Why does my 7-mo kitten still suckle?

We found him when he was 4 weeks old and he didn't want to suckle a bottle then. Now he is 7-months-old and he has this thing where he bites on your face and sucks, especially my hubby, who spent his first week on the couch with him (he bonded with him closest). He is used to sleeping on his chest, so now at bedtime, he comes up on his chest, purrs (the only time he ever does) and sucks on his face, his ear. With the rest of us, if he is sleeping and you go to pet him, he will bite on your hand and suck, or sometimes your face if it is within reach. Is this going to be a lifetime habit or will he grow out of it?

He very well may never grow out of it.
My mom has a cat that we got when I was really young and she still has the cat and she is at least 15 years old(probably a little older) and she still loves to suck on fuzzy blankets.
I think it is cute when cats do this...don't know if I would though and it being my face they liked to suckle on.LOL.
Maybe you could get some fuzzy blankets and see if you can get him to suckle on those instead of you guys.
Good luck.

it will be because he was taken away from his mum too soon. Hopefully he will grow out if it.

I have a one and a half year old, named Sturgis, that we found as a 5 week old kitten, 2 days from dead. Me and my husband raised him and now Sturgis thinks we are his parents (we can't bear to tell him he is adopted) he still suckles on earlobes. We have gotten used to it as one of his quirks, he does it less now than when he used to as a kitten. Sturgis also hugs (he wraps his front feet around our necks) suckles for a couple of seconds, then takes off in search of something to chase, I think it is his way of "checking in" with us.

It's okay if he never does, it is kind of cute, but like you said, it can tend to hurt a little bit on the face. I usually redirect him to my hand. Thanks for the advice though! I think he loves us to death because we saved him too. He was found somewhere by some kids (we live in the city), who were throwing him around and then left him in the middle of the street to see if he would get hit by a car (he could barely walk). My hubby got out there and picked him up and he looked up at him and cried and that was it. My hubby is NOT a cat lover either, which is why it's so special they bonded. Like I said, he is the only one he purrs for!

Abigail, my newest addition to the bunch, is now 7 mo. old. She is a calico tabby, and she has the attitude to boot. She has this stubby little tail (about 4" long) and is so much smaller than my other cats. I have a blanket that I've had since I was born that I still sleep with every night. Abby will curl up next to me and bury her head beneath my wubby (my name for my blanket) start purring loudly and hold a chunk of it in her mouth. By the time she's finished, my whole blanket is covered in slobber! I asked the vet about it, and she said as long as Abby wasn't eating it, there's no need to worry. Although, she did think it was a little strange.

Whenever Abigail is being a little troublemaker, I'll scoop her up and sit her on the bed and toss the blanket on her. She will start up with the purring and everything!! All of our friends think it's cute. I don't mind it but sometimes I wonder what's going on in that little head of Abigail's. Hmmm

my cat sucks on my shirt and my face in the morning and wakes me up. but im not sure if its a lifetime thing because my cat is about 4 months old.

the kitty that i have now is about 8 months old, And from the look of her when i first got her she had a very hard life for the first 3.

She is not a big fan of being in laps. But when i go to bed she will 90% of the time come climb on top of me. and and lick my ear and suck on it a little then she will just lay her head on my shoulder for a few min before she gets down and goes to sleep next to me.

OMG! I looked after a friend's 2 kittens for a week while her place was being fumigated. She didn't warn me about her kittens sucking on her earlobes! I woke up in the night with a kitten hanging from each of my ears like a pair of earrings LMAO

When I got my youngest cat Abby, she was 4 months old and once or twice to made a beeline for my chest in the middle of the night but I distracted her with cuddles and a tummy rub and after a couple times she stopped.

My oldest never did that to my knowledge. Though sometimes when she's sleeping she will make sucking sounds and her front paws are "kneading" at the same time. Cute!

haha all the cute stories!! ADORABLE!!!!! hah yeah my cat sucks on me all the time. mostly at night. and if hes not sucking on me hes sucking on a blanket while kneading. LOL soooooooo freaking cute!!!!!! allthough this can get annoying i still love him! LOL

my kitten muffin is 7 months now and nuzzles and sucks on my shoulder at least twice a day but he wont do it if I have just a strap top on  its as if he knows kneading his paws will hurt me  ...... I love him doing it ,its is very relaxing ... the best time is first thing in the morning when he wakes me when im on my side , when he is  snuggled into my back with his paws over my shoulder purring , sucking  and kneading .its like a mini massage ..... I really don't understand why anyone would want to discourage this it shows your cat loves and trusts you ....... cookie our cat we got last year   used to suck  and gently bite my fingers its only occasionally he does it now but he knows not to hurt ..... now we have always  had cats  but always girls up until we got cookie ,none of the girl cats suckled ...sandy had to be put to sleep 2 years ago but we still have one of her daughters who is a very old lady of 21  ...I just wonder if boy cats tend to need more attention

My little girl Charli is 10 months old and still will suck on the shoulder of my pjs in the morning..we got her at 6 weeks, so I think that was a little young....

I don't mind, she finds it comforting.   She's my little lovey.

he may not grow out of it. My Sabastian (RIP) suckled stuffed animals, blankets, anything soft right up until he died at 15yrs old. I just got a new kitten back in august. He is also probably about 7 months now. He started out loving to suckle me or hubby's fingers, and now he loves to suckle my ears. especially in the middle of the night he will latch onto my ear and suckle and purr loudly. Its cute and i don't mind. This is the 1st time Ive ever had a cat suckle me. It has always been blankets or other things in the past. If he ends up doing this his whole life thats fine with me, it will just be another cute part of his personality!

This is usually a lifetime habit cats develop when they are weaned from their mothers too early.

My two Siamese are 7 months old and one still suckles constantly on things, the other only does it to certain textures.. You can try to redirect the suckling to something other than flesh - it seems cats who suckle tend to prefer blankets or cloth with a wool texture.

Aw! My RB cat would do it too and I miss it. She never grew out of it and it was endearing!!!

misterwhiskers said:

Aw! My RB cat would do it too and I miss it. She never grew out of it and it was endearing!!!

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yes it definetley is precious.

One of our cats was a stray whose mom was killed by a car before she and her siblings were weaned. She's 10 now, but every so often if she's feeling affectionate, she'll sit and suck the little flap of skin between your thumb and index figure for minutes at a time.