Let me explain this so you fully understand.
Nature gives babies the instinct and need to suck, the first weeks of life that instinct is extremely strong, natures way of survival for the species basically.
They are with momma cat, and nurse or are latched on to her almost 24/7, feeding is as desired, but even during napping, they are latched, which is nurturing and comfort/safety from momma.
Anytime this is not possible, if something happens to mom or she won't nurse, or they are orphaned or taken away, including bottle fed babies, that instinct does not simply go away.
The strong drive continues and only fades as they grow older, around the time kittens are able to eat on their own, despite having mom there, around 5 weeks old that need to suck is about half as strong as it was when newborn, and maybe 7 weeks old, it's half of what it was at 5 weeks, by 10 weeks and up it's virtually gone.
Whatever the circumstances are, that causes them to not get it out of their system, they will very often seek out an alternative to mom, and it's quite common to find genitals as a replacement that isn't far off, the body warmth and fur, and the shape is somewhat similar to mom.
Once it becomes a habit, it is VERY hard, near impossible to break while keeping them together, just as it would be to keep a young kitten with it's mom but not nurse from her, not going to happen.
This is very serious and dangerous to both.
She is ingesting urine, which is full of bacteria, and can very well get extremely sick, especially at this age when they are still so fragile.
He, which btw does not mind her doing this, will get and stay raw, swollen, and very sore/painful, it burns as he urinates, and I see from the picture, he is swollen to the point of it being exposed and not protected in skin/fur it was meant to be, and is at great risk of the swelling causing a blockage for urine to freely flow out of his body, which is big, big trouble.
The ONLY thing you can do to break this habit, is to separate them NOW, IMMEDIATELY if you have not done so already.
Nobody wants to do this, twice the areas to clean up, and sad to see them all alone and needing their sib so badly, yes, it's not nice, and sad, but imperative.
I remember many moons ago I whined when I was advised that it was the only solution when my first litter of bottle babies started doing this, so I tried other ways, forget it, it doesn't work, a made up diaper, a t-shirt attached at the bottom, nope, they find a way, believe it! Nothing short of duct taping the genital area will stop them, and of course that's out of the question! So just do it.
It's not forever, it takes about .....oh 10 days to 2 weeks or so. Mentally she needs to forget it, if it's too soon she will go directly back to doing it. Cold turkey is the only way.
So! Now that you have my sermon on this, I sincerely hope you will not delay, nothing should postpone this any further. Need a second litter box and can't get to the store? Find a cardboard box to cut down to just a 2 1/2" bottom, duct tape a plastic bag to the bottom/half way up the sides, put newspaper in there and NON CLUMPING LITTER only, inside.
Did you know that kittens this age will eat their cat litter? Clumping litter once wet gets solid and when ingested will NOT pass through the system, which can and will cause death.
They outgrow this by about 7 weeks and up. But for now, cheapy clay litter.
If he has diarrhea, it is one of 2 things, his system trying to process the new food (they have very immature digestive systems at this age) and should be given fancy feast KITTEN canned, which is an easily digested pate style.
They are too young to be removed from KMR yet, they may take it from a dish, but still need the extra nutrients that canned food won't give them.
Or a parasite. If the diarrhea continues despite time to adapt his system to canned, it's likely a parasite, coccidia is pretty commonly found in cats born to strays/ferals.
Easily treated and fast as long as ponazuril is given from the vet.
They must be dewormed twice, two weeks apart for it to be complete.
First dose should be at 6 weeks or so, then 8 weeks.
Fleas will cause anemia, so be sure there are none feeding off of them.
First of 3 vaccines begin around 8 weeks, and are 3-4 weeks apart.
Spay/neuter at 2 lbs/about 9 weeks.
Nature gives babies the instinct and need to suck, the first weeks of life that instinct is extremely strong, natures way of survival for the species basically.
They are with momma cat, and nurse or are latched on to her almost 24/7, feeding is as desired, but even during napping, they are latched, which is nurturing and comfort/safety from momma.
Anytime this is not possible, if something happens to mom or she won't nurse, or they are orphaned or taken away, including bottle fed babies, that instinct does not simply go away.
The strong drive continues and only fades as they grow older, around the time kittens are able to eat on their own, despite having mom there, around 5 weeks old that need to suck is about half as strong as it was when newborn, and maybe 7 weeks old, it's half of what it was at 5 weeks, by 10 weeks and up it's virtually gone.
Whatever the circumstances are, that causes them to not get it out of their system, they will very often seek out an alternative to mom, and it's quite common to find genitals as a replacement that isn't far off, the body warmth and fur, and the shape is somewhat similar to mom.
Once it becomes a habit, it is VERY hard, near impossible to break while keeping them together, just as it would be to keep a young kitten with it's mom but not nurse from her, not going to happen.
This is very serious and dangerous to both.
She is ingesting urine, which is full of bacteria, and can very well get extremely sick, especially at this age when they are still so fragile.
He, which btw does not mind her doing this, will get and stay raw, swollen, and very sore/painful, it burns as he urinates, and I see from the picture, he is swollen to the point of it being exposed and not protected in skin/fur it was meant to be, and is at great risk of the swelling causing a blockage for urine to freely flow out of his body, which is big, big trouble.
The ONLY thing you can do to break this habit, is to separate them NOW, IMMEDIATELY if you have not done so already.
Nobody wants to do this, twice the areas to clean up, and sad to see them all alone and needing their sib so badly, yes, it's not nice, and sad, but imperative.
I remember many moons ago I whined when I was advised that it was the only solution when my first litter of bottle babies started doing this, so I tried other ways, forget it, it doesn't work, a made up diaper, a t-shirt attached at the bottom, nope, they find a way, believe it! Nothing short of duct taping the genital area will stop them, and of course that's out of the question! So just do it.
It's not forever, it takes about .....oh 10 days to 2 weeks or so. Mentally she needs to forget it, if it's too soon she will go directly back to doing it. Cold turkey is the only way.
So! Now that you have my sermon on this, I sincerely hope you will not delay, nothing should postpone this any further. Need a second litter box and can't get to the store? Find a cardboard box to cut down to just a 2 1/2" bottom, duct tape a plastic bag to the bottom/half way up the sides, put newspaper in there and NON CLUMPING LITTER only, inside.
Did you know that kittens this age will eat their cat litter? Clumping litter once wet gets solid and when ingested will NOT pass through the system, which can and will cause death.
They outgrow this by about 7 weeks and up. But for now, cheapy clay litter.
If he has diarrhea, it is one of 2 things, his system trying to process the new food (they have very immature digestive systems at this age) and should be given fancy feast KITTEN canned, which is an easily digested pate style.
They are too young to be removed from KMR yet, they may take it from a dish, but still need the extra nutrients that canned food won't give them.
Or a parasite. If the diarrhea continues despite time to adapt his system to canned, it's likely a parasite, coccidia is pretty commonly found in cats born to strays/ferals.
Easily treated and fast as long as ponazuril is given from the vet.
They must be dewormed twice, two weeks apart for it to be complete.
First dose should be at 6 weeks or so, then 8 weeks.
Fleas will cause anemia, so be sure there are none feeding off of them.
First of 3 vaccines begin around 8 weeks, and are 3-4 weeks apart.
Spay/neuter at 2 lbs/about 9 weeks.
