My conclusion from my discussion below is that domestic cats can get confused when they are licking their owner’s passive hand at a time when there is no petting and relate to the hand as food, perhaps a prey animal and bite it. It is an instinctive mental aberration brought about because of conflict between domestication and wildcat instincts. Sound strange and unlikely? Please read the article and decide.
Scenario
The scenario for this kind of domestic cat behaviour is as follows: Your cat is snuggled up against you and licks your hand. Without warning they bite the hand. You are entirely passive. You are doing nothing to provoke your cat. Not all cats do this. I don’t know the rate of prevalence. It might be quite rare.
Not a play-bite or love-bite
This form of feline behaviour is not a play-bite which occurs because of over-petting turning into play which includes biting in cats. That cannot be the explanation as there’s no petting provocation. To be clear this is not a love-bite. Love-bites are often a holdover from when they are kittens and playing. Playing and biting are synonymous in kittens. And feline love-bites are non-aggressive nibbles. The bite I am referring to can be hard and inherently aggressive.
Why do cats enjoy licking their owner’s hand?
Why does a cat lick the hand under these circumstances? Because he wants to groom their human caregiver. Initially this behaviour is an example of allogrooming – mutual grooming – as occurs between domestic cats who are friendly towards each other.
But it suddenly develops into something else. The change up is instinctive. The cat decides to bite the hand that feeds them. And it can be quite a hard bite that breaks the skin.
Another reason why a cat licks their owners hand is because it tastes nice. It tastes salty because of the sweat. Cats like a salty taste. This motivation to lick their owner’s hand probably follows the initial reason which as stated is allogrooming.
Mental aberration
One logical reason why a cat might instinctively bite the hand is because of a mental aberration. The mind flicks a switch and because of the salty taste they instinctively relate to the hand as if it is food (provided by their owner) while forgetting that it is their owner’s hand. It is instinctive and irrational but cat behavior can be irrational and confused at times.
Often there is a conflict between their natural, inner wildcat instincts which are just below the surface and 10,000 years of domestication which suppresses those wildcat instincts. Sometimes the instincts don’t make sense.
Prey animal
Another possible mental aberration is that the cat forgets that they are licking a hand and instinctively decide that it is a prey animal. This is a slight modification of the other suggestion. They bite the hand to kill it which explains why the bite can be hard.
This explanation which I have not seen before makes sense to me because it fits in nicely with how cats interact with a prey animal such as a mouse before they kill it. They lick the mouse sometimes and then deliver the bite to kill and then eat it. Or they lick the mouse after they’ve killed it and before they eat.
These are my thoughts exclusively; not ideas that have come from the internet or a book. What do you think?
The link below is to a page on love bites. These are non-aggressive. The bite I am referring to is aggressive.
Scar Face the old Tom was probably once owned as a kitten by someone here, then they moved and left him behind. 20 years later I moved here and he had never lived with anyone till I had him neutered, then he moved in with me. My neighbor was surprised to see him in my house, he was the one who told me he was 20. He died at 24, under my house. Near the end I saw him play with cat toys for the first time. I was honored he picked me as his last human friend.
I once had a old momma cat and a tom that would let me pet them then suddenly attack and I do mean attack. I knew to only stroke 3 or 4 times and stop and never ruffle their fur. Right now I have a girl that sleeps on my head and she bites me for no reason. She loooves me but she bites me. I shame her by saying “You bite the Momma?” She’ll hang her head and squint her eyes then bite me again and run away, LOL. It’s one reason I named her Trouble.
Well thanks for sharing Tamara. I guess we have to remind ourselves that they are wild cats at heart especially when they are former feral cats. It must be an annoying trait.