She keeps biting the kitten

[danniellabella]

DD is 10 months old, we have a kitten that is about 10 weeks old. They love to play together but DD has started grabbing the poor kitten by the ears, feet, tail, head...anything she can get hold of. She will drag him off the couch or our laps or just pin him down on the floor. Sometimes she sits on him too. Usually he doesn't seem to mind this and it's quite funny to watch.
Over the past week I've noticed that DD will grab and pin the kitten down and then bite him on the side or try to give him a raspberry. The poor kitten gets drenched in DD's slobber.

How can I stop this? Is it going to do DD any harm? Should I just keep an eye on them?

[krysalyss]

I would be more worried about the amount of harm that your toddler could do to the kitten. Not only that but if you let your toddler constantly play too rough your kitten could grow up to be scared and/or aggressive. If it seems to be getting too rough then you should separate them. Watch the kitten for any signs that they want to get away, are trying to defend themselves, are anxious or tense.
As for the mouthing - pets can carry worms so make sure your kitten is wormed regularly (every 2 weeks until 12 weeks then once a month until 6 months then every three months for life). And discourage your child from putting her mouth on her, washing hands afterwards etc.
Hope this helps.

[danniellabella]

I would be more worried about the amount of harm that your toddler could do to the kitten. Not only that but if you let your toddler constantly play too rough your kitten could grow up to be scared and/or aggressive. If it seems to be getting too rough then you should separate them. Watch the kitten for any signs that they want to get away, are trying to defend themselves, are anxious or tense.
As for the mouthing - pets can carry worms so make sure your kitten is wormed regularly (every 2 weeks until 12 weeks then once a month until 6 months then every three months for life). And discourage your child from putting her mouth on her, washing hands afterwards etc.
Hope this helps.

Thanks Krysalyss. Will make sure the worming thing is sorted and will keep an eye on things to make sure they aren't getting too rough.

BTW: Your the first person to refer to my 10 month old as a toddler. just reminded me that she's growing up so fast.

[krysalyss]

Oh I know how you feel. But don't worry - the toddler part is sooo much fun. I just want to freeze my 20 month old just as he is!

[Glamourcide]

Don't worry, my 17-month-old is exactly the same with our three (yes, THREE) cats and one puppy. I'm convinced she's trying to kiss them because she always kisses with her mouth wide open and tongue hanging out, and she makes the same 'mwa!' noise when she does it to the cats as she does to us.

As long as the cat is wormed and flea-treated, you shouldn't have any problems, although it would depend again on whether kitty is an inside/outside kitty or strictly an indoors cat.

As to the rough play, just keep an eye on it. Two of our cats are AMAZINGLY placid, DD can drag them around and 'cuddle' them (really roughly, poor things) and they will sit there and take it, and have never shown any aggression or ill-will towards her, but the other one (because he's an older cat, and was a sole pet until my husband's mum died and we 'inherited' him) isn't quite as happy about having his ears pulled or being sat on. So we just tell DD 'no' when she gets rough with them and she gets the hint once she's had a giggle at cuddling them once or twice and finds something else to amuse herself with.
Our puppy isn't aggressive at all, just playful, and nips her when she is in a vulnerable position (laying on the floor or crawling), and sometimes she cries but mostly she just laughs and roughs the puppy up as much as the puppy roughs her up. We're trying our best to discourage this though as we know dogs need to know their place in the pecking order, so she's getting much better with puppy class and we're confident things will be fine with them.

Good luck with yours, I think it's great that you are bringing up your bub with a cuddly pet to play with - it teaches them so much about life, love and caring for another creature that we can't teach them ourselves. They will be best mates as they get older and your bub grows out of the rough stage, it's amazing to see how they interact with each other.