My male kitten , Soca (3 months), does this really weird thing. He will go into his sleeping pad, purr profusely, and suck on the material in the bed (as if on a nipple). His paws are spread out and doing this 'grabbing' motion. Im sorry i cant be more discriptive. Its so weird that I cant even properly describe it. Does anyone have a clue as to what im talking about?
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Suckling
- Thread starter alisa
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This is generally seen with kittens separated way to early from their moms. It is a comfort sort of tendency they display and usually is followed by a nap.
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Oh thanks for the info. The woman that gave them away told me that they were 8 weeks old when i got them (born dec 24).I thought that was a good time to be parted from their mother esp. since they were feral. Funny thing is, only the male kitten does that - his sister is better adjusted and friendlier too!.
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12 weeks is best, feral or domestic-
My almost 2 year old (Sturgis) still sucks on earlobes and my 4year old (Spirit) still sucks on comforters.
exactly, that's what i heard too. Marsh has never done it, he was separated at 4 months
yea i didnt take my aj away from his mama till he was basicly 3 months. and it is a comfort thing i know cats who do it and were never parted with there mother. same cat at age 1 1/2 tried to nurse when his mama had another litter.
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It's normal and mostly found in kittens who were taken from their moms too soon or otherwise socially deprived as kittens, though it can also happen in kittens who had normal kittenhoods but have more insecure personalities.
My cat Onyx is 3 and still nurses on her teddy bear every night. She's happy and perfectly well-adjusted in every other way, but she has never outgrown this habit.
My cat Onyx is 3 and still nurses on her teddy bear every night. She's happy and perfectly well-adjusted in every other way, but she has never outgrown this habit.
My kitten will nurse on blankets and on me, but nothing or no one else. I think it's pretty cute and the vet said it's harmless. Isabelle was put in a small box and left at the vets office door at about 6 weeks old, which explains a lot. She suckles and kneads and makes these funny slurping noises, almost like she's snorting, usually for about ten minutes right before she goes to sleep.
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That is so cute!
When Onyx was little, I used to take her to work with me. She hadn't discovered her bear yet and wasn't very discriminating about what she sucked on. I am not kidding you - everyone in the office was going around with wet spots on their shirts, all courtesy of Onyx. She would often fall asleep with someone's shirt in her mouth!
Ellie is now 11 months old, and tries to suck on my hand or arm when I am lying in bed. She is our Alpha cat and left her mom when she was 11 weeks old. I just think she has an oral fixation and she will never get over it!
Siamese cats especially tend to suck on wool material. My boyfriend's Siamese mix apparently wasn't very discriminating and liked to suck on the Vellux blankets.
Bijou (whom we got at 8 weeks) has always suckled my neck. His sister Mika does not suckle. In all other areas he's my little macho meezer but he has to suckle my neck while purring and kneading my neck and face before he goes to bed every night.
Picasso was bottle fed as a kitten and now he has a wobby!He's a year and a half now and I see no sign of him stopping.The only time he sucks on it is right befor we go to bed and only if the blankets on me not my b/f, he sucks he slobbers,he falls asleep,Hissy's right all the cats I know that do it were taken from mom to early.
Willow does this. She was separated from her mom at 6 weeks, so it could be from that, but she's also one of those cats who seems to have an "insecure personality". But Buffy, who was orphaned at 4 weeks, doesn't do it. Maybe because she had Willow, who acted like a mom to Buffy until Buffy was around 8-9 months old.
