Why is my cat such a bitey git?

[ThereMustAndShallBeTea]

We got two cats from the Cats Protection League at the start of September, a 3 yo and a 10 year old. We think they'd lived with someone elderly previously as we were told their owner moved somewhere where they couldn't take the cats with them.

All going okay so far, cats seem to have settled in well, but the younger one is so cocking bitey! They aren't particularly hard - they do hurt but I'm assuming he could bite much harder if he wanted, but they're pretty constant and often without warning(ish - getting used to anticipating it now). For example, right this moment I am sitting on the sofa balancing my laptop on my knee and he is snuggled up next to me, purring away; every now and then I'll break off to stroke him, either on the head or under the chin, and he'll act as though it's the best thing in the world 90% of the time and then randomly make a swipe at my hand. Similarly in the evenings when he joins us on the sofa - stroke, stroke, stroke, bite.

He's particularly bad first thing in the morning when he jumps on the bed and wakes us up and will repeatedly nuzzle our hands for strokes, then bite.

The other day my 3 yo was on the sofa, naked from the waist down, and the cat came over, licked his legs a few times, then sank his teeth into him. I was next to him at the time and it was completely unprovoked.

It's getting a little wearing! Is there anything we can do? Both cats have been neutered and he gets a fair amount of play time (though could possibly do more). He also has free access to outdoors (we are semi-rural).

Also finding his greediness/food obsession quite exhausting. We upped his food when he came to us on the basis he would be more active than he was when he was in the centre. We eventually got to the point where he stopped pestering for/stealing food (pouch plus handful of biscuits twice a day), but he's unfortunately put on an excess kilo (!) so is now back on a diet (1 x pouch in the evening and small quantity of biscuits in the morning). He is now constantly asking for and trying to steal food - repeatedly being shooed off the table and worktops, can't leave any food out on the side, will steal kids' food if left unguarded etc. He's very persistent, will steal food off the fork between your plate and your mouth if he gets the chance. Has to be shut out of the kitchen most of the time (PITA with small children, who are obviously incapable of keeping the doors shut).

Any suggestions please for either issue or is this just what having a cat is like? Not thinking of rehoming because we made the commitment to give him a home, but it would be nice if we could sort these out :(

I have to say, I can't picture any 4kg cat not getting porky on 4 pouches to be honest but I guess if you don't use dry, this could be right.. however, I can't imagine only giving dry or wet - I like a bit of differing texture to my meals and I can't imagine cats are too different (considering they munch through the entire small animal they catch in the 'wild'?)

Yeah, even though both types of food they have are complete, I thought some variety might be nice (I even try to mix up the sachets so they get different flavour meat every night!).

One of the booklets we got from the cats' home mentioned that rodents contain quite a lot of water, and for some reason this has particularly stuck in my mind and turned my stomach

or this

My vet says the manufacturers go way over the top with their feeding reccomendations.
My 5kg cat has 1 'light' pouch split into 2 meals and a small handful of light biscuits. She needs to lose weight according to the vet. She's always complaining she's hungry!

I had a 5.5 kg cat. I had a locum vet once try to tell me he was overweight- he was a Bengal cross, those cats are big and should be between 5 and 6 kg.

When he was very ill he got down to 4 kg and I could feel every bone. Again happened on a locum who tried to tell me his weight was fine, yes for a normal cat, but if you use your eyes he's a bag of bones.

I use my judgement on my cats weight now, as long as they're active and well- there's a guide somewhere, tried to attach it.

2 pouches and a handful of biscuits doesn't sound much, maybe hunger sent him begging at neigbours or raiding bins?

My 6 month old kitten is 5.5 kg already

And no he's not remotely porky, he looks like a lanky teenager. But he's a Maine Coon boy and planning on being a lion sized one like his predecessor!

My 15 yr old tortie on the other hand is only 3.2 kilo. Same amount of food available but very very different build animals!

Morph maxed out at 10.4 kg..and was still a slim boy. However even for a MC he was a massively long and tall cat. People used to ask if I had a lynx (idiots!) when I took him to the vet . The vet used to laugh when he weighed him but said he was absolutely right for his build.

Scissorclaws is eating more than the daily recs. He has an appetite akin to a horse. A very hungry horse. You can kind of gauge if they're getting too porky or slim.

I think he's going to be a big beast

My rescue cat was bitey for the first year or so, but mostly with DH. I thought maybe she liked men less, although she still wanted to snuggle up to him before she bit. Then I realised it was often happening just after DH washed his hands. He used quite a strong scented antibacterial liquid hand soap while I used unscented bar soap. Changed the liquid soap brand and the cat stopped biting. Of course chances are that my cat's just weird/ultrasensitive to chemical smells, but it's worth seeing if there's a pattern.

On subject of weight mine is about 5.5 kg. She does look a bit chubby, but I like to kid myself she's big boned! She is larger and more muscular than my previous little dainty tabby so it's not all flab. Plus before rescue she had a litter and some of her tummy skin is loose.

Does your cat eat all the biscuits you put down?
I would ditch the wet food for now and put down the correct amount of Purina and plenty of fresh water. If he eats all the biscuits at once then you will have to spread them out during the day.

I have found my cats self regulate and just replenish the biscuits once a day, however very importantly my current cat cannot cope with an empty bowl so I start with a double portion and then top up with a daily portion, mixing the biscuits around.

YY,Mcat gets sad when he can see the bottom of his bowl through the biscuit layer. I keep an eagle eye on it when at home. He's not greedy/overweight though.