Why Do Kittens Bite When You Pet Them

Most of the time kittens bite when you pet them because they are playing.

Why do kittens bite when you pet them. It may be a manifestation of so called status induced aggression in which cats seek to control a situation. One in three cat bites will become infected compared to the much lower likelihood of infection from dog bites. Similar to their feet the belly is a place of vulnerability. Repetitive petting can cause your cat to become overly excited and trigger an arousal based bite.

Sometimes the reason your cat may bite when you ve been petting him is that you misinterpreted his intention when he approached in the first place. Experts have concluded that some cats suddenly go cuckoo on you because it neurologically triggers negative stimulus in their minds. Often playful biting of hands or feet occurs simply because your cat is bored and is looking for a play object. A kitten usually bites because of a socialization issue while an adult cat may bite for a different reason.

Da bird or other teaser toys are a great choice. Signs of petting induced aggression include biting while being petted and staring evilly at sleeping humans from dark corners of the room. If an infected cat bite is left untreated it can develop into cat scratch fever which is a bacterial infection that causes flu like symptoms and can cause serious complications such as encephalopathy or vision loss. Petting induced aggression differs from flat out unfriendly behavior some cats just don t like to be petted at all full stop and will take a swipe at you if you try.

Other cats won t put up with being hurt. On rare occasions however your kitten may be biting because they are afraid. Since your hand is in this area they can also wrap their claws around you and give you some nasty scratches if you re not careful. Kittens love to use their mouths when they play with one another so they mimic that same behavior when they play with their human friends.

Kittens develop good manners through interaction with other kittens and their mother. It s important for us cat moms and dads to know how to read the signs of our cat s body language. They may feel like they are being attacked and can bite as reaction. There may be some neurologically significant negative stimulus associated with being petted at length that affects these cats in particular.