Why does our cat keep biting our face in bed, out of the blue?

Question

My brother has 2 rescue cats that were abandoned by the mom. The one that bites is about 1 year old and really lovable, patient, doesn't mind being taken in your arms, doesn't run away when a stranger tries to take her, basically she's really relaxed. She's not afraid of large dogs and often follows them, curious. She also often goes into neighbors' house all along the street and stays by the fridge, hoping they will give them food (even if she still has snacks in her bowl here).

Now hopefully this will give everyone an idea of her kind of personality to explain the following. Sometimes my gf goes to the bathroom at night and the cat comes in at the same time and licks my face while I sleep, waking me up. Other times she walks on our face and explores around then slowly gets close to ears, nose, chin, fingers and bites for no reason when we're not even touching her. Not hard enough to hurt, just an annoying pinch.

I've read about cats biting on internet, how it can be because they're annoyed when they're tired of you petting them or want to assert dominance, however everyone seems to say it depends on the cat. From the info I gave, does anyone have experience with cats and has an idea what is wrong with her?

UPDATE: she does this all the time, day and night

Answer 1

It sounds to me like it might be a grooming behavior because:

• The cat also licks your face at night.
• The cat does it pretty lightly, so it's probably not from aggression or play.
• The cat is doing this at night while you are in a prone position, giving it easier access to your head than at most other times. For some reason, many cats seem to be attracted to the smell of various hair and facial products, and may try to groom your face or hair in particular. It may be that your cat is one of those cats.

It's normal for cats to sometimes bite at the fur while grooming it, and sometimes cats fail to understand the difference between fur and bare skin and attempt to bite that too while grooming.

If it's not a grooming behavior, than my next guesses would be either because the cat is bored and learned that biting gets your attention, or because you are accidentally rolling on it or near or, and it's biting as a warning.

Of course trying to deal with any of these behaviors is hard because it's happening while you're asleep. If possible, you might try keeping the cat out of your room at night. It may also help to keep the cat more entertained at night. One possible way to do this is by giving it a food puzzle toy before you go to sleep. Another possibility is there are a few motorized cat toys that will turn on at random intervals.