My kittie sucks

I got my kitty Kingsley on Friday...he has been up to date on all his shots and everything and he has apparently been on some special food for the last month but is doing well now. Friday and Saturday night though I was awaken by the kitty sucking on my ear...not nibbling or biting but sucking like a bottle. He also does not drink his water. I try to sprinkly a little bit on his lips but nothing seems to work.

Is this behavior normal for a young kitten. He is almost 3 months old

Originally Posted by AppState

I got my kitty Kingsley on Friday...he has been up to date on all his shots and everything and he has apparently been on some special food for the last month but is doing well now. Friday and Saturday night though I was awaken by the kitty sucking on my ear...not nibbling or biting but sucking like a bottle. He also does not drink his water. I try to sprinkly a little bit on his lips but nothing seems to work.

Is this behavior normal for a young kitten. He is almost 3 months old

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Welcome to TCS....Kingsley sounds like a kitten that was taken away from his mom too soon and as such...is looking to suckle for reassurance. Although the suckling behavior can be cute..I would try to get him to suckle something more appropriate..such as a stuffed animal. You may want to get him a snugglekitty:

http://www.squirrelstore.com/site/744999/product/snu06

Also...if he was taken away too early...he may do best if you try to give him some goats milk or KMR instead of water.

Katie

Thanks so much...Im gonna get his papers tomorrow and talk to the vet he has been going to. I try to push him off because he is constantly trying to do it at night. I'll try the milk thing too.

I have to male cats, Mac & Mickey. When they were about 2 months I found a home for their mother and 3 other bros. Mac would suck on Mickey's belly all the time even Mickey sucked on his own belly. It was the funniest thing. I tried separating them but it didn't work. It was something they needed to do. Now they are 3 years old and only groom each other.

Easy will do this to my ear, too. I found her as a stray, so I know nothing about her life before me. But I just let her do it, since I know it is comforting to her.

I don't think its necessarily because he was taken away too early from mom - my Chay came to me at 5 months and was with his mom that whole time previously, and still "suckled" on Billy for a few months. If you got him at 3 months and he was only then removed from mom, I would say it is probably a comfort mechanism that he will outgrow eventually. If it really bothers you (because sucking on your ear could be uncomfortable to say the least) maybe you could try some Bitter Apple spray (very carefully!) applied to your ear and some how provide him a more appropriate thing to suck on like a stuffed toy or something.

Years ago I had a kitten that would suck on my earlobes in bed every night. I asked the vet if it was because he was taken from his mom too early, but she said no, that it's just a habit that a few kitties develop. My kitty continued to do this occassionally even as an adult, although we tried to discourage it because it drove certain members of my household crazy!

I had a friend who's formally feral kitten did this to her. She tried everything and I mean everything to try to get the kitten to stop. She went as far as making a stuffed animal into a momma kitty with nipples and all...lol.

The cat till this day still wakes my friend up in the middle of the night sucking her ear.