I'm in a house of three, and we adopted a cat one week ago. She's lovely and affectionate, is settling in well - she's exposed her belly in the living room now and sleeps there every now and then. She comes up to me and gives me kisses, putting her face close to mine, and she head boops my hand when I hold it out to her.

She's eating well and using the litter tray in her settling room. She loves to play, and we play with her using a pole toy multiple times a day. She's an outside cat, and is not allowed outside yet due to the settling period.

She's a three year old domestic shorthair, and the adoption place told us that she's been through a few different homes since she's been there. They don't know anything from the family who brought her in originally.

The adoption agency said she's very easily overstimulated when petted; we've been noticing this and have been stopping petting her as soon we we notice signs of overstimulation. We've misjudged this a few times, only in her first few days of being here while she was still in the settling room - we'd get a hiss and a light scratch/bite.

However, there are often times when we are relaxing on the sofa, and she will pounce at someone's hand. Or you'll be petting her, looking for body language changes, and she will grab your hand and lightly bite with no change in body language. Just before I was writing this post, she latched her teeth onto me (no mark at all, I didn't get punctured so it can't have been out of aggression) and let go once a few "No"'s were said. Usually cuts and bites are only skin deep, but occasionally some blood is drawn.

We are pretty sure this is because she's trying to initiate play, and she hasn't learnt any boundaries as a kitten. Of course, she's not a kitten anymore, has no siblings and no mother cat, so she can't organically learn these boundaries.

We're trying to slowly withdraw our hand when she does it and say a firm, not too loud "No" while maintaining eye contact. I know it's better to positively reinforce, but I don't know how it's possible to do that here.

What do you suggest? I really want to give her a good life here, and we're trying our best, but I want to make sure we're doing it right.

Thanks for reading.