How to stop kitten from attacking my hair
Kittens attack human hair because they mistake swinging hair or bangs for moving prey. This behavior can lead to painful scratches on the face and head, disrupting bonding and causing stress for everyone in the household.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- The most recent one is from October 2026.
- This comes up 14.6× more often in r/puppy101 than across the site as a whole.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Tie up hairDid this help you?
- 2Pull back bangs with hair clipsDid this help you?
- 3Play with the kitten to distract themDid this help you?
- 4Wear a bonnetDid this help you?
- 5Using baby gatesDid this help you?
- 6Administering gabapentin to sedate the catDid this help you?
- 7scolding the cat and saying noDid this help you?
- 8ignoring the cat and changing roomsDid this help you?
- 9closing the cat inside a room for 10 minutes until it calms downDid this help you?
- 10playing with the cat in multiple daily sessions using rods, plushies, and ballsDid this help you?
- 11spoiling them with wet food, toys, and timeDid this help you?
- 12purchasing dry food and letting them have something hard to biteDid this help you?
- 13mixing dry food with wet foodDid this help you?
- 14Keeping an eye on them to ensure the behavior does not escalate into control issues, territoriality, or unwelcome dominance behavior.Did this help you?
- 15Confining the puppy strictly to one room or a separate floor behind closed doors.Did this help you?
- 16Carrying the growing puppy through the house to get outside without being attacked.Did this help you?
- 17Installing baby gates and keeping "cat doors" closed to separate territories.Did this help you?
- 18Crating the puppy at night or anytime they are unsupervised.Did this help you?
- 19Placing the cat's food and litter boxes in high spaces where the puppy cannot reach them.Did this help you?
- 20Discussing anti-anxiety medication for the cat with a veterinarian.Did this help you?
- 21Working with the breeder to rehome the puppy while it is still young enough to be highly adoptable.Did this help you?
- 22Redirecting the cat to play with a wand toy instead of bare flesh.Did this help you?
- 23Giving a very light flick to the ear to simulate a mother cat's correction.Did this help you?
- 24Finding a comfortable but firm way to signal that rough play is not allowed.Did this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Sometimes I’ll be laying in bed and she’ll just come up to me and start chewing on me/biting me. She does this to my feet too. I can’t tell if it’s a playful thing, maybe she’s trying to get my attention? or if it’s a habit I should try to break, and if so, how should I go about that?”source ↗
“I've seen cats occasionally nibble while grooming before, but with this kitten it's like full on chomping as often as grooming.”source ↗
“at one point there was plenty of times they would bite hard.”source ↗
“My little black void does this and as did my timbob it's normally finishes with a kiss or a belly rub.”source ↗
“He’s a kitten but he’s come up behind me and clawed my face pretty good because he sees my bangs. How can I get him to stop?”source ↗
“Hello, my orange cat is destroying my arms. He is 4 months old, But I found him when he was 1.5 months.”source ↗
“He bite me so hard that I bleed, I have a lot of scratch in my arms due to his teeth.”source ↗
“And specially in the night (not every night), but 2 Times for weeks), sometimes when i am in the bed he bites me running for the home.”source ↗
“I tried to scold him, and say “No” and ignore him changing room, I tried close him inside a room for 10 minutes until it calms down. I tried to ignore him and stop me, but he continues… It doesn’t work… sometimes after he bites me, turn his ears and kicks me…”source ↗
“Our older cat will also approach the puppy instead of running away just to loudly hiss/meow/attack and our pup is terrified of him, and doesn’t even try to chase.”source ↗
“The cat and puppy were seperated from the start. We did slow, positive introductions through the door and eventually the baby gate. The cat has had a lot of barrier frustration, wanting in the room, and there have been a few times the cat would either bolt into the room the moment the door is cracked”source ↗
“She attacks the puppy every chance she gets, if he’s napping on the floor, if he’s having crate time.”source ↗
“And now she started peeing outside the litter box.”source ↗
“It’s stressing everyone out”source ↗
“Puppy has NEVER been able to so much as approach the cat. The cat has grown increasingly aggressive towards the puppy. The cat will come down off of a cat tower to chase and attack the puppy even if the puppy is sleeping, confined in a pen, or walking away on a leash.”source ↗
“Due to this, the puppy has basically had to live behind closed doors and rarely gets access to many other rooms in the house. The puppy has to be carried to go outside and the puppy is slowly getting too big to carry.”source ↗
“While we love this puppy, we feel selfish for trying to keep her another month or two for a "maybe", and the puppy having to continue to live in one room with us, just to still have to be rehomed later when she is older and therefore less adoptable.”source ↗
“The first few months were rough — our cat clawed our dog and caused an abscess above his eye about 1 month after we brought him home.”source ↗
“The cat will reach her paws through the bars to swat at the puppy through a gate or pen, even if the puppy is sleeping.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 3Next steps for taming a feral kitten
- 4Why does my kitten play and roll in the litter box?
- 3Why won't my kitten stop playing too rough with my older cat?
- 2Why does my kitten have so much energy and never sleep?
- 21Accidentally stepped on my cat and got scratched
- 18Older cat still hissing at new kitten after months