Don't know what to do anymore!

I have three cats, Bear (he's 3 yrs), Jaspur & Jax both (are 6 1/2 mons).
The twins have this frequent habit of suckling on Bear. They act like he is their mother. They're all very close because they were all abandoned by their mother (she's a feral stray). Bear seems annoyed by this habit of theirs but doesn't do anything to stop them. I try to everytime i see them do it. I've use vocal commands and even a squirt bottle but they dont care. They go right back to his stomach. I was gunna give up but i'm afraid of the conciquences. Any advice??
-NeishaB

Its a comfort thing, I would let them do it. Bear will stop them when he's had enough.

I agree - let Bear set the rules about his personal space. He'll give them a quick swat or just get up and walk away when he wants to get them to quit!

ChanKahli did the same thing to my Pete. Here is Pete, 21 pounds of orange marmalade cat, and here is little ChanKahli, all of two pounds soaking wet, and she is slurping away.

Pete just sat there and let her do it. I think he secretly liked it because it made him feel needed. After she finished on him, he would come over for his hugs and kisses to me.

They just mutually decided not too long ago, that enough was enough and she hasn't done it anymore.

my current litter nursed till about 3 1/2 mo then mom went into heat and decided NO MORE(vet only spays cats with no milk and was no chance of her getting pregnant again-3 doors to the outside world) then she came home from vet and within week let them"nurse" as do 7 or my other cats(boys and girls)I let them decide when enough is enough...they are going to finda way to do it anyway and at least it keeps them occupied/comforted lol. RJ

Bear will likely get upset at some point. Things you can do to discourage the behavior:

1) If they suckle the same place on Bear, get bitter apple and use a cotton ball to dab a little bit on.

And because they seem to need to suckle, the best thing to do is redirect it, because there's not much you can do to stop it (as you've discovered).

The best alternative is a snuggleme kitty: http://www.snuggleme.com/

However, if affording one (or two) is difficult, you can use this as an alternative:

Originally Posted by hissy

...Or you can take some clean cloth, bunch it up into a small bag-type object, tie it at the top with string. Clip the ends of the string close so he won't chew the ends. Then dip the bag into a mixture of warm water and honey, and give that to him to suckle...

Click to expand...

Again - the point is to transfer the suckling from Bear to something else.

Of course, the alternative is to let Bear decide when enough's enough, though I think everyone will be happier in the long run if you help them transfer their need to suckle onto something else.