way you can interact and not get scratched is to use a fishing rod type of toy or a laser pen. Do not play with a kitten with your hands as it will encourage biting etc.


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## Funkydisciple (Mar 17, 2013)

hello and thank you for the welcome . 

i fully appreciate that the kitten should have been at least 12 weeks before kitten left her mother but opportunity arose where i could get the kitten i have wanted a while. plus the ads on pets4homes website seemed to be mostly kittens aged 8 weeks with the occasional one at 5 months. 

she does play with the toys and small footballs that we got. she still exploring a lot at the moment and having fun with that but i would love that cat to sit on my lap and let me pet it for a good while but it doesnt seem to want to be picked up, sit on my lap or be petted. the only time i manage to pet it was when it was nodding off in its bed and i sat beside her and started petting for a while. i love the sound of purring and shes only done it once when i;/ve got her. 

anything else i can try or is it just a matter of being patient??


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

Hi Funkydisciple,

Your kitten has been through a big change in her little life. She needs time to settle in to her new environment. She has been taken away from all that is familiar to her, and everything is strange and overwhelming to her at present.

She also needs time to get used to the ways of a new human (yourself). And she needs time to recover emotionally from being separated from her mum and her siblings. People don't realise that cats grieve for loss, but they do.

Her current biting and scratching behaviour is typical of a young kitten still trying to find her feet in a new home. She is a bit on edge and unsure of herself. She wants to be friendly but she gets a bit upset by too much attention.

As Lynn has said, it is best to play with her using arms length toys such as the fishing rod toy, the laser pen, or wands with feathers on the end.

Also keep one of these wonderful Kickeroo toys near you, so you can give this to her immediately she starts trying to kick or bite. She only wants to play, and she will love this toy. My cats all love kicking the heck out of it 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kong-CR1-Ki...=UTF8&qid=1367175435&sr=8-2&keywords=kickeroo

As to whether you can get her to be a lapsitter, it is very early days yet. She needs to feel much more settled and at ease before she is likely to start sitting on your lap. However, do remember that not all cats like sitting on laps, so there is no guarantee she will be one that does. Though I must say that with a lot of patience I have trained every cat companion I have ever had over the years, to sit on my lap. But even then, some liked it more than others!

You can help matters along, with some training. For a start always sit on the floor when you are playing with her, as you will be less intimidating to her at that level and she will be more likely to come to you. If she walks on your lap even momentarily, then that is a good start. Whilst sitting on the floor, give her some of her favourite treats (e.g. Dreamies, or little pieces of boiled chicken). Put a few treats next to you on the floor, then put a couple of treats on your lap. She will step on your lap to get them, and probably step off your lap after she's eaten them, but you repeat the same procedure once or twice a day until one day she may stay on your lap after eating the treats. Then eventually, she may climb on your lap without any treats as a bribe.  And you will feel it has all been worth waiting for!

Another trick is to sit on the floor and have a length of string for her to chase. Slowly draw the string onto your lap, and you may find she is so absorbed in her play she will follow the string onto your lap. But make sure you are wearing thick clothing to protect your legs, or sit with a blanket over your legs, for this game! Again, it is a matter of playing this game with her over and over until one day she decides to stay sitting on your lap without the string to play with.

Good luck. Let us know how things go


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## Funkydisciple (Mar 17, 2013)

Thank you chill minx. It's slowly trusting me and its only its third day with us. However, I have become a little concerned with something else. I was grooming the cat today and some of its hair came off and I saw very small tiny black things. I checked its coat by parting its hair and saw more little black things. Now since we let it full run of the house it has been getting to places where there is dust like underneath the sofa and behind the tv. Does my kitten have fleas???

And is frontline easy to use? If so, how does one use it?


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## OrientalSlave (Jan 26, 2012)

Frontline is incredibly easy to use - part the fur on the back of the cat's neck and drop it on.

Unforunately if you can see fleas it has lots of them, and they lay eggs that drop off into the environment. As well as treating her I would treat the house as well - the FAB's web page give you lots of information on this:

Tackling fleas on cats

You also need to treat her for worms, and she is due her first vaccine if she is well. The vet can give her a Milbemax at the same time.


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

Unfortunately Frontline is no longer recommended by many vets as it has ceased to be effective in most cases. They recommend Advantage instead, or Activyl. Both spot-on treatments. With Milbemax as the total wormer, as Oriental Slave mentioned.


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## Funkydisciple (Mar 17, 2013)

Chill minx. I wanted to say a massive thank you. Your advice about the string and having kitten follow it on my lap has worked wonders. Nw all she wants to do is run up my leg and sit on my lap all the time. Bt I'm trying not to make her run up my leg those little claws are sharp. She won't listen. Lol. 

I have ordered frontline and I actually spoke to the local vet and they said frontline is fine. So I'm gonna give it a go once it arrives. Gonna bathe this weekend and go through her body with a flea come to take out the flea dirt. I'm very OCD on cleanliness and kittens gotta realise this .

I was worried about hater fleas but I don't think she has any, only dirt, and I was worried about an infestation of flea but nothing to worry about. Phew.


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

FD - pleased to hear the lap sitting training with the the string is going well!:thumbsup: Next time you are are at the vets you could ask for the ends of kitty's claws to be clipped so she won't be sticking her sharp *needles* into you. They could teach you how to do it too , all you need is a small pair of good quality pet claw clippers. 

Not sure if you have bathed a kitten before? If not -- they often take well to it if started when they are young. Be sure to get the bathroom lovely and warm first, and then use hot water of the same temperature you would use in your own bath. Ensure you have several warmed fluffy towels ready to dry her with immediately afterwards. 

With regard to the fleas, if there is flea dirt then there are fleas. They may 
have jumped off her and be laying low around your house. So don't be misled by there being no visible signs of them. Also, the flea larvae and pupae can live for months or even years in carpets or cracks in wooden floors and hatch out during warm weather and jump on any warm blooded creature that is passing by (human or cat). Though they only breed on cats. 

By all means try the Frontline spot-on. Perhaps you will be successful with it. It definitely stopped working a year ago for my cats, and my vet said many customers were reporting the same, so they no longer sell it. 
Others on this forum have had the same bad experience with Frontline. 

Good luck. I hope all goes well with your kitty


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## Funkydisciple (Mar 17, 2013)

hey hey, kitten is nor more comfortable sitting on our laps and wanted to be petted but the nicest thing is that she follows my 3 year old wherever he goes, trying to touch his small feet and then running away which amuses my son a lot. 

however, still having issues with the scratching and biting. i do give her the 'NO' and clap and walk away and then she still continues later on when i come back to her. i have the wand toys etc so do i keep letting her play with that and she will grow out of biting and scratching us? i have been rather confused at this point. 

she does bit and scratch a lot when grooming but if i have the dreamies in my hand she settles down a little more. she is only 11 weeks so i suppose that she is still a tiny baby before she stops scratching and biting us...right?


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## Paddypaws (May 4, 2010)

chillminx said:


> Not sure if you have bathed a kitten before? If not -- they often take well to it if started when they are young. Be sure to get the bathroom lovely and warm first, and then *use hot water of the same temperature you would use in your own bath*. Ensure you have several warmed fluffy towels ready to dry her with immediately afterwards.
> 
> Good luck. I hope all goes well with your kitty


Chillminx....I am not experienced at all in cat bathing, but can I just check/clarify this point? I tend to use pretty hot water in my own bath but would think this far _too _hot for a small kitten, or even an adult cat. When I wash my white cats' pantaloons I use the shower hose on gentle pressure and hand warm water around body temperature.


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

Paddypaws - water at human "body temperature" would be luke-warm/tepid
and too cold for bathing a cat. Think how shivery you would feel if you took a shower in tepid water (unless you were trying to cool down on a very hot day). 

It is worth bearing in mind that a cat's normal body temperature is a good bit higher than a human's (Cat's normal temp :- between 37.7 C and 39.4 C 
(= between 100.5 F and 102.5 F) so the water would need to be more than hand warm just to be at the cat's body temp. 

However, just as for you or me to get into a bath at our own body temp would be a fairly unpleasant experience for us, so for a cat to be bathed at 37.7- 39.4 C would also be fairly unpleasant for him, and it would not be unusual for the cat to shiver like mad afterwards, which is to be avoided at all costs. Cats can get chilled very easily when they are wet all over. So basically the water for bathing a cat needs to be hotter than you might think. 

I would never immerse a young kitten in water (i.e. a kit younger than say 
8 or 9 weeks old), because of the risk of him getting cold and shivery. It is better to soak towels in hot water and wash the kitten's fur that way, towelling dry with hot towels as soon as possible.


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## Funkydisciple (Mar 17, 2013)

Chill minx don't forget back to my question I postd recently on here...it's on first page at the bottom...


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

Funkydisciple said:


> > however, still having issues with the scratching and biting. i do give her the 'NO' and clap and walk away and then she still continues later on when i come back to her. i have the wand toys etc so do i keep letting her play with that and she will grow out of biting and scratching us? i have been rather confused at this point.
> >
> > she does bit and scratch a lot when grooming but if i have the dreamies in my hand she settles down a little more. she is only 11 weeks so i suppose that she is still a tiny baby before she stops scratching and biting us...right?
> 
> ...


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## Funkydisciple (Mar 17, 2013)

purchased a kickeroo chillminx. just waiting for it to come through. sorry to sound stupid but if she starts biting and then give her the kickerro and i keep up this up for a while will she evenetually stop biting altogether. just a littel scared for my son when she starts getting bigger and stronger that she might be able to draw blood from her bite...


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## chillminx (Nov 22, 2010)

Well, I assure you that cats do learn very well what is acceptable and unacceptable behaviour, so providing everyone in the household is consistent and never allows the kitty to play with their hands, she will learn that hands are for stroking her, not for biting and kicking.

But it is also important that humans learn to read cat body language. So, if she is in a frisky, lively mood, possibly swishing her tail around, it would be best not to stroke her tummy, and perhaps not to stroke her at all, as it may over-excite her, and cause her to over-react. 

Also best to teach your young son not to stroke her when she is in a very playful mood, as she may be over enthusiastic with her claws without intending to hurt. 

Better for your son to play with kitty using arms length toys when she is in a very lively mood. The time for your son to stroke her is when she is calm and relaxed. (though not when she's sound asleep). 

If a kitty's need for her own personal space is always respected, there is no reason for her to grow up to be vicious to her humans with her claws and teeth. 

At the same time she needs to let off steam when she is excited, and the arms length toys and the kickeroo are the safest 
way for her to do that. (safest for humans I mean) She will learn to direct her need to bite and kick (her hunting behaviour) towards her toys, not towards humans.


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