How can I stop my kitten from nursing?

Question

I adopted a kitten back in May. She was 6-7 weeks then, not ready to leave yet, but the owner of the mother was going to get rid of them wherever she could, and we took one of them in. The kitten is a wonderful little girl named Kiki, and she's a great, obedient, playful little kitten. We are not declawing her, and plan on taken her in to be spayed soon.

However, she has been nursing on our male dog -- and not where his nipples are. I'm afraid this is unhealthy for her, but we can't catch her every time to reprimand her, and the dog doesn't try to stop her. She was obviously taken away before she was fully weaned, and probably is just looking for extra comfort. In a way, yes, it's kind of funny and gross at the same time... but bottom line, it needs to stop, and we can't seem to break her of the habit. Any ideas?

Side note, it may make a difference: after we had her for a week, she fell very ill (fever, fast breathing, almost died, then was blind for a week), so not sure if this might have anything to do with it. She has since then come back into full health, and is now about 5 months old.

Answer 1

If your hinting that the kitten is nursing in an *ahem* "undesirable" part of the dog's anatomy then I can understand your difficulty. With the dog allowing it to continue it could be that the dog is ummm....enjoying it and that is also bad. If you haven't already, please consult your vet for suggestions on how to stop this behavior. If I misunderstood what your trying to tell us please edit your post to clarify. The only other suggestion I have is to offer a replacement when she's nursing. A stuffed animal or soft rubber toy with a small protrusion resembling a nipple might work.If that fails, buy a kitten nursing bottle, plug the nipple so air doesn't get through and offer it to her when she goes for the dog. With time you should be able to get her to transfer to the other item.  

Answer 2

I got 2 brothers at 6 wks of age, now almost a year old.  One is still a sucker, wads up the hair on my yorky's right upper front leg.  It's the only thing he sucks, so since the dog doesn't mind, no harm done.  I've heard of cats over 2 yrs. still sucking on things.  If the dog gets sore, the cat will catch a nip, not tolerated then.  As your cat gets older, it won't happen on a daily basis.  Mine goes a couple weeks, then starts in again.  If you are determined, you will need to seperate them always.  

Another cat to play with makes no matter, I have 3 cats now.  Other than your edited thoughts, maybe dog diapers, you don't say the size of the dog or breed.

Answer 3

bottle feeding might help  because it will distract her from the dog otherwise there is not much you can do @ all

Answer 4

Unfortunately there isn't a lot to be done about this.  We had a cat that would "nurse" on people, pillows, blankets, whatever she was near at the time.  It's not detrimental to her per se, or your dog since he doesn't seem to mind.  

The thing about cats is they're going to do what makes them feel good, no matter what you think about it.. cats don't care about making you happy.  If she likes to pretend-nurse, she's going to do it.  If you discipline her, you might stop her from doing it in front of you, but she'll just do it when you're not around, cats are funny like that.

ADD:  Seriously my friend, we had a cat that did this her whole life... she died when she was seven.  We'd just push her off if she was getting too annoying with the fake nursing.  All you can do is take her gently away from what she's "nursing" on.  If you start reprimanding her all she'll do is start to fear you.  What you CAN try is spraying her with water... but the trick with this is, you want ot make it so she does NOT know it's you doing the spraying.  You want her to not be able to associate the water spray with any person or thing, otherwise it's just another form of punishment she'll associate with you.  It's hard to do, I've never successfully pulled it off.

I also don't think spaying will help this particular issue, since she's too young for it to be hormone related.  She's definetely using the dog as a comfort-substitude for her mother and littermates.  I might venture the opinion that it's better for her to feel happy and fake-nurse, than to be stressed and not be able to do this.  

She may grow out of it yet.

ADD2:  you could try any of the kitten-reassuring methods like hot water bottles, ticking clocks, or even another cat.  The issue is she's doing this out of habit... she's 5 months old.  This isn't a behavior she's doing because she wants to nurse or wants her mother.  She's doing it because it makes her feel good.  She'll stop when she decides she doesn't want to anymore.  

Although it can't hurt to try any of the things you mentioned.

In addition, does it REALLY have to stop that badly?  I realize it's weird to you but really, she's not hurting anyone including herself.