Hi! I have had my kitten since she was 9 weeks old (she is now 14 weeks) and she enjoys paddling and sucking on my ears. Why does she do this and is it because she misses her mother? How long does this go on for? Dont get me wrong, i love the attention as much as she enjoys suckling me as I just LOVE cats!! Any advice, suggestions would be really helpful...

Its just her way of being affectionate. Lucky you. Sounds adorable!

It's usually because they have been taken away from their mum too early, and 9 weeks is too early

Unless you want your kitten to do it ongoing it's best to discourage it. It might be nice while kitten is small, but imagine a fully grown cat doing it

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Thanks for the replies. Do adult cats REALLY suckle then?? Wow - thought it was only a kitten thingy There are soo many things I have to try and discourage eg jumping on kitchen surfaces; trying to eat my food whilst I am eating; jumping on furniture with breakable ornaments on them..... but I cannot bring myself to tell them off.... What would you do in my situation??

Weeeellll

We keep ours out of the kitchen.

Feed your kitten a bit more and hopefully it should cut down on food theft (I did say hopefully ) Kittens should ideally be fed as much as they want, but little and often. If you can feed them every few hours then do If you give them too much in one sitting they are likely to bring it all back up. When my girls were little they got about 40-50g of food every couple/few hours with their final meal when we went to bed and the next one for breakfast. A kitten can easily consume 300g+ a day in wet food ... it's not unheard of for growing kitten to eat 500g+ either!

Pack all your breakables away

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