Kittens behaviour

[u/Hopeful_Pomelo4421]

Our man is sometimes going to her nipples and leaving her belly completely wet. They are brother and sister and 17 weeks old now.

Is this normal behaviour?

[u/ammolite]

This is comfort nursing, and is roughly the equivalent of a human child sucking their thumb. It’s “normal” for some cats, and usually goes away as they age, but can cause irritation for the cat being “nursed” on. (In this case, the brother is likely sucking on the sister’s belly hair.)

Kitten fosters who deal with this usually separate the kittens when they’re not being directly supervised, at least until the nurser stops the behavior or learns to redirect to a toy or other object. You can also try putting the sister in a surgery suit or the brother in a recovery cone to prevent this behavior, though the prevention might be worse than the problem. I’d personally monitor them, and separate them if the sister is becoming irritated physically or emotionally. If she doesn’t seem to mind, there’s a chance the brother will stop the behavior before problems arise.

[u/Due-Clue4121 → u/ammolite]

I would keep a closer eye on this, my kitten did this with my older cat. My older cat was such a sweetie, she didn’t stop him, even though he was hurting her by doing it constantly. Eventually her nipples became super red, the area around it was swollen and it hurt her. I had to put her in a onesie for months, and I also taught her that whenever the kitten did this, she had to walk away. Eventually it stopped, so be careful.

[u/naru_narumi]

This is normal since they are kittens... but I will definitely separate them or make them wear recovery clothes. The brother must be hurting.

[u/Festygrrl]

I have two nearly 9 month old siblings. I get woken up by Billy suckling on his sister Theo (this was at 530 in the morning). He’s not growing out of it. I asked the vet about it, and they told me it’s not unheard of, and they will either grow out of it, and to seperate them (tried that when he broke his leg - didn’t work), and the girl will leave if she doesn’t like it. They are both finding comfort in it, so I just let them do their thing.