Kitten behavior

fastnoc

fastnoc

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I'm not sure why this is happening but hopefully someone can shed some light here.

I've got two kittens (about a month old). They constantly cry to be held. Then when I pick them up the constantly cry to get down??? what the heck is that all about? Then if I set them down they'll cry to get back up!

Also, when in my hands they constantly root around and chew (very hard) on my fingers. Is this a result of them being accustom to being bottle fed and they're looking for food?

Finally, i can hold the little girl and she's fine. Then if I pick the little boy up he'll start rooting around on his little sister, trying to get at whatever her head is pointed to. even if she's not doing anything. If I let it continue he ends up biting her face. It's not a playful action either. he's surprisingly strong too. he's really learning leverage well. but he's so rough.

What is some advice to work on all this?
 
mrblanche

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Originally Posted by fastnoc

I'm not sure why this is happening but hopefully someone can shed some light here.

I've got two kittens (about a month old). They constantly cry to be held. Then when I pick them up the constantly cry to get down??? what the heck is that all about? Then if I set them down they'll cry to get back up!

Also, when in my hands they constantly root around and chew (very hard) on my fingers. Is this a result of them being accustom to being bottle fed and they're looking for food?

Finally, i can hold the little girl and she's fine. Then if I pick the little boy up he'll start rooting around on his little sister, trying to get at whatever her head is pointed to. even if she's not doing anything. If I let it continue he ends up biting her face. It's not a playful action either. he's surprisingly strong too. he's really learning leverage well. but he's so rough.

What is some advice to work on all this?
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If you really mean these kittens are only 4 weeks old, they are much too young to be away from their mother. I assume that something happened to her. Yes, I believe they are viewing your hands as "mother" and as their source of food.
 
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fastnoc

fastnoc

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Originally Posted by LDG

Are they hungry?

Laurie
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Well, they do it non-stop. Any time I pick either one up they go right for the fingers. Hungry, full, happy, tired etc. Doesn't matter. It's frustrating because I can't just hold them. They'll grow out of it i'm sure.



Originally Posted by mrblanche

If you really mean these kittens are only 4 weeks old, they are much too young to be away from their mother. I assume that something happened to her. Yes, I believe they are viewing your hands as "mother" and as their source of food.
Click to expand...
I've posted numerous posts and a couple threads explaining why I have these kittens. I just don't want to bore everyone by repeating it over and over. They're orphaned kittens.

And they just keep getting cuter


 
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ashley45

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I have no suggestions about your problem, but the pics are precious!!!!
 
addiebee

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As Laurie said, as small as they are, they may be hungry more often than older kittens. I don't know what your vet said about frequency of feeding. Certainly you don't want them to get sick from eating too much.

You had said at one point that they liked to kneed and suckle on a particular blanket. They associate you with food and comfort. One possibility could be that you take one of your garments- something saturated with your smell and either ball it up and put it in their bed or put it on a stuffed animal that they can kneed, chew and suckle. Like a dummy momma. That might help.

Sigh... they are such tiny babies still.

AB
 
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My first cat was 4 weeks old when I got her from a friend, whose mother had abandoned her (presumably dead).

For the first couple of weeks, she would follow us around and cry to be held. However, she never cried to be put down. Her tiny kitten teeth would occasionally bite my chest, and she did like to suckle on inanimate objects. I assume that she was still operating on an instinctive mammal algorithm (find nipple - suck).

She grew out of it, and she is fine now.

I am not sure if this helps.

Edit: Your kittens are insanely adorable. We fed her KMR (I think that is the brand) formula, available at most pet stores and grocery stores. We used an eye-dropper like thing originally, but quickly transitioned to a saucer set up. This worked out well for us, as she quickly learned to mew at the saucer when she was hungry. Shortly after this arrangement, her crying decreased.
 
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