We know they were weaned early because their mother was losing too much weight - but is it normal for them to now suckle on each others nipples? These pics show Hestia suckling on Zeus! And even more bizarre, him suckling himself!! Is this likely to hurt them? He didn't seem in any pain, in fact, he seemed to be quite enjoying it :unsure:

I've never seen THAT before :huh: -- but it surely is precious! :rolleyes:

I have a cat who has a "nervous tic" and when he gets stressed out, he WASHES himself, and has at times through the years, licked his stomach till it looked SHAVED... but from what I can tell, watching, he's not "suckling" he's just WASHING...

I had another "rescue" at one point who was a "woolsucker" and she destoryed many afghans, blankets and comforters, when I would leave her alone to go to work. But since you are THERE (obvious since you were taking photos) I'm kinda surprised they aren't doing that to the insides of your arms, near your elbows, or something like that.

From seeing how WET his little tummy is, it's obvious they are BOTH slobbering like crazy, when they suckle... so it doesn't strike me as a "nervous" behavior.

I'm not sure how you can stop them from this behavior, unless possibly you get some "kitty formula" and give it to them in a "kitten bottle" -- but actually, they almost look too large for that to work.

Hope you can get an INFORMED opinion from someone on here -- but either way -- I still say the photos where they are BOTH doing it, TOGETHER... is SWEET... right or wrong... it's CUTE...

Was kinda cute, since they was both enjoying it so much We separated them after a few minutes, just in case it wasn't healthy and gave them some kitty milk instead and they seemed happy to drink that instead.

I think they was a bit sleepy, so maybe forgotten where they were and who's nipples they was suckling on Could have even been a dream, they seem to dream a lot when they are sleeping, lots of R.E.M. type movements and twitches going on - seen that in dogs before, but never cats - but then a Bengal isn't a normal cat is it B)

Hi Gavin

I'm oddly delighted at your cat?s behaviour! I have a 5 month old female who has exactly the same habit. She's done it ever since we brought her home nearly 6 weeks ago (although admittedly not as often now). It tends to be when she's either sleepy or very relaxed. She sleeps at the foot of our bed and when the alarm clock goes of in the morning she climbs under the quilt, rolls into a ball and starts suckling herself. She also does it if you wake her up half way though a nap. What?s really odd about it is that 50% of the time she's not even suckling on a nipple she'll just suck anywhere and by the time she's finished she is absolutely soaked. She often falls back asleep half way through but as soon as I stroke/touch her she's off again, also, just before she falls asleep she sometimes stops suckling on herself and just makes the jaw movements with her tongue sticking out slightly and her eyes closed...(the first time I saw her do this I thought she was fitting until I touched her and she returned promptly to suckling). She use to suckle for a good ten minutes at a time but fortunately this has reduced dramatically to a couple of minutes.

My cat came from a UK breeder who has a very large cattery set-up with stud housings/Queen housings/maternity blocks/kitten blocks and exercise/play areas. When we went to pick her up she was in a kind of 'kitten play area' where there was lots of kittens (different ages from roughly three litters) but no mums, at the time I didn't think to ask how long they had been separated but I guessing it was just a little to long for my kittens liking. I don't for one minute think that the breeder was wrong in what she was doing, she had a very organized and smooth set-up and obviously cared a great deal about her cats, It's just that I guess you can't get it right all the time for all of the kittens. I do believe that it is a weaning problem but I'm also pretty sure that she'll grow out of it!

Many years ago we had a moggie that we bought from a pet shop, she use to suckle on her own tail but did eventually grow out of it!

Regards
Heidi

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Heidi

Yep, Zeus seems to do it only when he's tired or just woke up, he seems to only be doing it to his sister now and she's mad enough to let him And yes, it's not always a nipple he's found, it can be a bit of neck or anything, she ends up soaking...

Our breeder had to wean them early as their mother was getting really thin and losing weight, even her spots were starting to dissapear, so it's understandable.

I'm sure Zeus will grow out of it eventually.....when Hestia gets too grumpy with it and won't let him probably B)

My youngest girl (Ria) used to suckle on my oldest cat (Neffi) and they both seemed to be happy as all get out. I didn't have the heart to stop them- Ria had been on an airplane a couple of weeks earlier and Neff had lost her kittens- they were finding comfort in each other and purring like I've never heard before. My other cat stood by with that "oh, my gosh, you guys are weird" look :rolleyes:

Neff also licks all of the hair off of her stomach. I also caught her last week tuggingon her stomach with her teeth which I thought was odd, so I rolled her over, and to my complete shock she had started to pull out one of her internal stitches! (You know, that ones that are supposed to stay in after her spay!) Needless to say I was quite upset, but I cleaned it and cut off the excess, and she's doinbg fine now. I really think she's Obsessive-Compulsive, because she consistantly keeps her tummy and inner hind legs bald. Luckily, other than the stich incident, there's been no other complications.

Just heard loud scary noise, surely caused by Bengals, gotta go!

LOL, shouldn't laugh, but licking all her hair off? Maybe she looks at you and other humans and thinks she should look the same - "must get rid of all this hair" and off she goes

Samson has a leopard print 'sucky rug' that he drags everywhere and sucks on. When he's tired he takes it to bed and sucks on it while kneeding it with his paws.