Sukie:
I've never heard of "grooming nips".  Is that a cat term or a ferret
term?
 
When I first got Troni (the cat), I almost got rid of her because I
thought she had a mean streak.  She would be sitting on my lap, just a
purring and eating up all the affection I was giving her, acting like
an otherwise normal cat, then suddenly she would just bite me!  I just
couldn't figure it out.  I tried all kinds of things to get her to stop
it, but she persisted, and always when I was petting her on my lap.  I
finally figured that she just had a "mean streak" (that, coupled with
the perpetual "frown" she always seems to have, made me think that).
 
But, after asking on some cat news groups, they explained that it was
"love bites"; a way of telling *ME* that I am the "litter leader".  Well,
it still baffled me how biting someone is a valid way of telling them
that they are loved, but, hey... it's a cat!
 
BTW, I found the most affective way of dealing with it to be "pathetic
whining".  I made a HUGE fuss about it when she bit, and acted like she
really hurt me; I would literally SCREAM and run away from her (though
it didn't really hurt *that* much, you should have seen the look on her
face!).  I would then shun her and avoid her for a few hours.  It didn't
take long for her to tone the biting down to a reasonable level.  That
was long ago, and she's still with me, and she still bites on occasion.
She did it last night even.
 
So, I was just wondering if there was any correlation between the love
bites a cat gives, to the *chomp* a ferret gives?
 
Gary
[Posted in FML issue 4308]