When you’re petting your cat, it can seem like a sweet, relaxing bonding behavior… until they bite you out of the blue. What is this bite supposed to mean? Why do they do it? How can you discourage this sort of behavior? Let’s dive in.

What is a Love Bite?

A mid-pet session chomp from a cat is often called a love bite or petting-induced aggression. It’s relatively easy to distinguish from a regular bite, as it tends to be a soft nibble that doesn’t break the skin. It’s also not usually accompanied by any signs of aggression or fear, like dilated pupils, a rapidly swishing tail, pinned ears, or growls. It happens when your cat seems somewhat relaxed, which could explain why cat owners are often confused by it.

Why Do Cats Give You Love Bites?

While there are multiple things these love bites could mean, they are most often a way of showing affection, especially if they’re accompanied by licking. It could also be grooming that’s gotten a little intense.

Other positive meanings could be that they want more attention from you, or they want to play. Unfortunately, wanting to play could mean that they’re “hunting” your hand, which may not be the most desirable behavior.

Less-than-positive meanings of a love bite are that your cat is done with the pet session, they’ve become overstimulated with all the petting, or you’ve been touching a sensitive area like their bellies, where most cats don’t appreciate being pet. In a worst case scenario, they could also have a medical issue that’s causing them pain.

How Do I Avoid Love Bites?

If the nibbles are a little too strong – or you just want to discourage the behavior – there are things you can do to teach your cat that you don’t appreciate the love bites. If there’s no particular cause that you can pinpoint, distract them when they’re doing it with a toy or a treat. You can also give them favorite toys and treats when they’re calmly accepting pets as positive reinforcement. If they start biting you, remove yourself from the situation or remove them from your lap carefully and with no sudden movements that might intensify the biting. That can serve as negative reinforcement.

Knowing the sort of affection your cat appreciates can help, as well. Sometimes cats just don’t like to be handled, in which case you can bond with them in other ways, through play or just spending time together. If they do enjoy pets, they may be particular about where and how long they’ll tolerate it. Learn the spots where your cat gladly accepts pets – like their head or neck – and pay attention to how long into a petting session the biting usually starts. Be sure to stop before then. Letting them approach you for affection can also keep things comfortable between you and your cat.

If your cat is biting you because they see your hand as a fun play target, you’ll need to teach them that hands aren’t a toy. It’s easiest to reinforce this in the kitten stage, but you can do so when they’re older, too, through the aforementioned positive and negative reinforcement. Just make sure never to punish your cat. They won’t understand, and it may make things worse. They may also just need more play time and enrichment because they have pent-up energy that needs an outlet, so be sure to play with them often and give them toys and other items around the house they can use for play.

In the kitten stage, you can help avoid having love bites become a habit by socializing and handling kittens so pets don’t lead to overstimulation when they’re older.

Finally, if none of these things seem to help, your cat may have a health issue causing them pain, like arthritis, and you’ll want to take them to the vet to ensure they’re in good health.

Understanding your cat’s preferences – and making sure there are no underlying causes of petting-induced aggression – can help you and your cat live happily together and still exchange plenty of feline-approved affection.