Kitten still nursing from her mum

[readingrainbow]

We adopted a mother-daughter pair about two months ago. Baby is now nearly 5 months old (due to be spayed next month, whew) and mum is a little over a year old (probably got pregnant when she very first went into heat).

They are very, very close. They play together, sleep together, call for each other when they haven't seen each other in a while. Mum doesn't seem fussed about baby nursing away during their marathon nap sessions.

I mentioned this to the vet, during baby's last checkup, and was advised to encourage this behaviour to stop as continued nursing can be a stress on mum. I was asked if there was still milk being produced - I haven't a clue!

Is this really something I should be worried about? I figured that prolonged nursing is probably pretty rare because kittens are placed away from mum from 8 weeks old, right?

Any experience or advice to share?

[cozietoesie]

Mum will likely become fed up with it soon enough. (And remember that for many breeds, kittens will not go to new owners until they're 12/14 weeks old.) Is the kitten being offered/eating any solid food at all?

[readingrainbow]

Oh, yes, she's eating fine. Less than mum, but not significantly so.

And that's a good point about other breeds.

[dizzyfeck]

We let our cat nurse until she'd had enough. At about 5 months she started to nurse less and stopped at 6 months. She finally started to hit them when they tried to nurse. Eventually one kitten was found sucking like mad on the dog who was lounged out on the sofa and seemed not to mind too much. He gave up when that yielded no results. Neither mother nor kittens seemed overly stressed by it. The dog milking kitten is the one we kept and he is very close to the dog

I would say though that she sounds like a very young mother, it might be best to wait until they are settled and then try to discourage long sessions or give a gentle helping hand for her to stop if it goes past 6 months.

[ProcrastinatingNow]

My little boy cat did this to his mum. We ended up keeping him from the litter and suckled for ages. She eventually refused him but he was about 8 months old. When mums neutered it will stop.

[readingrainbow]

Oh, mum is already neutered, it's the kitten we're waiting on.

It sounds like baby is getting just to the age when things might change. I'll adopt a wait and see approach for the moment, but how exactly am I meant to stop them from nursing?

[ProcrastinatingNow]

Oh it's just for comfort then?

[cozietoesie]

I'd let Mum deal with it herself and just be sure to be providing good food for the kitten and her both.

[readingrainbow]

Probably! I really don't know if there's any more milk left. Do they stop producing after a spay?