my Manx

Question
My can plays too rough, making me bleed.So, I had his front claws taken out. No problem....but, he always attacks me. When he bites me, i tell him "no" or "ow" and he bites harder, and will not let go...He gets mad at me for telling him no...i can't tell if he's playing or not.. Why do you think he acts this way?

Answer
Jenelle,

If you saw how little kittens play with their siblings and their mama, you would understand.  Cats play incredibly roughly with each other from the very beginning.  Because cats have very, very tough skin (watch your vet give a shot, sometime), they do not mind the rough play.  However, cats often have to be socialized to play more gently with us soft skinned humans.  We do this by holding young kittens, stroking them, talking to them.  Kittens love this "game".  If they start with their biting and scratching behavior, the game stops!  We put them down and walk away.  They pretty quickly figure out that biting and scratching behavior is unacceptable to humans.

Yelling NO at any cat is useless.  Cats do not care nor understand what NO means.  So, yes he is playing, but, when it gets to rough, you need to walk away from the "game" and never, never engage in rough housing with this cat until he learns not to bite.

One behavior we have noticed in declawed cats is they will tend to bite more so than other cats.

If he still persists in his biting behavior after trying to overcome it by stopping the "game", you can try a behavior modification technique called "clicker" training.  This can be found at Karen Pryor's web site:

http://www.clickertraining.com

Some people claim good success with this technique.

Whatever you try to overcome the biting behavior, do not expect results overnight. You will have to be persistent and consistent in your training to get him to overcome this behavior.

Best regards... Norm.