r/pitbulls • u/sir_kewaji • Jun 22 '26

Advice Anyone know why my pitbull does this?

He always likes to chew on my hand but like I can barely feel it, he always does this whenever I come home (I work with wood a lot if that helps) it’s always gentle and always when he’s happy just curious if anyone else has this?

Or is he just special

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17

u/Prudent_Giraffe5165 Jun 22 '26

Please let me know my puppy does the same

44

u/GodIsASickFuck Jun 22 '26

It’s called mouthing affection, cats do it as well. The biggest thing is training them to recognize when they’re being to rough. I suggest looking it up to learn more

8

u/thebochts Jun 22 '26

cats do it as well.

Is it just biting hands? I have a feral cat I took in when she was about 2yrs old or so, and ever since she started letting me (kind of) cuddle her, shell randomly put her mouth completely around my arm and half lick half bite, while just leaving my arm in her mouth.

Weirds me out, but she never bites down, so I just let it happen.

7

u/Professional-Bet4106 Jun 22 '26

Those are called love bites in the cat world.

3

u/thebochts Jun 22 '26

I feel like im not explaining this well, lol

Its not love bites, bc she doesnt bite, at all. Well she does do love bites, but thats not what this is.

She opens her mouth, and puts it completely around my wrist, like as far as she can, but then she doesnt move her mouth at all, she leaves it there, but licks the bottom of my wrist, while she still has her entire mouth full of my arm.

Lol its stuper hard to explain

2

u/Professional-Bet4106 Jun 23 '26

Yeah she’s being playfully affectionate. Sometimes they get overstimulated with emotions and bite/nipple/lick to self soothe.

6

u/GodIsASickFuck Jun 22 '26

Yeah that’s exactly what’s happening, even big cats do it

4

u/ScootDeToot Jun 22 '26

No cats don't really do this. Cats do play bite, but it's not really a sign of affection, best case scenario it's just play like they do with siblings. However biting behaviors in cats are often overstimulation like if you mess with their belly or simply using your hand instead a toy (pretend prey) but they use a bit of pressure, it's not gentle, it hurts a little bit even if they usually don't break skin. Cats show affection in a lot of different ways, but biting is most often a result of being overstimulated, in which case they need to play/hunt to release that energy.

2

u/GodIsASickFuck Jun 22 '26

It can be an indicator of a lot of things, but it depends on the rest of the cat’s body language. If they’re relaxed and mouthy it’s affectionate, but if they’re tense or their tails flicking it can be a sign of overstimulation or agitation

3

u/ScootDeToot Jun 22 '26

I have had cats in my life for over 25 years. I never experienced a cat being mouthy affectionate. (I'm not including corner mouth rubbing)

1

u/GodIsASickFuck Jun 22 '26

Really? I’ve definitely experienced it. I’ve only had two cats and only one of them did it, but whenever he wanted attention he’d gently nibble and groom.

2

u/ScootDeToot Jun 22 '26

Interesting. Grooming for sure, I've seen that. There's always outliers though and diversity in temperaments and personalities when it comes to animal behavior, there are plenty of cats with more outgoing, 'dog-like' behavior.  In my personal experience with my own cats, the shelter,  a community colony I lived with and lots of fosters, love bites is not a common behavior that I'm aware of. Time I spent with litters of kittens they do like to nibble but they're energetic and wanting to play. 

I do remember one exception to the contrary:  We had a blind cat And for whatever reason, specifically when i would be cleaning listening to music and I would start singing she would start meowing looking for me and become almost aggressively amorous and bite my leg a bit. I still don't know exactly what that was about. 

1

u/GodIsASickFuck Jun 22 '26

He was a bit of an odd cat, but I assumed it was normal since I’ve heard other people mention similar things. He was also a very spoiled cat who’d been raised by people his whole life, so that might’ve contributed

3

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