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!
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!
