sucking and pawing

the title sounds dirty.

but my kitty likes to paw at and kneed his paws and claws into my shirt and suck on it. he also usually only does this while sleeping or when hes sleepy.
i think it may because he thinks im his momma and hes trying to find the milk nipple...but im not sure?? i got him when he was a little over 8 weeks old so i dont know if that has anything to do with it either.

have you guys had your kitties do this? do you know why they do this?

It's usually a sign that they (psycologicaly) were seperated from their moms too early.
Most of the cats I've had that did this were bottle babies.
I've had a few though that never left their mom and still did it into adulthood.

I think they mostly do it as a comfort action, like a toddler with a 'blankie' or thumb sucking.

do a search for a thread called "do your kittens suck" there are tons of us who have that with our babies and they don't outgrow it...we got our kitten when she was 5 weeks old (way too young) her mother had died, anyway she sucks on my daughters favorite blanket all the time, i think it's adorable, and my kittens sister sucks on her tail!

Manny was born in Jan. 05 and he still does it. its a little frustrating. lol

We have a cat who does the same thing. She was about seven months old (by the vet's best guess) when she found us. She had obviously been someone's cat at one time, and I think she had been mistreated and then abandoned, but she was too old to have been as friendly as she was if she had been a feral cat, and she spend a week sitting on our back porch just begging to come in. Like I said, she does the same thing with the suckling and the kneading and usually when she is calm and my boyfriend or I are laying down or sitting still. It is a comfort thing and it stems from being separated from the mother too young, because I know this cat was never bottle fed.

I have come up with a few different solutions that have had some success. One was to get a very soft but not too fuzzy stuffed animal and slowly ease it into the area where she was sucking, but still keeping her on my lap and petting her. Also it is important to keep the claws trimmed so that she doesn't tear me up, and a lot of times I just try to keep the area covered with a blanked, or even a tee-shirt. I have noticed that if I pet her while she is doing this she calms down sooner and will eventually settle down to sleep. While I know how annoying this can be sometimes, on the other hand it is nice to know that she loves you that much.

My little Haley does this too. He is 8 months old. He usually does it at night when I take him to bed for the night. He purrs and paws and sucks the blanket or pillow beside me each night, then he falls asleep. Soooooooooo Cute!
I hope he never grows out of this habit cause I find it very soothing and it makes me sleepy too. Before you know it we are both fast asleep.