Right now he has immobilized by straddling my right arm and is gently but firmly nipping the skin in my wrist. He is also pressing my arm alternating with his left and right paws.
He’s a 31/2 yr old fixed cat, indoor all his life and I can’t figure out what he wants. Any one experience this?
The kneading is a suckling behavior. He thinks you’re mommy. Not sure about the nipping the wrist, though.
It means your cat is weird. We had a cat who would do suckling behavior on buttons of a shirt. That cat came from a litter that lost their mom and was fed by bottle from the age of one week.
I have a cat right now that will straddle my leg if I’m lying in bed, knead with his front paws and hump my leg. Very gross. He’s a formerly indoor only spayed cat.
Is your cat doing something odd with his back end?
He’s, uh, trying to nurse off you. The kneading is instinctive, to stimulate milk flow. I’ve seen this behavior in a lot of cats. We had one who would make a little nubbin on a shag rug. Our current cat, age 15, will still try to nurse off an old wool stocking cap, kneading it with all four paws.
I think they just do it to comfort and relax themselves. Your cat is all purry and bedroom eyed when he does this, yes?
I think it has something to do with their being domesticated. A broad assay of domestication is that it neotenizes the species, i.e., keeps it in an infantile/juvenile state. (See Stephen J Gould or Desmond Morris)
Ergo, for iFelis domesticus*, the nursing thing, the fact that they like to petted (it feels like their mother is grooming them), that they are often still playful at an advanced age, etc. are all babyish behaviours. Whereas a wild cat species will grow out of these things at adulthood.
Must say, I’ve never seen one do it on someone’s arm before.
Wow. Ok if his cat is weird, my cat is REALLY weird.
My cat, Fred, will knead my arm, my leg, the couch, a blanket. He kneads, a lot. And it hurts! He’s an indoor and outdoor cat but lately spends most of his time inside. He’s about 3, maybe 4. (I rescued him - we never really knew his age - he weighed 1.5 lb and was really sick). Now he’s fat and does this kneading thing a lot. And…ok this is weird, but he is fixed but he emits this FOUL odor sometimes from his backside and I don’t mean a fart. However, he does fart if you startle him. :rolleyes:
Thoughts on this cat?
Was your cat taken from it’s mother too soon? They actually need to stay with their moms longer than 8 weeks to learn catly manners. Some cats are still ok if taken to a good home at 8 weeks, others have difficulty coping emotionally. See if getting him some toys and playing with him on a regular schedule every day will help. He needs emotional interaction, and play might replace the nursing. Rolling a ball for them, dragging a string, using the swishy feather on a flexible pole, or throwing a feather ball for them to bring back to you to toss again are all good games cats enjoy. My cat Rhiow loves crumped paper balls and feather balls most.
Heh, Rhiow tries to “nurse” off my chin or nose as I’m sleeping, she nips, suddenly, and hard initially, then drools and kneads. (Her fang nicked me and drew blood once.) She tries to use my fingers at times which doesn’t rouse me for some reason, but she can’t resist gnawing and working the tip to the back of her mouth to the “scissor” teeth. She’s drawn blood on my fingertips before too. Needless to say, she gets herded off the bed with a pillow swished in her general direction, or gently pushed to the floor. I’ve been almost tempted to get a “crate” to train her with so she’ll leave me be while I’m trying to sleep, but my fear is she’d yowl. She’s learning to take the hint and let me be lately. I don’t mind if she cuddles by me, but nipping me isn’t allowed.
Two of my four cats have kneaded me, but none of them tried to suck at the same time.
Sometimes the “suckling” is just nuzzling, maybe with some drooling thrown in, without actually nipping.
I concur with the “milk-walking” diagnosis. Your cat is trying to stimulate you to lactate, suckling all-the-while. It’s an unusual behavior, but gets much more common in the subset of cats that were weaned early from their mothers.
I have two cats. For the “He is also pressing my arm alternating with his left and right paws.” called “kneading” in this thread and “tritteln” by German psychologists, there are actually two explanations:
The “milk-walking” explanation is obviously the more popular, as this thread shows. Though I personally do not think it is the correct one all the time.
When cats go to rest, they will prepare their sleeping place, by loosening leaves on the ground. They do so with exactly the same kneading by alternating paws, as they do for “milk-walking”, but with more use of their claws. And if you watch carefully, you will see, that they slowly walk forward while they knead, in order to cover a greater area. After they have “prepared” about 1/2 to 3/4 of their length in this manner, they will suddenly turn around and lay down. But usually you wont see this behavior completed when they knead you, because simply you wont be able to stand their claws.
However, in any case this kneading behavior just shows, that the cat feels very relaxed and comfortable. If he does it to you, he likes you very much, he feels safe around you. Nothing weird about that. Both of my cats do it to me, though one of them only rarely, but both do it equally often at their sleeping places.
As for the “nipping”. I’m German, and not quite sure if I understand you exactly. Does your cat actually try to suck your skin? Or does he just press his head (and nose) a few times against your skin, and as the nose might feel cold and wet, you just mistake it for sucking?
For the second: Pushing the head firmly against the breast, is yet another “milk-walking” behavior, and as such is found not only with cats, but with lots of mammals. But for cats, “giving the head” is also like our “shaking hands” a greeting behaviour. As cats often live a single life in the wilderness, you wont see it there very much, except with children and their mother. But as others already said domesticated cats never really grow up (especially if sterilized) you will see it quite often with them.
My two cats are not from the same mother, so they do not like each other very much, and hence never give each other the head. But they do it to me and usually right after they approached me, however, as my head is too large to be recognized as “another head”, they will usually not react to my head, but to my fist (which would make the wrist a “neck”). They often expect me to greet them with my fist, before they will join me on the couch.
So essentially this behavior indicates trust and acknowlegdement of friendly intentions.
So you should be proud that your cat does like you so much. While some will say, that all this behavior is not natural behavior, and they are correct. You should still not listen to them, because natural behavior would be to flee from humans and that is exactly the main difference between domesticated and wild animals. Interspecies interaction is very rarely natural behavior, except between predators and their prey, and you would not eat your cat, would you?
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Is your cat Siamese or part-Siamese? Nursing behaviors are more common in Siamese cats than in other cats. Luna, my meezer, nurses on my hand sometimes.
Did you ask me? Well, you replied to my post, so I’ll answer.
The one with less kneading behaviour is a European Shorthair, black and brown striped (? German: getigert). What is odd: she doesn’t leave my side very often and even follows a few voice commands, though if I say “Komm!” (Come here!) she actually goes away, so if I want my couch for me alone, all I have to do is say “Komm!”
The other one is either a British Shorthair Blue or a Chartreux, I am not sure, can’t distinguish the breeding standards (and on each standard, there is one point, that disqualifies her for breeding). Judging by character, she is more likely a Chartreux. She likes to be left alone, but at other times she wants to cuddle for hours.
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I’ve worked with cats for a while and have never noticed them to be particularly gassy. I’m guessing that, if your guy can be gassy, then the foul odor is probably gas, just in the “silent but deadly” form.
Cats, and other mammals, do have two scent glands just beside their anus. Usually these anal glands express when the animal deficates, but they can express them when they are stressed. And boy, does that stuff stink.
Sometimes the glands get backloaded and uncomfortable. You can usually tell because the animal will start dragging it’s but on the carpet. If untreated, the glands burst, which is not fun to see or repair. It might be worth your time to take your cat to a local vet or groomer and have his anal glands expressed. It will make him less stinky if they are the source of the smell. It’s not a perminant fix, though, so don’t be surprised if you have to take him back later in the year.
Ohhhh yeah, the dreaded buttstinky. My cat Speck does this, too. She’ll start with the kneading, then begin to drool happily, and then the rancid buttstinky occurs. Since we got her as a foundling kitten, away from her mother too soon, I figure this is a kitten behavior thing, perhaps an anal gland response to nursing that encourages the mother cat to clean/lick her kitten after feeding to stimulate elimination.
Speck is 7 now. I wish she’d outgrown this thing, though; it makes her unpleasant to hold. (insert :mr yuk: smilie here.)
My younger cat does this. He was a shelter rescue, and for the first few months he would sit on my shoulder and suckle my neck. I slowly weaned him onto a stuffed animal (a large stuffed pug dog) and every night he comes to get us at bedtime, waits until we’re all settled just right and meows, drools and suckles the pug. 10 minutes later he either falls asleep or gets up with a meow, shakes the drool from his face (all over mine) and goes to sleep on my ankles.
He hasn’t been stinky since he was really little, though.
Yeah, don’t startle him when your date is around 
Dunno about the farting but every cat I have ever known does the “happy feet” thing at some point. When they are feeling relaxed and have really worked up a good ole’ purr they start trampling (my leg, my stomache, the pillow or whatever they are lying on). If they are on their side or back they often start kneading thin air.
This is usually accompanied by closed eyes, what looks like a little kitty grin and often times drooling which looks funny but is kinda gross when they slobber all over the place.
I’ve always figured this was a throwback to kitten nursing behavior and signals that Fluffy is feeling really happy and loved.
Related, many cats LOVE it if I do something similar to their tummy - if they are lying on their back and I do the same kinda hand motions on their tum they’re in bliss. Not all cats but many. Male or female, both seem to love it. I do not drool on the cat however.
Nipping involves opening the mouth and setting teeth to skin. It can be aggressive and draw blood, or it can be preparatory to mounting a mate, or it also is done by cats when they are “suckling”. In the case of my cat, she nips as part of her suckling behavior, and has been too entusiastic in her swift grip of my nose or chin as I sleep. (Because I’ll often sense her head descending out of the night and block her with my hand.) In her haste to get a grip before she roused me, she has nicked me and drawn blood with her fangs. She was a dying stray, just barely weaned when we took her in, so she has “issues”. She’s also got Oriental heritage, she looks like a pure white Siamese, has the Siamese voice and personality, as well as the neurosis of wool sucking. (The Oriental breed has it’s foundation in the Siamese breed, and the personalities are very alike.) She’s got golden eyes, and looks like a classic Applehead Siamese, not the modern breed just to be clear. Look at the links to better understand what I mean. We’ve found regular play sessions have helped to calm her and lessen her need to nurse.
Yes, some cats also knead when they are content and relaxed, or are preparing their bed. My husband’s elderly cat is particularly funny to watch do this. He “beavers”. (This is what it was called when he was a young cat as my husband’s mother watched him do this.) He’ll use all four of his paws to knead the bedding into a soft peak. It’s a funny gait because he uses his paws oddly. He’ll use both front then both rear instead of alternating front/rear, front/rear. He leans forward as he kneads with his rear paws. He really does resemble a beaver at points as he does this. It’s comical to watch.
As an afterthought, here is a better link which speaks about golden eyes in Orientals. She’s not pedigree, but she’s still a handful. As soon as I can get ahold of some, I’m going to try Feliway to see if it will help alleviate her stress so she won’t have the burning need to nurse to let go of stress. The cat mentioned in the OP might very well not have the need to suckle if he had a regular play schedule with his humans. It has lessened Rhiows need for the most part. Some days are worse than others for her. Trash pickup day stresses her, as does the times when our neighbors have the visotor who brings his big loud barking dog. Sometimes I can head off her anxiety by playing “fetch” with her featherball, other times I can’t.
Cass was rescued from the local shelter when he was very young. (Well to be fair I think he picked us). When he was first brought home he was terrified of everything and for the first few weeks he insisted in sleeping under the covers.
He is not any kind of special breed but he does have 3 extra claws on his front left and 2 extra on the front right, where his “thumbs” would be. He is really cute and vocalizes when he wants something or to see who is still at home which is nice 'cause I am pretty sure that feral cats are usually silent. No stinky butt though and I would know because he likes to show it arould.
I am thrilled that the behaviour is friendly in nature, he means the world to me.
My cat is also exceedingly “personable”, and his behavior is most definitely not characteristic of feral cats. The reason is likely because he is in a permanent state of arrested development, and persists in behavior that, besides being endearing to humans like me, is rather kitten-like. His upbringing has made him a great domestic companion, but he’d literally get eaten alive in the world of the ferals. To our cats we are “mother”, most likely, and the degree to which they respond to us as if we were is, apparently, roughly the degree to which they lack mature development in a feral environment.