my kitten is very aggressive

Question
Hello there,
We took a kitten in when he was about 4-5 weeks old.  My husband found him at a construction site after a very bad storm had hit and the kitten was almost drowning in a ditch.  We took him in and bathed him, and took really good care of him from that day on.  He has been a pretty good kitten but has always liked to nibble on us.  Now that he is 10 weeks old the bites are really starting to hurt.  For some reason he really bites me alot more than my husband or kids.  He seems like he is all friendly and starts sniffing me and then all of sudden he starts biting my arms and hands.  He latches on with his claws and it really hurts.  His ears go down and he starts whinning alittle while he does it.  Why is he attacking me?  I take such good care of him. Let me add I had never had an animal before and know nothing about cats.  I have tried the squirt bottle with water, i have tried flicking his nose, and saying no, these all make him more aggressive towards me.  Is he playing or really hurting me?  I also worry because he has not had his rabies shot yet. The vet said we need to wait until he is 12wks.  He is strictly a house cat since we took him in, but what if he contacted rabies when he was a baby, would he have showed symptoms already?  I do have lots of scratches and bites all over me from him.  The bites are not very deep, they don't really even bleed but I still worry about the chance of rabies.  How long does rabies take to show in little kittens?  Is it possible this aggressive behaivor can be from rabies?  I really want to keep this kitten for my kids, even though he is hurting me so much I still have a soft spot in my heart for him, I would really miss him, if we have to give him up, but I don't know how to put an end to this aggressive behaivor.  I worry about my daughter she is 3 and I don't want her to get hurt.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  He has had all is shots up to date, and we go back for the next round in 2 wks.  I want him to be really healthy and happy.  Does this mean I am doing something wrong.  Please help

Answer
Darlene,

Your kitten would have died by now if he had rabies. And the biting wouldn't be sometimes. It affects the brain and they go crazy. Here is a good article on Rabies that will give you some good information: (copy and paste the whole link, or type into your address bar)

http://www.purinaone.com/catcare_cond_atoz_article.asp?Seed=645&ArticleNumber=32

You just have a feral kitten. Biting is hereditary. Also 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,  they don't have the opportunity to hunt natural prey. Therefore, other moving targets like humans become their "prey."
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.

The natural way to help this situation is to get another kitten. That way they can roughhouse with each other.

There are pros and cons about punishment. Some say if you punish them for biting they will come at you worse. I don't agree. I have some feral kittens that I've had since birth but they also have the bite instinct. I've pretty much broken them of it, though they still do it once in a while. I hold them and pet them but when they bite, I say (mean-like) 'don't bite!' and (gently) throw them down. I wait awhile, then pick them up and pet them again. If they bite again, I repeat the actions. They eventually get the association that they don't get petted if they bite.

The longer you wait, the harder it will be to break him of the habit. Rarely though, it happens that a cat is just 'mean' and in that case you either have to ignore him until he comes to you or, sadly, replace him with a loving kitten. You DO have your daughter to think about. But that is a last resort. Work on breaking the habit first.

Type: feral kittens
in your search box (Google?) and you will get back a lot of articles on feral kittens that may give you some more insight on your kitten and it's behavior.

Hope this helped and if you have anymore questions feel free to write again.

Carol