How do I get my kitten to stop suckling me?

[wegotchickens]

Quote:
If she was chewing I'd have weaned her too early, too. OUCH!

 

[schmoo]

The owners gave her away too early is what I meant

 

[cheapcheap_jeepjeep]

Sorry to raid the topic but, I have a different one. How do you get a fisrt time momma to stay with the kitten ( she had 4 only one was alive others were still born). It is 2 days only this evening and mom will not stay with it. She will only stay if sit there all day and night, I have my 2 kids and i babysit 3 more no time to just sit there. She also tries to still the other momma kittens that are 6 weeks old.

I wish suckling would be the problem.

 

[sara]

Your kitten is adorable!

 

[Chirpy]

A couple of things to share:

1) Love the motorcycle helmet picture!
2) If you can keep "Bitter Apple" within reach you can spray it on the area that the kitten is trying to suckle. It's specifically for pets, won't hurt them but they act like they are dying if they get it in their mouths. Great way to teach them not to bite. (We use it with ferrets and have used it with puppies.) You can get it at most any pet store.
3) This is a great education point: if your cute puppy/kitten or whatever is doing any behavior - you need to think about whether you want that same behavior when that animal grows up. If not... stop it right now. Example: the adorable little fuzzball that's five pounds is so sweet to have in your lap -- then he grows up into a 150 lb. Newfoundland ... not so sweet. So, we don't let them on our laps ever.
4) One of our male kitties (who's now three years old) has suckled on our female Pomeranian since he was a kitten. She lets him do it. He lost his momma when he was about seven weeks old and our dog became his surrogate mom. The rest of the litter has never done that.

cheapcheap_jeepjeep: you cannot make a momma animal be a momma. You can encourage her though and she may 'learn' to be one. Is she allowing her baby to suckle? If yes and she's coming back to the baby regularily then I would just let her be for now and see if she starts to spend more time with her kitten. You can always put her in a cage (like a dog kennel, airline crate) so she can't get away from her kitten and let her out once in a while to give her a break from her kitten.

The bigger concern is if she isn't letting the kitten nurse every two to three hours. You will need to keep them together (in a cage) and hold the kitten to momma yourself to make sure the kitten is getting food. You'll have to make sure the kitten is suckling regularily even if it means you have to hold them together to make it happen. (We had to do that with ferrets once. We held the babies to momma for almost two days, around the clock, every three hours, and then momma finally understood and took over the job herself.) If momma fights you and you just can't get it to happen then you are going to become momma and will have to bottle feed that kitten. If you have to become momma there is more to it than just feeding and you will want to do some research on your part (for example: you have to rub the kittens bottom to stimulate them to poo! Fun!)

Hope that helps ... good luck.

 

[wegotchickens]

We had a momma cat that was a bad momma. Had to hold her kitten to her to let him suckle. She finally ran off rather than let us pin her down at feeding times. Sadly, the little guy disappeared out of the yard between bottle feedings. We suspect a hawk. We had bad momma spayed so that no other babies ever had to suffer, because Mom said some critters just weren't meant to be parents.

 

[taisamarie]

All of our cats had the suckling issue. The oldest are the brothers who are almost 6, the youngest is a gianormous cat who is 3 named Lilbit (well, he was only 15 oz when we found him but from his teeth we figured he was about 7 weeks old, he is now 28 lbs, 44" long from nose tip to tail tip, short haired and doesnt seem to have and Main Coon features, but who knows, lol).

Anyway, we broke all of them of the suckling issue by keeping treats or kitty kibble with us for a while. Anytime they'd start to suck we'd pop something in their mouth to make them chew and they wouldnt go back to sucking. It took a bit with the older ones (it didnt help that their mom let them and their sisters suckle until they were almost 8 months old) but after we got Lilbit a bit healthier and acting like a kitten again (poor thing was so lethargic, skin and bones, dirt in ears, eyes and nose) it only took about a week to break him of the habit.

They don't suckle anymore, but occasionally they do like to 'groom' us. lol

 

[MissPrissy]

We have a cat that was found when it was far to small to have been weaned by its mother. We fed it with an eye dropper for a while. In the meantime it attached itself to my husband and suckled at his neck for several weeks. Eventually it outgrew the suckling and began purring and drooling. Now the drooling - that was gross! LOL

 

[cheapcheap_jeepjeep]

Chirpy


Thanks, I know I can't make her be a good, heck even a bad mom, but she is spending all her time rubbing and loving on me not the lonely baby . She is feeding him when she feels like it. but with him being the only one I want him to keep warm so I placed stuff kittys with him. I did have a cat the suckled a bit at one time but she sort of just stopped. I used to go to sleep with her that way at night .

 

[CityGirlintheCountry]

My two year old male kitty still suckles when he is feeling the need for a little extra loving. As a kitten he wanted to suck on my ear to get himself to sleep. The purring right in my ear made me crazy, so I got him to switch to my thumb. Now at two years old he still sometimes plants himself on my chest first thing in the morning so he can slurp and purr. It is pretty sweet now. He closes his eyes and purrs like a motorboat. I always see it as a happy kitty moment.