Here is a picture of my new cat Lucky who has started to use his teeth to clamp onto wrists, etc. and does not want to let go. He wants to lie by me like in the picture but then he starts to roll around and show his teeth and is looking to grab. He pays no attention to NO when we are this close. He is not mean or angry or scared. He is just being play wild and somehow has to be retrained out of it. He wants to cuddle but he is starting to turn a cuddle into wildness and I literally have to jump away. I don't always have the water squirt in my other hand when I am relaxing also. This just makes me have to keep him at a distance which I don't like to do but he is not a kitten and I do not have strong hands to grab him with. The other day he locked onto my wrist which is small enough he was able to put his whole mouth around it..fangs on one end and other teeth on the other and he froze. I said NO and he didn't move. He was lying on my chest and I didn't have a lot of options so I did a hissing sound, more like Psssst and that startled him into opening his mouth. I quickly got my wrist out and had to push him off me onto the floor. Once we are separated, he will calm down but he sure takes the fun out of petting.

Hi Judy.........I am not sure how to break cats of unacceptable behavior but I can tell you what worked with my puppies.

First off if you can remember to take a squirt gun with you when you relax you may not have to do anything else. I think your psssssst was perfect because that is how cats communicate to each other when they want another one to back off. Dogs let out a yelp to communicate they have been hurt to let the other know they are playing too ruff. Eventually Lucky may associate that the response you give him is not the response you are looking for. Maybe if you try giving Lucky a big ol "ROOOOOOWWWWWWWWWLL" and using more cat language that you understand from them might be helpful.

Are you petting Lucky when this occurs? What is happening just before he starts it?
Perhaps he just wants to cuddle when he is in your lap and not be petted. In my experience with cats they like to do things on their terms. I have had cats who have not liked being held but love to play ,and cats who didn't like petting but loved to be close, and yet others who didn't like to play but loved to sit in the sunlight. I have only had 5 cats in my lifetime and all 5 of them were as different as night and day.

Good luck working with Lucky..........I know it's a challenge. Don't forget that since you adopted him you don't have the knowlege of what his past experiences were before you got him. You haven't had him very long yet and it takes time to establish a language with a furry kid that both of you can understand.
By the look on Lucky's face in your new pic I bet he can be quite a little pistol.



Hugs

What starts it? Well, Lucky sees me sitting on the couch watching TV..actually I have a pillow behind me and sort of lie down. He then wants to crawl onto my lap or if I am sitting he will jump up beside me and walk into my lap and curl up there. All this time he is very quiet and his mouth is closed and he is usually purring. I then do pet him on the head and he purrs louder. Then after maybe 5 or 10 seconds he lies backwards and wants to lie on his back in my lap and it is soon after this position that his mouth opens wide (he never makes a sound). Once that mouth opens like that, anything that is close to him like an arm or hand...he will lunge at. He really doesn't use his paws to grab..cause his head and mouth are close enough to reach me. The only way to stop the action is for me to somehow get up without disturbing him on my stomach so he would bite and push him off me using a blanket between my hands and his body. Either he rolls over off me and I get up quickly so he can't roll back or he is near the edge of the couch and rolls down to the floor.

It is just important that I get all parts of me away from his head and also not let his paws reach out..which he may do if his teeth are too far away.

He wants to curl up on my shoulder at times and keep his face close to mine and watch my eyes mostly. When he first came we did all this cuddling just fine and he never went wild or open mouth or any of this. It's like he has gotten more relaxed here and doesn't need to be on his best behavior anymore. It's like when people visit others and act one way but when they live with someone they feel freer to act a different way.

If at the shelter he did this mouth thing when I touched him he would not have been adopted. But he acted very gentle and for the 1st couple of weeks here, he acted very gentle but now that he has discovered he has a wild streak...he is having fun with it... only HE is the only one having fun with it.

If he wants in my lap and I don't pet him, he will still roll to get my attention..only now rolling puts me on the alert for the open mouth. If the mouth stays shut...he is completely gentle. But now it is almost every time he gets close to me the mouth will go open within a short time.

My husband gets him in his lap and he doesn't do it with him anymore. He did at first a little but then he does not run and jump in his lap like he used to..in fact he has to be coaxed into his lap. But once there he does not try to roll around but will stay on his side like I try to get him to do with me.

He really gets a look in his eyes like he enjoys play grabbing/biting...like its a lot of fun to him...like when I throw him a furry toy mouse that he flings around...that kind of enjoyment. The last week or so he is very quiet usually until my husband goes to sleep and shuts the bedroom door then he acts like...well the parents are out so let's party! I now have to lock him up around 9 or 10 at night until 6 AM when we let him out as we are up. It's like instead of giving him more freedom and trusting him, which we were starting to do.....we are having to be as restrictive as we did when he first came to this strange home and we didn't know what he would get into and didn't want him hurting himself. Oh, well.

It sounds as though Lucky is looking for attention, and being the good mama you are you are trying to find a way to give it to him. If petting him is making it worse then maybe you can stop petting him, even though I know it is difficult not to pet a small pet who is right in your lap. Or if he misbehaves don't allow him to sit in your lap for awhile. Even if the result is that he doesn't come and sit with you as often, it may better for you that he doesn't.

Like I said before, you may not know many things about Lucky since you don't know all the facts of his upbringing. It also sounds as though you need a furry kid that isn't quite so rambunctious and more laid back.

What a dilema you have for yourself. It can't hurt to try my suggestions I posted you in my last reply, even though they make not work, it certainly is worth the try.

I have a few friends that are kitty parents and I will ask them what they think about your problem. Maybe they can offer something to you so you and Lucky can establish the kind of relationship you are looking for.

Hugs............Beth

Sounds like Lucky needs to be taught that this behaviour is unacceptable and that those teeth hurt. He is in a submissive position when he does this but I don't think he realises how much those teeth can actually hurt. Rather than avoid the situation from happening you need to address the problem and teach him not to do it.

I would suggest that you have a large leather gaunlet on whilst you are on the settee or perhaps a leather jacket and gloves, something that he won't be able to penetrate easily so when he does go into biting mode you won't get hurt and will be able to deal with his behaviour more easily.

I would suggest that when he does clamp on to your wrist that I would use your other gloved hand to try and release his grip whilst saying no and then firmly put him down on the floor so he knows game time/cuddle time is over the moment those teeth come out. I think that you are going to have to keep reinforcing this message to him over and over until he learns not to bite. Sometimes this is the only way, they soon realise that everything stops as soon as the teeth come out and cuddle/play time is swiftly over.

Also vocalising is a good idea too to get the message across, as already suggested, it goes a long way to reinforcing it, so a yelp wouldn't go amiss. If you have problems unlatching his teeth I find a loud clap or something similar, from someone else always proves to be enough distracting for them to stop what they are doing.

Good luck anyway and let us know how you get on and remember you won't be able to break this habit overnight but with patience you will be able to correct it.

Luna likes to bite my legs under the covers. Just a nip, but she hangs on, with her sharp little front teeth. I used to pull away, but that hurts. So now when she starts to bite down, I push my leg TOWARD her. It backs her up, and puts me in the dominant role. And hurts MUCH less. If you push toward Lucky, he'll be backing up "yikes!" into a submissive role. It may not break him of it (Luna still does it, though much less often), but at the very least it'll get you out of the wrist grab without activating his "grabbing prey" instincts. ~Kimberly

Thanks for all the suggestions. I am still working on this. He doesn't grab my wrist as I don't have it available. He is getting calmer and I am trying to teach him how to lie by me so he can have the closeness we both want , without the wildness as part of it.

The one suggestion above when he grabbed my wrist to use my right hand to pry it out of his mouth..the positions don't accommodate that...he was on my stomach and my right arm was circled around his back holding him so he would not fall off the couch and my lap which might create an instinct to grab to hold on so I didn't have the use of my right hand at the time and my left wrist was firmly clamped inside his mouth as he was turned to my left with his face.

Now I watch as he wants to grab at ankles and slippers walking by but just as quickly as he jumps at my feet he jumps back before actually holding..since I am still walking when he does this. My slippers are a protection and when he opens his mouth and puts it on the top of my slipper I instantly say NO and he stops. I am feeling he was taught to play this way because my other 3 cats didn't act like he does and it seems very natural to him to think people are like his toys....he has fun playing and you really have to watch him cause he is so quick. Remember he has not bitten either of us very hard but the pressure of his teeth does hurt and the dickens loves to roll back and forth on his back with his head back and his mouth open wide looking for something close enough to grab. When I have time I get up and get his furry mouse and drop it on him to play with which he does.

If he grabs my slipper toe I can push back (as Kimberly suggested) cause it is so thick he is not hurting me but the behavior is not acceptable..it's when he wants to be right in my face lying on my lap and he tries to stretch out and roll, reaching out to me..which when his mouth is shut...is okay as I can hold his paws and tell him how good he is.

This is definitely not an overnight job but he modifies his behavior at times and I see some improvement...there is much more to do.

P.S. Just wanted to post this picture of Lucky so you can see how sweet he looks compared to the picture I posted above to start this topic. It really IS the same cat.

He looks like Sable. And better than the top picture, where he looks like a bat! Weird little critters, aren't they? And we love them regardless. (Or perhaps because of...) Kimberly

Kimberly: I did enjoy seeing the pictures of Sable you posted in your thread. weird is a good word...I use it often talking to Lucky..also..crazy. And there is your last sentence above love regardless or because of....

Lucky is supposed to be 2 years old which means his initial "training" was a while back. Where he was born and how he lived until taken to the kill Animal Control here...how long there and then adopted by a couple....they may have left him outside..I don't know..where he may have developed some habits. Why he is not afraid of anything at all I don't know. Maybe he learned that as a kitten that he might have had to fight. He was brought to the no-kill SPCA in Sept 2007 and was there until I adopted him in December. The vet said by his teeth he is 2 years old which is still a youngster as far as energy.

All I know here is (I think like Sable), I don't know if Lucky EVER had a home for any length of time. The people who adopted him from Animal Control and then moved and left him..I don't know how long they had him, was he inside or outside, what did he learn and then was abandoned and a neighbor 4 doors down saw him somewhere and took him to the SPCA where I got him. Sable has an unknown history too, being found like you did...abandoned also. So I guess what I am trying to say is I feel Lucky has not had a home or the love he should have had in life and we are trying to change that. I think you felt that about Sable also when you rescued him.

I raised my 3 cats from kittens, being born feral in my back yard so I knew everything that happened to them and they were protected by me and taught by their mom and by me only. Who knows how many hands an abandoned baby goes through? It's a wonder to me that Lucky has a lot of gentleness about him. That he jumps in a carrier box and doesn't mind going to the vet, etc. This morning I was lying on the couch watching TV and he was up behind me, like the new picture above but his back was toward my side. Well he rolled and fell behind me and curled in a ball that I could feel but he did not grab my blouse or me with his teeth. I got up and sat next to him and saw him open and close his mouth and praised him for being good cause that action usually leads to the open mouth and play grab with teeth. He didn't do that this morning. So there is some progress but I feel it will take a while for us to trust him not to grab. He got his nails clipped yesterday and that makes a wonderful difference when he wants to climb up your pants leg. He actually stands up and puts his paws on the leg and his claws feel like needles which is normal. The clipping makes it feel as if there is no claws and it is easier to teach him to retract them also.

I think (and I believe you would agree) that it is a harder adjustment when you don't know anything about them and what is "normal" to them. An abandoned one needs adjustments on both sides, especially if their former contact with humans was not a very good one in any way. All we can do is try....they really do have so much love inside that we just have to find a way to bring it out and have them trust us as much as we have to learn we can trust them. Lucky sat in my husband's lap yesterday for over 20 minutes behaving perfectly and just getting lots of petting and talking to. He is learning that if we don't like the behavior he doesn't get the fun attention and petting. Like I said...it will take time but every improvement noted shows it is worth it.