Expert: Ali - 10/14/2008

Question
QUESTION: Hello. I have a 15 week old kitten, the runt of the litter. She still tries to nurse off of my husband and I and just meows all night long. I want to know if when we get her spayed if it'll change some of this?

ANSWER: Becky,

I have a couple of questions for you so that I can offer the best possible answer to your question.

- How old was this kitten when you brought her home?

- Was this kitten hand raised?

- Does this baby nurse on anything else in the home such as blankets, clothing, other pets' fur, etc?

In short I don't think that spaying this kitten will help with this behavior as it is commonly associated with kittens being taken from mom too early or being orphaned. I will know more when I have the answers to the questions that I have asked.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you for replying to my question. She was 12 weeks when we brought her home, she was eating solid foods and is eating the food we have very well. We have a 2 year old cat that the baby tries to nurse from also but no blankets or clothing.

Answer
Becky,

I'm wondering if this kitten was hand reared because cats don't tend to develop self soothing behaviors like nursing on people, clothing or other household pets unless they've been taken from mom too early or they have been bottle fed. If this kitten has a pedigree and was obtained from a breeder it's possible that they have made a practice of hand rearing their kittens in order to ensure that they imprint on humans which tends to make for more compliant cats that are more easily handled by their human caregivers. I think that it might be worthwhile to give her a homeopathic remedy called Bach's Rescue Remedy which is a blend of flower essences designed to calm and reassure. Rescue Remedy is a very safe remedy used by pet parents and some veterinarians worldwide to treat anxiety and fear resulting from any number of situations. You can start off by trying a dose of about 7-8 drops of Rescue Remedy in fresh water each morning. You may see a fairly big difference in this little girl's desire to practice self soothing behaviors. I will caution you that if this kitten was hand reared she will most likely continue to have the desire to "nurse" on other pets, stuffed toys, human body parts, etc. I have hand reared my share of kittens and they usually develop the habit of sucking on themselves, their siblings, blankets, fingers, etc and there really isn't much that can be done to stop it although I've had some success in redirecting the behavior. My eldest resident cat was hand reared by me from about a week old and she initially started off by sucking on my lower lip, I discouraged that and she moved on to suck on other cats' coats in the household, when I discouraged that she tried out stuffed toys, blankets and clothing. Finally she began to suck on tufts of her own belly fur, but it takes patience and consistency to change the target of the self soothing behaviors. Your vet may be able to recommend a small dose of an anti-anxiety drug, however this should be considered as a last resort because these treatments often have risks and side effects. Most times anti-anxiety/anti-depressant drugs prescribed to cats are actually small doses of human anti-anxiety/anti-depressant medicine. You may want to consider checking in with a holistic veterinarian as they are trained in conventional medicine as well as one or more alternative therapies such as acupuncture, homeopathy or massage. Holistic vets treat animals with a very different philosophy - conventional medicine alone focuses on symptoms and how to treat them while holistic approaches look at the whole animal from the behavioral and medical history to the temperament and they focus on curing the issues that they can with each pet.