Petting and biting

As you may have noticed already, cats have different preferences for how they want to be petted and groomed. Some cats are used to being petted and will respond to your touch with an audible purr. But some cats may have a different degree of tolerance to petting. It may be genetic or learned behaviour. Some of those cats will react to your attempt of touching them with shying away, hissing and in the most extreme cases with biting and scratching.

If you have been bitten by your cat, don’t push them away or try to pull your hand away as they may see that as an invitation to play and will definitely chomp down on your hand even harder! Furthermore, refrain from punishing your cat for biting you as they will not associate the punishment with their bad behaviour but rather with you and will start to avoid you altogether.

If you want to teach your cat to tolerate you stroking and petting them, use healthy tidbits as a reward. Cats give different warning signs when they have had enough of your petting, sometimes long before they resort to biting or scratching. Examples of such warning signs include: restlessness, flicking of the tail, stiffening, staring at your hand or attempts to try and jump off or walk away. At the first warning signal offer your cat a treat and continue to stroke them gently for a time and then offer another reward. After some time your cat will hopefully learn to connect petting with tidbits and will allow you to increase the time you get to pet them.