Basho and I have a similar routine, except that he likes to be on my
chest, and his choice of my anatomy for love bites is my nose. :-/
If he grabs my whole nose sideways, it doesn't hurt at all, but if he
"misses", one of his fangs ends up inside a nostril and then it kinda
hurts. But I know he does it because he loves me, he rarely does that to
Tom. He's my sweet boy. :)

WooToo has two occasions for a love bite. When I am petting her and we
are cuddling, she will sometimes give a gentlle nip on my thumb. On
rare occasions, she will miss and bite my hand near my thumb but it is
still gentle.

Another time is when I am going to sleep and _not_ petting her but my
thumb is within reach. Then it is a reminder that _she_ is not ready
to sleep and that I am neglecting my pettin duties. It is still gentle
but has a bit more sting.

Will in New Haven

--

"If you don't see the mouse at the table in the first few minutes,
check your own breath for cheese." Feather in <Poker for Cats>

Phantom is a nibbler.  He will nip not usually too hard if he does I tell
him OW OW OW  he stops and licks the area

...>...If she gives my arm a quick lick or two I know it will

Rosie gives love bites.  She purrs while doing it, and she is gentle
and it's just a squeeze on my hand.
Cinder likes to lick my finger tips and nibble on my nails.

Annie

Lily loves to nibble on my arm when we are cuddling. She will
lay on my chest with her head on shoulder, and once in a while
she will lean down and give my arm a lick and then start
nibbling. It hurts sometimes, but she stops when I say 'don't
bite Mama.'

Lily & her mama

Casper (RB) did something similar with Eric.  When we get home from
work, the first thing Eric usually does is relax in the great room.
Casper would jump into his lap and begin to lick and nibble his
forearm, usually his right arm for some strange reason.  Purring up a
storm, she would groom him, pulliing on his hair, and sprinkle love
nibbles along the way.  It was the cutest thing!  The hair on his
right arm was much shorter than his left!!

--Eric, Kim and the Chigger Ranch Crew

We had one cat who tended to be a little shall we say enthusiastic with the
biting portion of this routing.  Fortunately he would never lay a tooth on
anything he hadn't licked first so we could always stop the bite part.

It never pays to play this out with a nipped out cat.  They can lose track
of jaw pressure.  But even then they are love bites.  Not potential to the
bone attacks.

Jo

I wish someone would inform Melisande of the difference
between "bite" and "love bite"!  She'll be snuggling and
purring up a storm, proceed to the licking bit, then bite
down so hard she draws blood!  It's gotten so I hesitate to
pet her, because the next move is all too often to turn her
head and bite down (HARD) on the hand doing the petting!

Sammy does this too.  It's her way of saying, "Pay attention to me, pet me,
play with me!"  It's never hard enough to break the skin or even hurt, it's,
as you said, a little "love bite".

Hugs,

CatNipped

Cali (The original biter): Would never think of biting now, except for
Cleo's a.s.

Smokey: Will gum you when grooming or lightly touch your skin if you really
get her worked up when playing. She's the most good natured cat I've ever
had, we think she's part dog (Cheese hound).

Cleo: Loves to bite when playing and she bites hard. Although she's slowly
getting better, preferring to 'hold paws' rather than pulling your fingers
in to make hamburger. She loves to pull big chunks of fur out of the other
cats. Although she got a nasty surprise one day when Cali showed her how to
bite.

Silly playbites when she gets excited... but she only does it to John
and only when he gets her riled up (why DO men insist on teaching cats
the 'Paws of Death' routine?!) Sometimes I'll tickle her tummy and
she'll do 'paws of death' but she never bites me - she knows Meowmie
doesn't like it, so when she grabs my hand she pulls it up to her
mouth and licks my fingers instead. :) She never draws blood with her
teeth (though her claws are another matter!)

Scouty gives me lovebites when we're cuddling... she goes purr, purr,
purr, PURR and rubs her head all over me, then she'll suddenly turn
around and nip my leg or my arm, but not enough to break the skin. It
hurts if she hits bare skin though! It's just what she does when she's
grooming Silver - they groom each other and at some point the grooming
session turns into a wrestling match and they 'bite' at each other and
growl ferociously, but it's all just play and nobody's going to get
hurt...

Both my guys are biters-- not break-the-skin biters, but nibbly biters.
Dante does it in play-- he'll grab my hand and nibble on it.  Stinky's more
of a lerve-biter, complete with Pepe LePew-eyes. ;)

My mother was astonished to see Dante give her the Pepe LePew eyes
yesterday.  ;)  Dante's usually much too busy to woo anybody. ;)

You know, every time I see the subject of this thread I get an ear worm!  ;>

Hugs,

CatNipped

Awwwwwww.  Aren't those gentle love bites so sweet?

Dear Sabra (RB), unfortunately, never quite understood the "gentle"
part.  He would be loving on me, and suddenly CHOMP!  And then he would
continue bathing me as though he had given me a wonderful gift.

Owwwww!

Ginger-lyn
misses those crunchy Sabra love bites