What type of behavior is this??

Jake has been doing this since he was about 4 months old. He takes something such as a towel, blanket, shirt or other fabric in his mouth, purrs loudly and does a weird thing with his claws - not sharpening them but doing something very similar, kind of like walking in place and digging his claws into the bed..I can't explain it well enough..
At first he used to do this while humping, but he doesn't really hump any longer..
He also likes to move around, if he finds a blanket on the bed he likes to move it to the floor all the while he does this odd behavior. After he's finished and walks away- I find the place that was in his mouth to be kind of twisted so he must chew it or do something with it in his mouth. I don't know if he's suckling like when he was a baby?? I don't think it is though because he's on his feet the whole time he does this and walking sort of in place while digging his claws in ...
Can anyone explain this?? It's soo odd and he purrs sooo loud when he does this!

ETA: I forgot to mention that he has been with me since 5 weeks old so he was separated early from his mother cat. I know cats develop some OCD type behaviors when separated, and I'm thinking this could be something like that. He also chews on furniture which is another behavior that I believe may have resulted from this. However, I'm still curious to find out if anyone else has experienced anything like this with your cats!

This is new to you?

This is called "kneading," and it's a common habit for nursing cats. It is a self-comforting behavior, like purring, and it also serves to encourage momcat to feed them. So this is a kittenish behavior, which most cats retain to some degree well into adulthood. It indicates contentment.

Oh wow I saw someone mention kneading and I was wondering what it is!!! I had no idea I thought Jake is just odd LOL
Thanks!

I looked it up on youtube and sure enough all the videos of cats kneading look identical to what Jake does!! However, none of them liked to suck on anything...Jake definitely always kneads with some sort of soft material in his mouth and then I find that it's twisted with his drool all over lol
He used to do this to me every night, in the middle of the night when I'm sleeping when he was younger and woke me up lol
Wow this is so cool!! He must really love me because when he was staying with my boyfriend, I asked if he ever did his odd behavior and he said no and laughed saying I make him crazy...well after what I read apparently it must be because he loves me lol not because I make him crazy. He never does this anywhere except for on my bed too...

My Frodo does this same thing. I bottle fed him and his brother so they were absolutely separated from momma cat too early as orphans. Only one of them does this and only with a certain blanket. He will "crab walk" with this blanket in his mouth all over the house....upstairs and down. I don't see how he drags it around. He does the kneading and loud purring all the while he has his blanket.

This isn't identical, but it's kinda close. I fostered a purebred smushy-face persian (such a cutie!) and every night just as I would be falling asleep, he would totally freak me out by going to the end of the bed right next to/on my leg and do the kneading thing. He wasn't exactly humping too, but it was kinda like the same mindset when he did it. He would get in this "zone" and knead, growl a bit, purr up a storm, I totally thought he would be humping my leg but he wasn't. It was the weirdest thing. And if I went to stop him (which I did every time, it was too weird for me ) he would be COMPLETELY shocked if I would touch him to snap him out of it. Like if you suddenly wake up from a nightmare or something, that would be his reaction. He wouldn't suck on anything though, thank god! The only experience I have with any cat sucking on anything is when Pirate was a baby, he loved to suck my earlobes (it was NASTY!) or any skin (like arms, legs, neck, anything) but he did grow out of that. I almost miss it

Tonks likes to kneed and suck on blankets all the time I think its cute, her sibling all grew out of it, but not her, oh well...

Originally Posted by Skimble

My Frodo does this same thing. I bottle fed him and his brother so they were absolutely separated from momma cat too early as orphans. Only one of them does this and only with a certain blanket. He will "crab walk" with this blanket in his mouth all over the house....upstairs and down. I don't see how he drags it around.

He does the kneading and loud purring all the while he has his blanket.

Click to expand...

That sounds exactly what Jake does! His favorite thing is any towel especially if it's wet haha. He will take it and drag it, and sometimes if he sees a towel he comes especially to bite and knead it lol..If he has no towel available tho anything on bed will do from blanket to a peace of clothing I've left there due to me being messy..