[Silverleaf]

It sounds so dirty, I know. But my kitten actually suckles on my shirts. It can get pretty annoying, especially when it's three am and I'm getting to sleep and he starts doing it. He'll knead me, which I'm absolutely fine with, but he'll purr and make little snorting noises and eat my shirt, leaving it soaked.

Any ideas why he might do something like this? Any solutions? He's pretty tenacious, if I pick him up off of me and put him down someplace else, he'll run right back and jump up on me again.

 

[Heidi n Q]

Kitties who do this were usually removed from their mother too young.
I had a cat who sucked my thumb for his entire life. He passed away at age 11 from health problems.
Best advice, maybe you could give him one of your t-shirts as a 'woobie'. I don't know what to tell you if you can't transfer his attention to the woobie and he feels it must be YOU.
If he is fairly young, perhaps he will grow out of it as he gets older.

 

[camel24j]

i had a cat who did that to my ear luckily for me it takes a bomb to go off to wake me lol. he did it till he was a 2yrs old. no advice for you mine just stopped on his own.

 

[Silverleaf]

True, they were taken away from their mom when they were about two months old, I was hoping that their owner would let them stay for another month before we adopted them, but she wanted them out.

Thanks, Heidi.

 

[melysion]

Tobys always done this. I've put it down to possibly being bottle fed at the rescue centre where he was born in an attempt to stop his Mum transmitting the FIV. It's usually due to being take away from Mum too early for sure.

Toby is about seven years old and still doing it so I don't see him stopping anytime soon :roll:

 

[carolsclan]

Smokie one of my rescues does this too ... but he now has a "blankie" that he uses.

 

[chaoticborders]

Felix used to do this constantly. I know it wasn't due to leaving his mom too early, as she is still here :lol: I just gave him one of my shirts, and that worked to stop him from sucking on me. He sometimes carries the shirt room to room with him, he's such a dear.

 

[nanook]

Perfectly normal, as others have said, especially in kittens that were separated too young.
I've had three that sucked on elbows, hair, shirts and even earlobes!
For the most part they grew out of it but one, Sundance, needed to have a "suck shirt" his whole life.