Bubba the Problem Child Cat

We have a Siberian cat. The reason we have a Siberian cat is that my husband is allergic to cats and Siberians don't produce as much of the allergen in their saliva that other breeds do and so we are able to have him here without any allergy symptoms.

We have always had Burmese cats. When our daughter was little we would show our cats as a family hobby. So we know Burmese cats very well. Burmese cats, in my opinion, are the dogs of the cat world. They are friendly, calm and sociable. Our Burmese were very smart. One could open our bedroom door by jumping up on the door knob and turning it. The three Burmese were smart enough to unroll the toilet paper as an admonishment when we would leave them for a week's vacation. (We did have people come in to feed and play with them during that week).

Anyway, when our beloved 8 lb. Mickey died at age 18, I thought we couldn't get another cat because of my husband's allergy issues. Then I researched it and found the Siberian.

This is Bubba at 14 weeks, two weeks after we adopted him. This is still his favorite position. You can see that he has a "I am the boss of you" expression even at this young age.

My husband named him Bubba because we now live in the South (Florida) and because we knew that he would grow to between 16 and 20 pounds. And he is now 12 lbs at one year of age and still growing.

I have never really had a cat before, as I have previously explained. Whenever I read what cats are like I would proudly think, "not our cats".

Payback is a bitch as they say. Bubba is a CAT, all capital letters. I tried to clicker train him by giving him a treat if he came when I clicked. He saw the treat, turned up his nose, and ignored me.

Finicky eater- check. There really isn't anything other than tuna that he really likes and even that doesn't motivate his behavior.

He does greet visitors at the door and rubs against their legs, but only when he feels like it.

The worst problem we have is that he nips, both when he plays with us and also when he doesn't like what we are doing (like brushing him). He never breaks the skin when he nips but we really want to extinguish that behavior early on. I emailed the breeder in Georgia and asked what to do about the nipping. She said he would grow out of it and that we should tap him on the nose when he does it.
So I have been tapping him on the nose and saying "no biting" for months now and it hasn't made a bit of difference.

At my wits end, I emailed the breeder again about the nipping. No help there. I sure wish Bubba would finish training us soon.