Conference misery::feline

    Yes it can be normal but unwanted!  You may need to stop patting her
    after only a few strokes and work your way up to more.  The cat may
    actually be getting overstimulated.  That way if you stop sooner she
    may learn to eventually stop biting.  She may also be afraid if she has
    not received much attention in the past.  Another thought would be to
    not approach her for patting at all.  Wait until she comes to you and
    then just pat a couple of times.  You should be able to work this out,
    also, pay attention to the area you pat.  The cat could be
    oversensitive in certain areas like the base of the tail and the
    stomach.  
    Karen

    My shelter cat Finnigan does this. He purrs like a motorboat the whole
    time too. Since we've decided that he is a big curmudgeon, we call this
    behavior "mudging"! ;-) 
    
    I have been trying to break him of this, as he is VERY strong, and
    grabs your arm and then kicks with his back feet! YIKES. He bites too,
    but not usually too hard unless yo let him continue to do this.
    
    I just pet him until the front paws start trying to latch onto me, and
    then I tell him no, and stop petting him. It seems to be working a
    little. He doesn't attack after the second pet/scratch anymore.
    Sometimes I even get to the fifth! ;-)
    
    Yonee

    
    Now if only you could curb poor ole' Stanley....  :-)
    
    N

    Sorry, also meant to address the basenoter...I know that both my
    feral girls exhibited this behavior up until 6-9 months after
    spaying.  Sometimes it is just hormonal...I think....but that's just
    my experience.  Both have tamed down nicely and no longer bite...my
    newest DOES nip, but it has only been a month and a half since her
    spay.
    
    N

    The problem with Stanley (shelter cat that Nancy and I love dearly) is
    that someone trained him that playing rough was the norm'. He does seem
    better some nights if he hasn't got an overload of energy stored up!
    ;-)
    
    BTW Joan clipped his claws last week while he was chewing on my arm!
    ;-) That's teamwork for you! ;-)
    
    Yonee

    Taja does this too, especially if I brush or comb him.  He also has
    this nasty habit of grooming any area directly after someone touches
    him, as if to say, "Hey, quit messing up my fur!"
    
    Quite the characters they are.
    
    -Roberta
    

    My Shadow did this too when I first got him from the animal shelter. He
    seems to be extremely sensitive to touch anywhere behind his neck, and
    gets overstimulated easily if you go beyond his boundaries.
    
    I've found that over the past 20 months or so that I've had him he's
    gotten much more tolerant and his threshold of sensitivity has become a
    lot higher. I just made sure I paid attention to his signals and didn't
    push him too hard, but gradually increased the petting a stroke or two 
    beyond his warning signs. I also made sure he knew the biting was 
    unacceptable behavior by scolding him gently (he hates to hear me say
    his name in an unpleasant tone of voice) and giving him one last loving 
    stroke. Talking softly to him while giving him the attention also seemed 
    to help. 
    
    Even though he still has a pretty sensitive touch threshold, Shadow has
    reached the point where he thoroughly enjoys our "petting therapy"
    sessions (almost as much as I do!), almost NEVER bites, and rolls on
    his back right in front of me to be petted - purring and blinking his
    eyes the whole time!
    
    Terry M.

    Sometimes this behavior is referred to as "love bites" 
    
    My cat does it too but only if he's in "one of those moods"  He
    loves affection from us and being pet.  He's a real lap cat.
    
    If your cat is not biting really hard (as in breaking skin) then I
    would call it love-bites.

WHen Bumble Bea does this we call it "going flibbity" as in
'flibbity jibbet'. It usually occurs after  I'v been petting
her. Her tail will start to twitch and this is how we know
she is "going flibbity". I think that, for her, sometimes
being pet is a preamble to playing. Other times, it is a
prelude to a nap. Either way, I'm a sucker for a kitty that
wants to be pet.


                                  Susan

My Spike will very lovingly place the tip of your finger
in his back teeth (hesitate to call them molars, they're
all pointy and sharp not grinders at all) and gently chew
on it. I suspect its a left over from kitenhood. The
look of it is much like being fed from a bottle, and
given how young Spike and Hurricane were at the shelter they
might have been bottle fed a bit before we got them.
It's a touch rough on the finger if you don't admonish
him...

Keith