How to Cure a Kitten's Biting and Aggressive Attacking

And Help Them Be More Loving and Cuddly

I wrote an article titled, How To Properly Feed A Weaned Kitten a few weeks ago for AC. I told about a stray kitten that I adopted, and how I was feeding it so she'll grow up to be a healthy cat. Soon after I adopted my cuddly little ball of fur, she turned into a biting, aggressive small monster. After a few days of bite marks and scratches on my flesh, I knew I had to figure out how to cure a kitten's biting and attacking.

Kittens aren't normally aggressive animals unless someone has played rough with them and taught them to be mean. My little Jasmine isn't mean. She just had a tendency to play rough...too rough. When I say she "bites us", she doesn't even break the skin. However, this type of behavior is still unacceptable, and it's painful!

One of her favorite activities is what I call, "Sneak Attack On the Humans in the House." When Jasmine hears a human approaching, she hides behind the nearest door or piece of furniture. Then, when the human enters the room, or walks by, she jumps out with with her paws in the air and wraps herself around the human ankle. If we have long pants on, which is rare in the the hot summer months of Ohio, we respond to the attack with a laugh and a playful gesture back to her. But, if we have shorts on, which is the family's normal attire, the attack often produces painful screeches from the human victim.

According to the experts, biting, scratching, or performing sneak attacks on their human owners goes back to a kitten's natural predatory instincts. For their own survival, kittens have a built-in desire to hunt. When a kitten is kept inside the house all the time, like Jasmine is, they don't have the opportunity to hunt natural prey. Therefore, other moving targets like humans become their "prey."

Play Aggression, as it's commonly referred to, is normal in kittens. When a kitten doesn't have at least one feline sibling to play with, it plays with its human companions instead. However, sometimes they don't realize how their little milk teeth can jab like needles into a human's skin. And, their claws, although small, are sharp as well.