I now have a tattoo on my hand in the shape of a cat’s front teeth. You can almost make out the six little points, above and below, that were made by the incisors. And then four more prominent marks made by the big fangs. And how did this happen? It happened when my five year old cat Devo tried to suck milk out of my hand, and he did this when I happened to gently scratch his back near the tail. It was the strangest thing I’ve ever seen a cat do: he suddenly started jerking his head back and forth, and making sucking motions with his mouth. When my hand got near, he decided that must be where the milk was.
I tried scratching our other cats in the same spot to see if they would do the same thing, but they didn’t.
Any other cat owners out there have this happen to them?
We suspected that, since we rescued Devo from the alley behind our house. We heard him crying, and it was funny to see how the three cats already in residence perked up their ears and listened. Somehow he had gotten separated from his mother, and I don’t think he was more than six weeks old when we found him.
The oldest cat, though male like all our cats, took on a surrogate mother role towards the newcomer. He’d wash him, and protect him in the beginning when the two other cats weren’t too thrilled about having another cat. Often, during this time, Devo would suck on his paw, always going for the same spot on the same front paw.
I’ve heard the “weaned too early” theory as well, but have not seen any real evidence of it. A friend’s dog did it all the time (we called it the “chomping reflex”). I don’t think he was weaned early.
My current cat does it too. She was abandoned by her mom at a very young age, maybe three to four weeks, and found by a friend. We adopted her (named her Gizmo, cuz her ears are big and pointed like a gremlin), and nursed her to health, as she was pretty sick. She’s fine now, more or less, but at night, when she is relaxed – a rare time – she chomps all the time when we pet her. That is consistent with the early weaning idea.
So I can’t help with identifying the cause, but I would guess from my own evidence that it is not uncommon.
Just a guess, is your kitty fat? My cat’s very heavy (OK, obese) and he can’t really groom himself near the base of his tail. So he really appreciates it when I scratch him there. He makes what sounds like the same sucking at the air motions which I think is his attempt to sort of guide the scratching. He didn’t do it when he was more svelte. He’s never bitten me but I’ve never put my hand close to his mouth…
BTW, I’m familiar with the weaned-to-early phenomenom; in fact, my other cat has an unnatural attachment to my bathroom rug because of it. But what I’m describing is different…
I agree, probably weaned too early. My cat Cosmic Creepers was weaned a bit too early, and she goes crazy trying to lick her favorite people whenever they pet her.
If I really let her go to town on my fingers, like she wants to, she will bite and hurt me, even though she’s the type of cat who wouldn’t usually bite her friends, even while playing.
I don’t know about the weaned too early thing. Schrodinger the Invisicat liked to try to suckle my earlobes until he was almost eight months old, and still gives “love bites” to me and mom on particular spots on our arm or leg. We got Schro when he was four and a half months old, from his mama’s owner. He had been given to a home and given back, and apperently was the last of his litter to be given away, so he was probably fully weaned. There were two other adult cats in the household- mama’s kitties from a previous litter. I was thinking that percieved competition for food or attention was a factor.
Sounds just like my cat… that’s why I named him Whiskey.
This is the first time I’ve heard the “weaned too early” hypothesis, though. Usually people say he’s trying to leave his scent on people, or show dominance by grooming them.
My cat Dodget nurses on blankets and socks and t-shirts…basically any fabric. You don’t even have to scratch the base of his tail, just pat him anywhere. He also drools a fair bit when he does this, so there’s always a big wet spot where ever he was suckling.
That describes my cat’s behavior. She’s too heavy to get back there, and when I scratch her back there, she’ll make licking and sucking motions, and if I get other hand (or whatever body part, a toe, foot, leg) near her mouth, she’ll lick it like she’s bathing it. I always thought that the scratching was like a stimulus to bathing behavior.
I had a persian torte that, when scratched there would furiously lick. If nothing was within reach she’s lick the air. When I had friends in, I’d pick her up, holding her in such a way that others wouldn’t notice me scratching her. Hold her near my cheek and scratch. They all wanted to know why their cats didn’t love them that much.
My kitty Zipper does that, but the other two cats in the house, Maggie and Suki, don’t. Zipper is the heavier (relatively; she’s lighter than Suki but shorter) of the cats.
This is pretty common with kitties, although they usually start licking their shoulders or chests when you do it, rather than sucking. It’s just one of those odd little things cats do, like running through the house chasing invisible stuff at 4 in the morning.
Sucking on blankets and stuff, though, is usually an insecurity/comfort thing. Eponine used to be really bad for that, especially with q-tips (she didn’t care if they were new or used either, disgusting little critter). The behavior slowly went away as she adjusted to living with me, but it took about a year. In some cases, though, wool sucking can also be a sign that the cat isn’t getting enough fiber.
Well while we are discussing odd cat behaivor…why do my cats bite me when they get a good pet going? I’m not hurting them and they’re not angry, they’re just feel like biting me. And it’s definitely not sucking, it’s biting. (Hee).
Also, one of my cats is obsessed with plastic bags. She hauls them all over the house all day and if I hide them when I’m tired of the noise, she acts vrey distressed.
My significantly overweight does this too, but he usually bites himself. If I start scratching him just above the base of his tail, and sometimes if I’m just touching him there, he does this weird thing with his head, sort of stretching his neck out, and then he lunges down and starts chewing on his own front foot. It’s pretty weird, and something he’s just started doing within the last six months or so (He’s about 8 now). If it was a weaning issue, I would think he would have started earlier.
