Cat behavior resources?

[McGurk]

I am at my wit’s end with our current cat and don’t know what good next steps are.

For background, we’ve had him over a year, he was a neighborhood stray, then was trapped, neutered, vaccinated and came to us. 1 - 3 yo male DSH. Clearly had previously been someone else’s cat, very affectionate and socialized.

The problem? Love bites. When he’s in the mood for affection, he’ll be rubbing legs, purring and flopping over, and if I don’t pay him the attention he wants, he bites. Starts with little nibbles and escalates to full on bites if I’m not giving him constant attention.

I have tried dealing it with it by grabbing him by the scruff (not successful), picking him up and moving him to another room (not successful) and distracting him with a toy (successful in the moment, but he’ll repeat the purr, rub, flop, little nip, full bite as soon as he’s bored with the toy.)

Today I tried picking him up and holding him rather than disciplining him for the nips and bite. Started out lovely, lots of purring and nuzzling, then sweetly licking my face…and then a bite that drew blood.

I’m over it. I’m watching the spot on my face, fully aware that there may be a course of antibiotics in my near future.

Oh, and this behavior is reserved for me, his primary person. DH and visitors are exempt.

Looking for recommendations for animal behavior resources that you’ve used successfully, or techniques to deal with a cat that’s aggressively, demandingly affectionate.

[JB]

Squirt bottles are often very effective, especially when they don’t appear to have come from you, sort of like the elbow to the nose when a horse tries to bite, they associated it with their action, not you

Until he seems to be getting the picture, no face to face contact.

We had a boy kitty who did the same thing - stray who came to us relatively socialized but still “his own dude”. Love attention, purred, but quickly escalated to love bites. He never drew blood that I can remember, but many times it really hurt. It was usually about feet - a foot fetish LOL - so a good shove was the response. Over time, he got the message, as every shove was accompanied with “NOT BITING”. He still liked to give nibbles, but “NOT BITING” got him to stop before they escalated.

Fingers crossed for your face!

[CanadianTrotter]

Bird gets a bit aggressive when being petted and he used to grab my hand and bite when he was around 2 years old. Whenever he was starting or getting ready to bite I would say “Owwwww!!!” loud enough to make him stop and run across the room to get away from the noise. Cats hate loud noises and it’s easier than trying to have a squirt bottle at the ready. Distracting with a toy is technically rewarding the bad behaviour.

Bird is still aggressive with petting time but he no longer bites. If he forgets himself and starts to bite now he will remember the loud “Owwww!!!” and stop himself.