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Conference misery::feline_v1

Title:	Meower Power is Valuing Differences
Notice:	FELINE_V1 is moving 1/11/94 5pm PST to MISERY
Moderator:	MISERY::VANZUYLEN_RO

Created:	Sun Feb 09 1986
Last Modified:	Tue Jan 11 1994
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	5089
Total number of notes:	60366

208.0. "Thumb sucking in cats" by CFIG1::DENHAM () Wed Feb 05 1986 07:17

Has anyone ever heard of a cat that sucks her thumb?  I have one that was
found in an abandoned house when she was about 1 week old.  She was raised
by humans.  I got her from the people who taught her to drink from a dish
and sucking baby formula through rags from that time only to discover
that the wife and the dog were both allergic to her.  When I got her she
didn't even seem to know that she could jump and was very curious about my
other cat.  She developed a lot of her cat-like habits apparently by observing
the older cat. 

Now when she gets content she will cuddle up to a person or the other cat
and put one pad in her mouth suck on it and work the claws on the other paw.
I hoped she would outgrow this but she is now about 5 months old and no sign
of this habit diminishing.  Does anyone know how to stop her?  Does anyone
know if this is in any way harmful? 

/Kathleen

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
208.1		PEN::KALLIS		`Wed Feb 05 1986 11:13`	7
	I haven't heard of this before, but it doesn't sound any more harmful than thumb-sucking in humans (and "the teeth will come in crooked" is a canard). Probably it's healthier than her sucking tassles or blankets. Leave it alone; she may outgrow it. Steve Kallis, Jr.
208.2		CAPT::WALSH		`Wed Feb 05 1986 11:16`	21
	From my own experience and previous responses in this file, it appears certain cats never outgrow their suckling habits. Fortunately it does not appear to be harmful. The Empress Star loves to suckle my wife's nightgown. This used to be a problem, in that she would crawl under the covers on our bed at night and wake Lynne with a large wet spot on the side and/or numerous puncture wounds. Now we have her "trained" to the point that she only tries to get under the covers when one or both of us is obviously awake. (Sometimes I get Lynne up by letting Star sneak under the covers on my side...) Anyway, a cat that suckles ITSELF should be less of a problem, unless the noise level is intense. We have another cat, Muri, who loves to suckle on our tom, Oscar Gordon. (Oscar seems to like it as much or more than Muri. Oscar is a little weird...) The only reason we discourage this practice is that Muri is loud enough to wake the dead, so she has learned that she shouldn't do this at night in our bedroom. Other than that, it's pleasurable to the cat, so don't worry about it... - Chris
208.3		DELNI::CLARISSA		`Mon Feb 24 1986 04:07`	12
	About cats suckling each other or themselves, just be sure to warn the vet if you take the cat in to stay overnight. We took two cats in to be neutered and the vet let them come out of the anesthesia together. The cats were from the same litter and had lost their mother young and one loved to suckle on the other. You guessed it, one started sucking before either woke up and when we picked up the cats one had a big raw spot on his tail that took ages to heal and never got it's hair back. Needless to say we never went back to the vet but I always felt sorry for the cats strange looking tail. kris
208.4	Need for Security	SQM::MURPHY	Is it Friday yet?	`Fri Apr 03 1987 11:51`	18
	I've just now read these notes on cats that continue to suckle or knead. Wanted to find out if anyone had come up with a different solution than what I've heard over the years - taken from their mother too young or lacking something in their diet. Both of these reasons have been repeated in the notes. Not too long ago I heard, I think it was Paul Harvey on WBZ, that there are many "adults" (humans) who still suck their thumbs. They did this when children and continue to now that they're grown up. These, mind you, are people in all kinds of businesses. When they take a coffee break it's usually a "thumb sucking break". Most of them have calouses on their thumbs from the many years of sucking them. Perhaps then the other reason cats continue this habit could be for the same reason - the need for security (hence the "security blanket"). Just something to think about! Pat
208.5	security blanket ...	25175::KALLIS	Hallowe'en should be legal holiday	`Fri Apr 03 1987 12:36`	11
	re .4: This is complicated by the fact that humans have many ways of disguising their continued suckling. Smoking, for instance, is one example; pencil-chewing is another. Cat equivalencies are less disguisable: when Morlock went after a tassle and kneaded the cloth around it, it was obvious what he was doing. If he had been a pipe smoker [perish the thought], he might have used that as a "mask." Steve Kallis, Jr.
208.6	mine sucks thumb too	CTOAVX::DUSZAK		`Thu Oct 27 1988 11:12`	13
	I couldn't believe what I was reading. This sounds like my story. My daughter brought home a two week old kitten. The mother was killed by a car. I fed it milk from an eye dropper and it licked moist cat food off my finger tip. This occurred in June, it is now Oct and this sweet innocent little thing is still sucking its pad on its paw. She climbs up to my face so I can kiss her as she sucks her thumb. If I don't kiss her head, she touches my lips with her wet paw. She comes for this comfort every time she sees me sitting relaxed. We also had a male neutered cat who tried to be a mother to her by washing her and batting her when she got too rough in her play. He still washes her every now and then by putting her in a head lock.