Silly behavior, never saw this before

Today at the shelter this couple wanted to look at a 1.5 yo Manx kitty. He was very scared b/c he had only been at the shelter for a couple of days. I took him out of the cage, much to his dismay. I put the couple in a room with the cat to get to know him. Like I said, he was very scared, but warmed up to them pretty quick. All of the sudden, the kitty rolled himself into a ball and started "nursing" from himself. Probably just picked an area on his chest that he could reach, and started suckling. He was doing the "happy paws" knead and everything. We figured it was like a baby sucking its thumb. I never saw this before! I've had kittens who will try to suckle from anything and everything, but never from themselves...and never an adult. Has anyone else seen this?

BTW, they adopted him! That's the important part anyway...

I've never seen it, but I've read somewhere of someone else's cat doing that. I'm glad the adopters weren't put off. I suppose it was mostly the stress, don't you think?

Oh, yeah, he was totally stressed. But you could tell deep down he was a wonderful cat. He warmed up pretty quickly, but was still scared out of his mind. He'd only been at the shelter for a few days, that will stress most of the adult cats out. Although he was surrendered to the shelter for "being bullied by the other cat." So maybe he is just a sissy! His new family loves him already though, I'm not worried. Was just curious if anyone else had seen that behavior before. Cats are their own little creatures, aren't they?

How sweet! Yet it sounds like this little guy will need some specially love! I had a kitty who I adopted from a shelter, she suckled her tail......she was the runt of the litter, and my baby! I found her at the shelter the first week her mom and litter were their. She was 4 weeks old and they told me I had to wait 3 more weeks....so I visited her every 3 days! My third visit there was an adoptable sign on her cage and I was so great full I was visiting her! She ended up hating every person or animal in her path the rest of her life, but was my best friend and irreplaceable!

My MIL's kitten does this on occasion. When he gets sleepy, he'll hop onto my MIL's lap and start suckling on his own belly.

He was rescued at 4 weeks from a dumpster and the guess from the good shelter folks was that because he didn't have a mom, he got comfort from suckling on himself/littermates. From what I've read, a lot of kittens that get taken away from their moms too early are more likely to engage in suckling/kneading behaviors.

He's never caused his belly any damage and doesn't do it as much now as when he was first adopted.

I guess it is a lot like a kid sucking his/her thumb!

I'm glad the kitty got adopted!

Cats do the darnedest things don't they? Having a cat or cats is like constant entertainment. I can't imangine my life without them!

Originally Posted by mstishtwo

Cats do the darnedest things don't they? Having a cat or cats is like constant entertainment. I can't imangine my life without them!

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Ditto to that!