Advice for a 9-week-old kitten

Okay, so we went and got our new addition last weekend.. he was eight weeks old. He's a Tonkinese. He still seems to be wanting to nurse, though, and now I'm a bit worried that he wasn't completely weaned from mommy when the breeder had us come get him. now I'm having my doubts about whether I should have gotten a kitten from her or not, but I have to say he's quite a dear. And, the breeder honestly didn't do anything in specific that I can say was exactly wrong, but.. having worked with other breeders (three other ones, to be exact) and having contacted many others about different kittens at different points in my search.. she doesn't seem as... diligent and .. well, for lack of a better term after a sleepless night.. (no one shoot me here, I swear it's not an insult.. it's actually what I prefer)... um.. we'll go with "uptight" or "by the book" as most of the others (much admired from my point of view) that I've worked with.

Anyway.. he's definitely a social little thing, but one of the things he does is trying to nurse from Joyeux (who is his new best buddy) and/or from us when we hold him. He climbs up by our neck, lays across our chest right by our neck (pulse point??) and then tries to nurse.

I talked to our vet assistant today and he suggested getting a bottle and some KMR just to appease his need to nurse still, and maybe just bottle feeding him every so often for the next week or two..

He's eating fine (he *loves* raw, and scarfs it down), and he's no stranger to the wheat grass (he munchs that too) as well as the dry around the house...

He's still such a baby in so many ways.. I really wish she'd kept him with his mom another two weeks or so. He is learning from our other four-footers, so I'm not so worried about the socialization or about learning his survival skills... he's washing himself, jumping and so forth, but..

Does anyone have any suggestions about the nursing? I know there has to be something to give him that emotional support, especially given that there are so many litters of kittens that for some reason or another can't feed from an original mom and are often hand/bottle fed. Is there something I can do to aid his emotional development?

Thanks!

IMO this breeder was not a good one. Almost any purebred breeder worth their salt will NOT let kittens go to new homes under 10-12 weeks - most are 12-16 weeks old!

To let a kitten go soon, you risk behavior problems. 8 week old kittens do still nurse if mom lets them. Sounds to me like the breeder may have decided to "wean" them earlier.

Your kitten might grow out of the habit, but its probably gonna continue this behavior the rest of its life. Did you get to see the kittens/meet the breeder before you got him? What kind of guarentee (health) came with the kitten? Do you have papers? A contract you signed?

I hope your kitten doesn't have any more social/behavior problems by leaving so soon. It might have been better to adopt littermates at this young age.

And did the breeder insist you have him neutered (or is he done)?

Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

IMO this breeder was not a good one. Almost any purebred breeder worth their salt will NOT let kittens go to new homes under 10-12 weeks - most are 12-16 weeks old!

To let a kitten go soon, you risk behavior problems. 8 week old kittens do still nurse if mom lets them. Sounds to me like the breeder may have decided to "wean" them earlier.

Your kitten might grow out of the habit, but its probably gonna continue this behavior the rest of its life. Did you get to see the kittens/meet the breeder before you got him? What kind of guarentee (health) came with the kitten? Do you have papers? A contract you signed?

I hope your kitten doesn't have any more social/behavior problems by leaving so soon. It might have been better to adopt littermates at this young age.

And did the breeder insist you have him neutered (or is he done)?

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I get my papers for him when I have him neutered... she was concerned about me having him neutered too young... of course, I just had a brain fart and was thinking like I was getting a Bengal, none of which we got any earlier than at the earliest, 10 weeks, and two of them were older than that. Even at 10 weeks, Joyeux was large.. and I was thinking of a larger kitty than this wee baby. In comparison, Bengals are just big brutes, lol.

Anyway, the contract is a page long, versus the many pages I've signed for the Bengals and the Mau... he does come with a health guarantee, requires altering.. etc. I didn't get to see the cattery or kittens beforehand as it was a 3.5 hour drive one way to get him. It really just wasn't feasible on our part to go up there.

I stopped by my Bengal breeders on the way home and had her take a look at him (she's also a vet tech). She said he looks healthy, like he'd been taken care of. Looked at his eyes, ears, body.. etc..

I don't know, I think she should have kept him a little longer. I mean, I've had plenty of domestic kittens that were eight weeks when we got them. They had no problems. I assumed she knew what she was doing and that maturity often depended upon breed as well as other factors.

I mean, there has to be something I can do to support his emotional needs. He is learning the word no and responding exceptionally well to it. But, he's obviously not the only kitten that's ever been taken away from mom too early.. since they are so many kittens that lose their mom or their ability to nurse from mom and have to be hand raised. Surely they aren't all exhibiting the same traits? I don't know but I figure that there has to be some way to finish his weaning. He's not having any trouble eating his food.. and I didn't have to coax him at all, so..I imagine that he was on it well before he came here. He already knew how to eat and drink out of bowls, and jumped right into the water fountain.. he went looking for the raw..

He uses the litter boxes with no problems. He's got no problems running, jumping, playing, or doing anything else that I can tell. He only tried to nurse from Joyeux once. He hasn't tried it with any of the other kitties.. and he usually licks, as opposed to "sucking" on me, but he did attempt to nurse my shirt or neck or something.. but I told him no when he started nuzzling and he quit. I got licked instead.

Now that we've gotten him... I mean, I guess I should have driven all the way up there to see the kittens and meet her before I put a deposit down, but people do it sort of frequently when they buy/ship animals unseen. I really didn't think it would be an issue. It was just such a long drive to go up there just for a day.. and I wasn't up to taking one of my only days off in a week and dedicating it to driving that distance. I already spend three hours a day in rush hour traffic. It's my own fault, I suppose, but..nonetheless.. the breeder closer to me wouldn't even entertain letting me have a kitten because we've got two bengals. This breeder was the only option I had short of shipping it or adding on another two hours drive and I didn't want to ship a baby in an airplane. So..you know, there we have it.

I just want to know if there's anything I can do to help him get through it. I suspect that my cats are probably much more capable of doing that than I am, but I would like to try to help. He really does understand no. Actually, he is mostly better behaved than the ones that were already living here.

One vet tech recommended picking up some KMR and a bottle and the other one said, no, don't do it... at that age he could aspirate. She said just hold on to him and cuddle him and he'll be fine.

Well it does sound better; tho I'd still be mad at the breeder for letting them go under 10 weeks old (would not get another cat/kitten from her!).

Anyway, I'd just cuddle him. Many kittens under 10 weeks will show the sucking behavior - nothing you really can do about it. Especially the oriental type of breeds (for some reason) - siamese, oriental, tonks, etc.

Hopefully he will grow out of it as he gets older.

He's made a few more attempts to nurse off of Joyeux.. he was pretty determined last night.. but he was getting ready for sleepy time.. we just kept removing him .. mostly because she was being gentle with him, mostly, but getting more insistent as he kept being determined, but she was "mouthing" his face and ears, and we were worried that if she kept getting him there, she might do damage if she applied more pressure, so we just removed him. She's been really wonderful with him, as have the other kitties, but honestly, I'm working with two Bengals here.. and they're brutes. He doesn't seem to be "affected" by it and surely is not intimidated by Joyeux, but the Bengals are so "rough" with one another in their play that I just watch to make sure he's not getting injured. Heh, he's doubled in size in the week he's been here. I could have fit him in a coffee cup when we got him and now he's the size of a coffee can...

I guess we'll see how it goes! I am pretty aggravated with the breeder, again though, that is at least partially my fault. I did look at her page and her recommendations (of course, they never post any bad ones, though).

I'm looking on her site again, and it says limited ACA registration... which orginization is ACA? I tried doing a search on it, but haven't had any luck.

I picked up a stray many years ago that was 5-8 weeks old He suckled his entire life... I did the bottle thing but it didnt help... the thing that did was a old rag of his own

I dont know but the registration sounds like one of those "paper mills"

ACA: The American Cat Association, a cat registering association based in the US.

This is what it is. They are many that is registered with this group along with others like CFA and TICA.
I have a siamese kitten who is registered with ACA and TICA.

She's registered.. or well, that is to say that Pogue will have limited ACA registration... once he is altered... does that mean that *she* is registered with ACA or just that he can be because he's a pure blood?

I guess it ultimately doesn't matter as long as he's healthy, and he appears to be.. and we adore him. I would just like him to be as emotionally stable as he can be. He's super intelligent, especially for one so little.