kitten likes to bite when playing

Question
QUESTION: hi Jessica,

so my kitten likes to bite when we play with her. she loves attention and likes it a lot when we play with her. but she gets too excited and starts biting our fingers or ankles. i tried spray bottle, pushing her away and telling her no in a loud voice which would stop her for a second and then continue again. what should i do? i dont wanna develop biting as a habbit and makes her think its okay to use teeth. what else can i do? thanks tons for all the help!!

lavie

ANSWER: This is a common problem.  The first thing you should do is to be sure that you never use your hands to play with her, not even briefly.  If you do, she'll come to view your hands as toys and think that it's acceptable to bite and scratch them.  Instead, always use a toy to play with her.  Feathers, ribbons, laser pointers, there are lots of interactive toys available for you to play with her with.

Anytime she bites, stop paying her any attention, and walk away.  If she follows you and bites your ankles, close her in a crate or the bathroom for a few minutes.  Litter mates will stop playing with each other when the play gets too rough, and this is the way they learn to start being gentle.  Kittens love to play, and she won't like being ignored.  After a couple weeks, you should see that she's improving a lot.  

I would avoid using the spray bottle as a training tool.  Most of the time, it just causes the kitty to start to distrust you, and it typically isn't successful.

Good luck!

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: so i tried to stop playing with her and not giving herany attention, then putting her in bathroom or pet carrier.. but nothing worked.. she still bites and today i found she bites even harder.. its so weird.. what else can i possibly do??

Answer
Hi Lavie,

I don't know if it would be acceptable to you, but it helps in almost all cases if you provide the kitten with a playmate (another kitten of about the same age).  While it's inappropriate for the kitten to bite you, it's perfectly appropriate behavior when she's playing with another kitten, and many cats crave this type of interaction.  It's highly recommended by most behaviorists that cats live with another cat, and the Siamese is ESPECIALLY known to require the companionship of other pets.  Although I know this little one isn't a purebred, she is certainly part Siamese, and I'm sure she has inherited some Siamese personality traits.

If it's impossible to adopt another kitty within a few months of her age, I would recommend that you just keep at the training, and increase the length of her time outs.  Some cats need only a few minutes while other require 15-30 minutes to learn the lesson.

If you still see no progress, you may need to talk to an animal behaviorist.

Also, remember that she may be teething, and sometimes biting can be caused by this.  I recommend to see if she'll chew on a frozen (uncooked) chicken wing, but some kittens will actually gnaw rawhide chew sticks made for puppies.