Why does my cat bite my hands for no reason?

No, he wants attention, pets. He is being creative in his own way and a little nip is his way of communicating he wants some attention. Both my cats do this.

ghosts.

Cats can suffer from some of the same maladies as humans. Perhaps your cat is bonkers.

Anyway, couldn’t you just put on velvet gloves?

How old is the cat? Is he nuetered?

Maybe because your sticking them in front of his face?

He probably just wants more attention. I have two cats and they both nip at me when we’re playing, or when they want me to pet them for a while longer.

@Coloma Really? I thought he was angry with me. Should I just hug him or something?

@digitalimpression Velvet gloves? :p

@WestRiverrat One year and two months, I think. And yes he is.

@fundevogel We’ll call the ghostbusters.

@Rarebear No, I don’t. And he also bites my book when I’m reading.

@WillWorkForChocolate But it hurts and it’s scary because he’s more like a dog.

If he’s hurting you, maybe he needs a gentle but firm “NO” when this happens.

@WillWorkForChocolate I know, but it doesn’t always work.

Give him the attention he seeks before he seeks it. A good gentle roughing up, hugs and petting every time you come in from outside will help banish the biting. It’ll make you feel better too.

@this_velvet_glove Yes, animals can only communicate with animal language. Love him up, rub his chin, give him kitty massages, brush him. Both my cats go nuts when I say ” brushies!” lol He wants you! haha

Does he have his rabbies shots?

^ haha…yes, or he’s rabid and you’ve got about 21 days to live before the incubation period is over and you are foaming at the mouth and drinking out of the toilet in your frothing rabid psychosis.

@Coloma Serious business. A woman my mom worked with years ago took in a stray kitten and it bit her and her two children and seemed more aggressive than a typical playful kitty who bites. She had to decide whether to kill it to see if it was rabbid. It was awful, the children were already getting attached. She did have it put to sleep, and it did have rabbies. They all had to take the shots. She said they were pretty painful, I guess the liquid is very thick that they inject. It was the newer shot, not the multiple ones in the stomach. The newer one is just a few if I remember correctly. Anyway, VA and MD back when I was a child had a high incidence of rabbies, we even had commercials on TV about it, not sure if it is more under control now.

Edit: I googled and it looks like in 2008 VA was number two in the US for domestic animals. Here is a link with some stats. It’s still very rare though of course.

My cat used to do this all the time and she was just playing. This is how cats are with each other when play fighting but they have similar equipment (teeth and claws) and similar protection (fur) and if one of the kitties is getting a little too vigorous the other let’s him know with a quick hard nip or a cuff across the nose.

But cats don’t realize that humans feel it more when they play rough this way. They need to be taught.

It took me about a year to convince my cat that my hands and elbows, etc are not play toys. I have numerous toys for her and would try to divert her attention to take her energy out on them instead, usually the car dancer.

But after a while I would just consistently toss her off the couch, bed, etc. with a very firm “NO” and shun her for the next 15–30 minutes. Every time she would try to hop back up I would dump her off again.

She finally got the message that play biting me that hard would not get her the type of attention she wanted. She still does it occasionally but now she does it very very gently. Instead of biting, she nibbles. It’s cute and always gets her favorable attention.

Our cats think of us as part of their family and don’t realize that we can’t take rough play the same way. Some of them need more forceful lessons than others. I never hit my cats but found I had to do something to convince her to cut it out. Even tho her motive was playful rather than mean, she still had to learn some boundaries.

So tossing her (gently) away and denying her any further interaction for awhile managed to get the point across to her. She was the first cat I’ve had that was ever that bitey persistently and it took me awhile to figure out how to deal with it.

How long have you had your cat? What do you know about his background before you got him?

@JLeslie Oh yes, serious stuff. My cats are always vaccinated living in the hills here with every wild thing known to man in north america. My cat brings in bats on occasion.

I am fairly sure he is angry.

@Coloma “haha…yes, or he’s rabid and you’ve got about 21 days to live before the incubation period is over and you are foaming at the mouth and drinking out of the toilet in your frothing rabid psychosis.”

Actually rabies is accompanied by hydrophobia believed to be a survival mechanism as the disease makes swallowing difficult and choking very likely. So if you see someone drinking out of the toilet you can probably bet that whatever’s wrong with them it isn’t rabies.

@fundevogel Yes, I think a rabid animal is very thirsty but yeah, can’t swallow well if at all. I knew that, somewhere in the archives of the gray matter, thanks for clarifying. lol ;-)

Cannibals say the hand is the tastiest part.

@Coloma Actually I give him attention, play with him, brush him (which he hates lol), etc. The last time I went out was last week, but when I do go out he gives me that hurt look that says ’‘you shouldn’t be so late’’ or something.

@Sunny2 Believe me, I’m trying. I can’t even go to the bathroom without him because if I close the door, he starts whining.

@JLeslie Yes, he’s been vaccinated. But still, we take him to the vet whenever we think there’s something wrong (e.g. he had an eye problem some weeks ago, but now he’s fine.)

@Buttonstc I’ve had my cat for nine months. I found him on the street and decided to keep him because he was obviously starving and needed help (and I also wanted to have a cat anyway lol).

@josie Yes that’s what I thought too.

@ETpro Wow. I didn’t know that.

@this_velvet_glove So never accept when a cannibal invites you over to eat and then wants you to give them a hand in the kitchen.

To interpret this as him being mad at you is basically anthropomorphizing too much (that basically means ascribing human motivation to animal behavior).

Animals generally are much more in the moment with their feelings. They don’t hold grudges the way we do as humans.

If your cat were really angry with you there would be no doubt about it. It would be a full-on attack, teeth, claws, the whole nine yards.

The last time I brushed my cat for longer than she was willing to tolerate, that’s what happened to me. It wasn’t just a play bite. She was one seriously pissed off cat ! But once she got free from me and made her point it was over. She didn’t start all over again an hour later or the next day. That’s just not how animals are.

Have you ever seen a litter of kittens either here or in the wild? Once they are old enough to develop their stalking, hunting and killing skills, they practice on each other with play fighting, obviously scaled back a bit.

And even tho our domestic cats have their meals provided for them, they aren’t that different from their cousins in the wild. Play fighting, biting etc. is still part of their instinctual nature.

But in a way, it doesn’t necessarily matter that much why he’s doing the biting. It’s up to you to train him that this is unacceptable behavior.

Hitting him will do absolutely no good and likely make things worse. But you need to make him aware of your STRONG disapproval. Cats are sensitive to tone of voice. They may not understand the words but they can read tone and body language.

You have to decide how you want to get it across to him that this biting won’t get him the positive attention he wants. Whether it’s giving him a time out by shutting him in the bathroom for 15 mins or tossing him off and refusing to interact with him briefly for awhile or whatever else you find works to get the point across.

Pick something and be consistent about it without fail. It’s like disciplining a child. He needs to be able to predict with 100% certainty what the immediate result will be whenever he bites your hand. But the consequence you choose can’t really last all that long since animals are very in the moment.

It may take a while and try your patience but cats are very intelligent and can learn proper manners.

A long time ago I decided that I would not tolerate any cat of mine scratching or biting me and nip it in the bud when they’re young.

A friend of mine had multiple cats and a far greater tolerance for this. Her hand and arms were constantly covered by scratch marks in various stages of healing.

Then one day she ended up spending several days in the hospital getting IV antibiotics for a bad case of cat scratch fever. (This is no joking matter. It can result in a very serious infection. Look it up.)

I decided then and there that I would not be so tolerant of this behavior in any cat of mine. And until my latest kitty, it wasn’t really a problem once they were adults. But each cat is different.

But I have to do my part as well. Some people (guys particularly) think it’s cute when their little kitten play attacks them and start waving their fingers at them to encourage this. When they’re tiny kittens they don’t have the same force or power. When they get older it gets worse suddenly.

I always use toys for my cats to play attack. I never use my hands for anything other than petting and love. And if I go to pet them and they’re in a feisty mood and start swatting my hand playfully, I immediately withdraw my hand and stop everything and wait till they calm down a little. So they get the message consistently that human body parts are definitely NOT for playing with. That’s what toys are for.

Since you found him as a stray you really have no way of knowing what his previous experience with humans has been.

And now that he has been with you long enough to regard you as “his” family, he feels comfortable to play with you as he used to with his littermates or other humans.

My current cat didn’t start playing rough with me (or really playing much at all) right away. It took her quite a while to feel comfortable and secure enough to regard me as family (she had previously been tossed out to fend for herself in the middle of winter snow and passed around to various people before I got her ) She would sleep on my computer desk at night rather than snuggling up in bed with me even tho I encouraged her.

It took about six months before she felt comfortable enough to sleep on the end of my bed rather than the desk.

So, the fact that your little guy feels comfortable enough to play with you like family is actually a good thing. But now you just have to teach him what is acceptable and what is not. If you don’t like how hard he bites then let him know about it and don’t tolerate it at all.

Training is part of being a good pet parent. You’ve done everything else right in terms of vet care, neutering etc. so you’re obviously a responsible caregiver for him.

Now comes the harder part. Training him. Fortunately cats (unlike puppies) come pre-trained for bathroom needs. So now there’s just some behavior modification left and you’ve got a great pet for life.