Sometimes playing with a kitten does end up in scratches or bites, if things have been getting a little rough. You shouldn’t think that this means that your kitten doesn’t like you – far from it! It is often just caused by the kitten getting overexcited playing with you and, being still young, has bitten you by mistake.

If you are finding that your kitten bites a lot, you may wish to try a technique that reduces this. If you usually wrestle a kitten with your bare hands, you may wish to employ a different tactic and wrestle your kitten with a soft toy instead. This will provide an equal amount of fun for your kitten and you will save yourself lots of bites. Alternatively, you can just say “NO” very loudly and clap your hands when you feel play with your kitten is getting too rough. Doing this regularly will ensure that the kitten understands that biting is bad and, over time, their behavior will change.

Another strategy to avoid kitten bites is to buy your kitten toys that will keep him or her amused. This way they will be less likely to bite you, but also less likely to play with you as they have a toy now. You will have to weigh up the cost of your kitten not playing with you as much, against the benefit of it not biting you as much. Getting another kitten is also another option, as your kittens will practice their predatory behavior on each other, not you, so they are less inclined to scratch or bite you. This also has the massive advantage of you having two beautiful kittens for your friends!

As a last resort, you can spray your kitten with water, but this is a very harsh punishment for a little kitten and the other methods above should suffice.