It’s a really sweet problem, but it is a problem!

[deareloise]

We got two kittens from the Cats Protection League in March of last year, so they are now probably around a year old.

They both like to suckle. One of the cats just does it on anything soft so can move her off you by giving her a blanket or something that’s going in the wash anyway, but the other is obsessed with my DS! She goes charging to him if she hears his voice and she suckles obsessively, even trying to lick his face if he takes his jumper off.

Is there any way of breaking the bond a bit? She doesn’t mind me if I’m the only one available but if DS is around she doesn’t want to know!

We had a cat that did this. It was cute... but it got really annoying. Everything got soggy with cat saliva lol.

I’m sure I read that cats do this when they have been removed as a kitten too early as a comfort thing.

I think it would be hard to break the habit.

Could you give her something of Ds's that he no longer uses so she can suckle on that instead?

We’ve tried - I think it’s DS himself rather than the clothes she likes. During the summer when it was warmer he was sometimes not wearing anything on top and she’d try to lick / suckle his face!

The other one does suckle my clothes but she isn’t fussy, she just wants to suckle! Arghh

Mine used to do this, she was hand reared. I HATED it, the slurping and the wet clothes. We started leaving muslin cloths around and when she started we just put them over our clothes so she learned to suck on them instead. She doesn’t do it very often anymore, she’s 14 months now. Thank goodness!

Mine did this and I am sure she left her mother too early. She would snuzzle in to my neck and have a really good suck, if she could not get at it she would have a go at any available piece of skin.
She is nearly a year old now and quite independant, but clearly sees me as her mother. A few times a day she still leaps on me purring loudly and nuzzles in to my neck, the sucking has more or less stopped but she dribbles with contentment. This appears to be the only time she purrs.

Cheddar is 7 and still makes biscuits. She likes to nuzzle on my face and neck. But no actual suckling.

It is a comfort thing, a sign of pure love from cat to person, its like a mother/child bond. Unless you can give them something of your DS' as a substitute, then all you can do is be incredibly firm, growl or hiss at them to make them stop, like a mother cat trying to ween kittens really.

My precious boy did this his entire life with me (we suspect he was removed too soon from his mother) but I didn't mind so much.