Expert: Ali - 11/20/2008

Question
I got Roxy, now 4 months old, when she was just 4 weeks old outside of Walmart, the people wanted the cats gone and did not care that they were so young. I tried to get her to drink from my cat who had recently had a litter of only 2 kittens, but she wouldn't, so I bottle fed her until she was 8 weeks old. I thought I had weaned her just fine, but she still goes around the house "nursing" on stuffed animals and fuzzy blankets, and even goes after my ears when I hold her. What can I do about this? Is she stressed? Did I not wean her correctly? Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you. ~Liz

Answer
Liz,

Roxy's behavior is perfectly normal in hand raised kittens. You didn't do anything wrong in raising or weaning this little girl, Miss Roxy is just showing absolutely normal behavior for a hand raised kitten. Hand reared kittens will always have some desire to nurse on something, it's why I usually recommend that people avoid hand raising them unless it's necessary. My oldest resident cat was also hand raised because of a similar situation, she was actually around a week old when I got her. She was advertised as being 7 weeks old when she was barely 7 days old, her eyes weren't even open yet...Unfortunately people don't seem to understand that the kittens who do survive being hand raised will always have behavioral issues related to sucking on people's fingers, clothing, blankets, other pets in the home, their own fur, etc. Sadly this is the consequence of breaking the bond with mom so young which is why I try to educate people through this site so that they understand that kittens need to stay with their mother for a minimum of 10-12 weeks. The first 10-12 weeks of a cat's life are formative, and I've tried my best to make people understand that even if the queen is in the process of weaning her babies it doesn't mean that they don't still need her to teach them how to be successful, happy, healthy and well adjusted cats. You could try using a homeopathic remedy called Bach's Rescue Remedy which is a blend of flower essences designed to calm and reassure, this may help to take the urgency or anxiety out of the nursing behavior. I seriously doubt that you will ever completely get rid of this behavior, it may just end up being a quirk that this kitty will have for the rest of her life. I would suggest placing 5-7 drops of Rescue Remedy into a fresh bowl of water for Roxy each morning. I don't recommend giving Rescue Remedy directly into the cat's mouth because the flower essences are preserved in a grape alcohol solution and cats aren't fond of alcohol's taste or smell. It's possible that allowing Roxy to have a bottle each day would help to minimize her nursing on toys, and it would allow her to have that bond with you which may help her to feel more comfortable about not nursing on toys, you or other objects. The bottle should still be a kitten milk replacer or a weaning formula like KMR, Mammalac or Just Born for kittens. So long as Roxy isn't overweight there isn't anything wrong with giving her a bottle once a day just remember that the contents and calories of the bottle should be counted as part of her daily nutrition so she may need a little less food if she is getting chubbier than she should. Providing Roxy with a specific toy to nurse on and a specific place to do it may also take the anxiety/frenzied nature of the behavior down a notch....It's worth a shot anyway, if you do manage to stop your little one from nursing please pass on what worked because my oldest resident cat has been nursing on herself for almost 10 years at this point.