Weird situation - male cat "nursing" seven week old kitten...

Hi, new to the site

We just got a couple kittens this weekend from someone who was giving them away - one is a seven week old kitten was is on dry food but was still occasionally nursing from the mother. We also took in her cousin, a male 5-month old maine coon mix. (He is HUGE for five months.. lol!)

Since they were raised together, they are perfectly friendly with each other, best of friends, and he's even mothering the kitten. For the first couple days he hid a lot, so the kitten was alone more, but now that he's out in the open, she's with him more, and now pestering him a lot to nurse from him. He's been nice about it, been generally ignoring her as she does this but now that she's found a male nipple, she got her favourite spot on him and he's obviously getting annoyed. He's not attacking her harshly, just doing usual motherly stuff of grabbing her by the neck then licking her, sometimes trying to push her off, but he gives up after a minute or so and just lives with it.

Has anyone encountered this before? Having raised many kittens in my youth I remember that the mother will wean them off by starting to discourage this behaviour by swatting the kitten away, running away from them, hiding from them for a bit. But will a male cat (well, huge kitten) do this?? Will he at some point swat her off, or discourage this? If he does, will he get too rough? I haven't seen any behaviour yet to worry about him hurting the kitten, but this is all so odd I figure I should ask LOL.

He's splayed across a chair right now sleeping, with her "nursing"... so weird! Cute, but weird!

Hi! Welcome to the Forums TCS!


Good you could take in these two kittens seeking a home.

Nay, this behaviour isnt very unusual, and isnt harmful in any way as long as the kitten doesnt overdo it.


Let them enjoy, do enjoy yourself, and rely he will stop it if he is really annoyed.

Of course, if you think she sucks much and often you must supervise some: so the nipple doesnt get sore or such...

Next point to watch out is not forget to spay them when the time has come. For this boy it should be rather soon now, especially if he is allowed to roam outside.


Good luck!

Thanks for the quick response

He's an indoor-only cat, but yes we'll have to do that soon..!

I had a male siamese who was neutered and did this to two new kittens in the house. It was obviously comforting to all who participated but at first it was just plain weird looking. My siamese just seemed so content providing himself to them. He continued until the youngest cat was about 8 months old or so.

I don't think it's anything to worry about. It was just one of those things one doesn't think will happen but it does

My 11 month old scottish fold male lets our 4 month old BLH kitten 'nurse' from him and bathes her soaking wet while she is 'nursing'. I haven't stopped them because the kitten doesn't seem to have found a nipple so no worries of them getting sore and they both seem to be fine with it.

Hmm.. bad news I think.. I checked out the older kitten today and two of his nipples are scabbed over, look more like two large bites than nipples
He's starting to swat off the little one, but she is very very persistent. I think the male is a bit TOO nice to her. We're trying to keep them separate when sleeping, giving him access to rooms she can't necessarily reach yet, or at least haven't..maybe that will help him.

7 weeks is very young, she'd still be nursing if left with her mum for the recommended time (12 weeks) which is probably why she's so persistant.

Your vet may have suggestions on what you can put on the males nipples to help deter her and I would get him checked out to make sure he doesn't get an infection from the bite marks.