My Maine Coon "Molly" is beautiful and we love her, however, she has a nasty habit of biting. She doesn't always do it, but enough to be a concern. She is 7 months old and has always had a tendancy to bite, sometimes hard, and sometimes just a "love bite". We have had her since she was 6 weeks old. Any suggestions on how to stop it. My vet has given us some advice from flicking at her nose to pinching her on the butt when she bites. Molly doesn't seem to mind the flicking and pinching and as smart as she is, she forgets and bites again when the mood hits her. Anyone else have this problem? Any suggestions on how to stop the biting would be appreciated. Thank you.

-- Anonymous, May 22, 2000

Answers

My four-year-old guy, "Maine Coon", just loves to bite. He loves to clamp and nip, and while this is just his version of play, it does hurt. My suggestion to you is to try what I have had lots of success with: When he bites, I get close to his face and say, "No, nasty Coon" in a deep, angry voice. That immediately stops the behavior. As a shy, genteel guy, he does not like yelling and I have seen a real decrease in biting since I've started using this tactic.

-- Anonymous, May 23, 2000

My Maine Coon used to bite quite a bit. I think that it may be a tendency in the breed, since they love to carry things in their mouths. The most effective way I found to get him to stop was to blow in his face when he went to bite (that way the punishment isn't associated with your hands, so he won't get confused when you go to pet him). After a while, I found the ultimate bite deterrent: I got my cat a playmate. No more bites.

-- Anonymous, May 23, 2000

I have to agree with Arlene on the second cat "helps" with biting.

I have had mixed breed cats as well as Persians, and I now have a big Maine Coon boy.

The Maine Coon bit more than any cat I ever had before. I think that it is part of their tough past as outdoor cats. He was just playing but it hurt. I got the second cat, they rough it out, and he never bites any more.

-- Anonymous, May 28, 2000

My 3year old male coon loves to bite me, I tell him to give me "kisses in a stern voice and guess what?? It works. He is a good boy most of the time. His name is Cajun

-- Anonymous, May 31, 2000

Wow!I just found this site. Thanks for this advise. My MC Wrigley bites too. All in love and fun but it hurts. I'll try these suggestions.

-- Anonymous, June 07, 2000

I adopted 2 Maine Coon types (or look alikes -- ie, no papers!) in March of 2000. They were 4 months old when I got them -- they are litter mates. Both of them are pretty frisky as kittens, and of course loved to include me in the 'paw wars', swatting and biting. All I did was withdraw from the kittens when either of them scratched or bit me. Within a couple of weeks, they learned to leave their claws sheathed or not to clamp down on me when playfully biting. They are both as gentle as can be when playing with me now, because they do want my attention! They still do, however, get pretty rough with each other, and have also learned that they can be as rough as they want with their toys. I'm not sure that flicking or pinching is such a very good idea -- seems to me that the cat would just interpret this as rough play is okay. Anyway, I've never needed to go there!

-- Anonymous, June 22, 2000

We have a Maine Coon kitten and I too am having problems w/ him biting! I've never had a kitten that bit this hard!! You can't even play w/ him because it hurts so bad. I have tried yelling, "No!", he pauses but just continues biting again. I will try the blowing, I really hope it helps. He can be a sweety when HE wants to, but he's pretty tough!!! He beats up my poor Rottweiler all the time!

-- Anonymous, June 30, 2000

So how is everyone doing with the biting? My Molly still likes to bite on occasion. She was confused at first when I tried blowing in her face and likes it now... A stern voice does help I find.

Arlene

-- Anonymous, July 17, 2000

My 6 month old Maine Coon "Pookie" also loves to play and in the process LOVES to bite, I have tried many things from flicking, pinching, saying NO, nothing worked until i whinned like a baby would when hurt, then he stops at once and licks where he had bite. Now whenever 'playing' starts to hurt thats what I do and he stops.

-- Anonymous, July 20, 2000