Baby kitten sucking on my ears and neck

[tooty]

I have had several cats in the past and have always gotten them when they were kittens. A few weeks back my ex-husband bought my daughter a kitten. The paperwork from the petshop said the kitten was 8 weeks old. She dropped the kitten off at my house and then went with her dad for the weekend. She asked me to give it some attention over the weekend and I did. Now the kitten is always sucking on my neck and ear. I can be standing in the kitchen and she will climb up my leg and sit on my shoulder and suck on my neck. Can anyone tell my why she does this. When I'm sound asleep she will climb up next to me start sucking on my earlobe and in the morning she'll still be there hanging onto my ear sound asleep. It's almost like my ear is some kind of pacifier. Now I look like I have all these itty bitty hickies on my neck. What could be making her do this? Any suggestions?
Thank you

[MissDolittle]

Hehehe, the kitty is showing you how much she loves you. Most cats will
use their paws and "make milk" with them on your sweater or other parts
of clothing, but some kitties never lose the suckle instinct.

If it really causes a problem for you, maybe try a kitty bottle with water
and offer that to her instead. Or you put her gently down and say really
loud directly into her face "NO!". She will pick up on that eventually, but I
find it sad to reject her lil love kissies :).

Also a sign of love and trust is when the cat blinks at you with both eyes
at the same time. Blink back with both of your eyes, it's "I love you" in
kitty language :).

[tooty]

It doesn't bother me too much unless she does it to my ear when I'm trying to sleep. It does sound rather loud and I do get comments from people I work with about the marks she leaves on my neck. She does kind of open and closes her little nails whiles she's doing it. I've had her at the house for two weeks now and it doesn't look like she's going to stop doing it

[MissDolittle]

Yes, that's what I meant with "making milk", the opening and closing of the
claws..that's what they do on the mom's belly to stimulate the milk flow.

How old is she exactly? She might grow out of it. Maybe you can offer her
an alternative, like your arm hehehe.

[tooty]

Well, when my ex bought the kitty for my daughter from the pet shop the papers said 8 weeks old. I had a friend tell me yesterday that he got a kitten once and the kitten did it to him all the way into adulthood. He said she did it to him until it passed away.

[MissDolittle]

Yes, I know a few kittens that kept doing this their entire adulthood, but it's
not that often. You can teach her not to do it by offering her an alternative,
but I would give her until she's about 5 months old. By then she either has
stopped it or you will have to teach her not to.

[tooty]

Well, I hope it doesn't last into adulthood. She's now kind of using her little teeth and they're sharp enough as it is. I can't imagine how bad it might feel with the adult teeth. Right now the marks on my neck aren't all that big, but if they were to get bigger people wouldn't believe the kitty was doing it. Now when I lay on the floor to watch TV and I'm propped up on my arms she crawls up into my arms and uses her paws to pull my face towards her and then she starts licking my chin or starts sucking on that or on the end of my nose. If I move my face away she just grabs it with the nails sticking out and to stop the claws from digging in I lower my face so she can do what she wants to do. She the most lovable little thing.

[MissDolittle]

Hehehe, I can just picture you not wanting to her put her down on the floor
on her favorite..breaks your heart, doesn't it?

I have 4 cats and all of them lost it after a while, but you also have to put
your foot down and sortof wean her. I can promise you that she won't give
up soon..cats tend to be very insistent. My fosterkitties all have a fluffy
teddybaer in the cage where they do the suckling on. Just make sure it
has no plastic on it such as the eyes or nose, and that the teddybaer is
washable.

But I have the feeling that when you get your male kitty that this might
change faster. But ya never know :).

[tooty]

Well, since the new kitty arrived the sucking hasn't let up a bit. Now while the one is sleeping and sucking on my neck or ear the other lays on top of my head. They do this all the time when I'm laying on the couch late at night and watching a movie. Now the one kitten has moved from sucking on my neck and ear to trying to suck on my nose or my face.

[MissDolittle]

Yes, that sounds pretty normal. That's what kittens do. Did you ever consider
making a video of this and send it to Funniest Animals on the Animal Planet? :)

They just want to be close to you and love you, be a proud momma and put
a stop to the nose suckling..you can say no to a kitten :).

[tooty]

The new kitty now sleeps lying on his back with all the legs just spread out. I noticed one thing it lets you do that no cat I ever had before let anyone do and that's to let you rub his paws between the pads. He seems to really love the way it feels. My daughter finally gave both cats a name. Took a while, but she's ready Romeo and Juliet in English and she's decided to call them Lord and Lady Montague. Thought that was cute. Poor things were being called what ever anyone could think of for weeks. I know one bad habit they seem to have is when someone is eating something no matter what it is they try to force their way onto your plate to get a taste. I don't even know if they can taste what it is they're eating. If you have ice cream they'll do whatever it takes to get at that.

[MissDolittle]

3 of my 4 cats sleep on the back all the time..cools them down if when
it's warm.

I love those names!!

Oh ya, cats can be bigger beggers than dogs and since they are smaller
and hardly ever give up when they have their minds set on something,
they will go for it lol.

Cats can't taste sweet stuff, did you know that? Of course it's not good to
give them sweet stuff, but a lick or 2 off an ice cream is no biggy if it
doesn't happen to often. But if it's the cold they like, let them play with
water ice cubes, I bet they are going to have a blast laughter .

[tooty]

Had mexican food tonight and I can say for sure that they didn't seem to apprciate the guacamole dip at all. They tried to get at everything else. Had to keep pushing them away since I thought it was just a bit spicy and I don't want them sick from it. They sure are some cute babies.

[MissDolittle]

Are you feeding them catfood too? I hope? lol
I had a kitten that got a toxic shock from spiced food and died.
Be really really careful with that.

[tooty]

Oh be assured that the only thing I let them do is have a couple of licks of ice cream. I don't want them getting into the habit of getting any people food. Right now they're still little, but I don't want to fight grown cats over food. I push them away all the time and say no in a firm way. The only reason the one got a taste of guacamole was because I turned my head for a second. I don't like any pet I have to think they're getting any kind of people food when they feel like they want it. They're just real pushy trying to get at it. The other one is still sucking on my neck. When I was at the computer earlier it managed to crawl up on my lap and bam, there she was, right on me neck. The more I push her away the more persistant she gets. She's really pushy when it comes to that. Hope it doesn't last much longer

[MissDolittle]

I have bad news for you..cats will always be persistent in what they want,
because it doesn't matter what you do or say, they simply can't believe
that you mean them rolling .

All my cats go for our food, I can't leave anything out and when we eat, I put
them outside. When they were little, I put them in a crate with their own
treats. Mine have figured it out that there is nothing to get, except one.
She sneaks up so slowly that you don't notice and before you know it she's
on my plate lol.

[WingedCat]

My cats have learned to stay away from the table, well at least a few inches away. That doesn't stop them from staring at me and begging pathetically. They are worse than the dogs with the begging thing. :lol:

[Ash75]

I actually feel for you because 1 of my catties (not so much kitties now) does the same thing .. Can be a little bit annoying at 5 in the morning .. :-p At least you know youre kitties have a lot of effection for you .. I know id hate it if they were always stand-off-ish or distant .. Its what I love about kitties/cats thery have so many ways to show you that they care for you as much as you do for them...

[Saviah Wildlife]

That's adorable! If you don't like it you can stop it, my Cassie still kneeds on my armpit :)