While it may be cute as a tiny kitten, once your cat grows up, it’s no longer fun to have them bite and attack you. Oftentimes, this behavior comes out during playtime and when your cat is excited.
But what can you do about it when this is all they’ve known? Just because your cat currently has a bad habit doesn’t mean you need to be stuck with this habit for life.
Below I’ll go over some easy steps you can take to train away the biting behavior from your cat. It can be done in as little as 15 minutes a day but will take consistency from everyone in your household so you don’t send your cat mixed messages.
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Solve Your Cat’s Behavior Problems in 15 Minutes a Day!
How To Stop A Cat From Biting When Petting
Your cat likely bites your hands because they were used like a plaything as a kitten. You may have wiggled your fingers around and let them attack.
As a kitten, those bites don’t hurt, but as an adult cat, it can become a painful problem. For the best success, everyone in your household should be in agreement to not let your cat play with anyone’s bare hands, including visitors.
If you’re new to clicker training, read about what positive reinforcement is, easy clicker training basics, and the tools I recommend before starting.
Supplies:
Training Steps:
- Every time you play with your cat, use a toy. Starting out, use a cat toy on a stick to keep your hands farther from their mouth.
- If your cat attacks your hand when playing, remove your hand and put a toy in front of them. Click and reward them with a treat when they start playing with the toy instead of going after your hand.
- Continue repeating this process to ensure you never play with your cat using your hands.
Until this behavior is trained, hold off on trying to pet your cat immediately after playing with them to avoid them instinctively biting your hands.
Once your cat stops associating your hands during playtime, you’ll be able to pet them without them grabbing and biting you.
This training came from my book, How To Clicker Train Your Cat. If you want more training tips for good kitty behavior, you can check out the book here.
Why Does My Cat Bite Me When I Pet Them?
When your cat goes from perfectly calm to chomping your hand, it’s likely due to overstimulation. This is a common problem often known as “petting aggression.”
If your cat suddenly attacks or bites your hand when you’re petting them, they’re likely giving you a few warning cues that you’re missing. For instance, your cat’s ears may slightly flatten, their whiskers pull back, or their tail starts slightly flicking.
These are all signs of annoyance from your cat. If you don’t heed them, your cat will likely escalate to biting you in order to get you to stop.
Most cats don’t like their stomachs, tail, or legs pet. Some cats are quite sensitive having their backs pet.
It’s safest to keep your petting to the top of their head and neck area. Even then, make sure you pay attention to the micro behavioral cues your cat is giving you that tell you they’re uncomfortable.
Just like how humans get annoyed with something after a while, your cat is the same. It’s best to stop petting your cat before they get to that state of overstimulation so petting remains a positive thing. Over time, your cat may grow more tolerant of it and even seek it out.
Why Do Cats Bite Gently?
Cats who gently bite you can be communicating a variety of things including:
- Overstimulation
- Desire for attention
- Love and affection
In order to understand which, you’ll need to take in account your cat’s body language and surroundings.
If you’re petting your cat and they gently bite you, that’s likely a warning bite letting you know they’re getting overstimulated so you should stop. If your cat is otherwise content and happy, they’re likely showing affection towards you or wanting additional attention with their “love bites.”
How To Discipline A Cat For Biting
If your cat bites you, your best course of action is to train the behavior away. Cat’s do not tolerate discipline well from humans.
If you try to yell at your cat, spray them with water, or use a physical form of discipline, you’ll only create a frightened cat who will act out and bite you more.
Instead, you should focus on limiting the scenarios that your cat bites you. Keep a list for a week tracking every time your cat bites.
What were you doing when you were bitten? What else was happening around you?
After a week, you should clearly see a pattern. It may be that your cat bites you after you try to pet them when they got done playing. Or that your cat comes over to bite you when they’re hungry and want food.
Once you know the reasons for your cat biting you, you can use the training above to redirect the biting behavior onto an appropriate toy or head off the biting altogether by not letting your cat’s emotions escalate to the point of attack.
Positive Reinforcement Trainer & Enrichment Specialist
Stephanie has over 12 years of experience training and enriching exotic animals as a Zookeeper. During this time, she received a certificate in Behavioral Husbandry from the Association of Zoos & Aquariums and is an expert in animal behavior.
In her free time, she uses positive reinforcement to train her numerous pets at home and is always thinking up creative ways to prevent her pets from getting bored. On Curiosity Trained, Stephanie now helps people make their pets’ lives better by giving them easy to follow tips and science-backed information.
Thanks for the pointers. My 2 year old adopted cat bites and bites hard (draws blood kind of hard). I usually yell stop, put up my finger and end play time. I’ll try and be more aware of his signals. Thanks again!
My 6 mos old cat wakes me hourly through the night and then bites me when I’m asleep. I remove him when he does this How can I train him to stop? I play with him often throughout the day (not using hands)
My 13-year-old cat has started biting me when I go to bed. It’s like he doesn’t want me in bed. He wants the bed all to himself. Should I use calming pheromones?
Hi Micheline,
Calming pheromones work for some cats and not others. If you use the pheromones, the spray version allows you to put the pheromones around the area your cat is feeling protective about. Without knowing the entire situation, what you’re describing could be something else as well. For instance, some cats attack feet under covers, and a person sliding into bed turns on the cat’s predatory instinct.
The same exact thing happens to me as well. My cat used to like sleeping with me at first and petting her but now she bites me whenever I touch her and won’t let me get in bed.
I am going to try and get my bf to use this. His cat bites and scratches his roommate when he’s not home and he’s looking at rehoming. I love his cat and hopefully, this can help convince him to keep him long enough to train him.
My almost 2 year old female cat sometimes attacks my leg while getting into and than jumps up and bites me. Last night she attacked me after I got in bed and than bit my shoulder. We’ve had her as a kitten so don’t know why she is all of a sudden attacking me and biting me. I’m the only one she does this too.
Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I can get her to stop doing this to me.
My son’s cat has recently started attacking people. He is drawing blood when he scratches their legs! They recently had a new baby..could this cause his attacking people? He started doing this even before the baby came home! His wife is ready to get rid of the cat because she was attacked while holding the baby! They are trying some daily injections to try and calm him down?
Hi Ellen,
A new baby is often times a stressor for cats. Really any change in their environment can stress your pets at home. Even before the baby arrived home, baby furniture, toys, and other changes were happening in the home. There are ways to get your cat used to the changes but they’ll likely need a cat behaviorist who can come to their home and assess the situation, especially since there is a baby involved. They can ask their vet for a referral to a cat behaviorist or look online for a Certified Cat Behavior Consultant.
I have a 9-year-old cat, very friendly. I recently had to spend more time with my mother and went home sat on my couch and my cat Pepper would attack my feet and want to bite my legs. My mother is very sick; she was recently diagnosed with cancer. Can the cat sense that and is this the reason why my cat is scratching my feet and wants to bite my legs? Need help with suggestions, thank you.
Hi Christina,
I’m sorry to hear about your mother and wish her a speedy recovery. Cats can be sensitive to changes in smells. You coming home smelling different could be stressful for your cat and cause the behavioral change. It could also be that you aren’t able to spend as much time with your cat if you’re gone a lot more, which is a change in your cat’s routine. It’s always a good first step to get your cat checked out by your vet to rule out a medical issue with Pepper. Then you can pinpoint whether Pepper dislikes the change in smell, lessened attention, or something else.
My 4 year old male neutered cat TicTic attacks and bites my hand or arm after brushing or petting. It’s very aggressive. This time he bit down and I recently grounded him indoors permanently. I have tried time outs, putting a barrier between us (he will stalk me until he has attacked). I always stop when I see his micro signals. Otherwise he is super sweet!