Hang with us, dog buddies! Today is a post about our feline friends, inspired by something Newt has been doing almost daily: wool sucking and kneading.
As you know, I’m a cat novice. Newt is the first cat I’ve ever shared a home with, so it’s been a huge learning curve. Everything she does is new and, oftentimes, baffling! This was one of those head scratchers, so I reached out to a dear friend, Lauren Bowling, DVM, who focuses on feline medicine and behavior. Now, before I get to Dr. Bowling’s advice, for those of you who aren’t familiar with this behavior, here is 30 seconds of Newt’s daily ritual:
Newt: wool sucking and kneading from Maggie Marton on Vimeo.
Odd, right? Not sure if you could hear, but she’s a purring machine the whole time she does that behavior. There are very few parallels that I’ve seen between cat and dog behavior, but this, to me, looked like an obsessive behavior. I found confounding information on the internet (of course), and the two books I consulted said opposite things. So, I turned to an expert!
Here’s what Dr. Bowling had to say about wool sucking and kneading, “Cats display this behavior when they have been separated from their mother at an unusually young age. The kneading and sucking mimics nursing. It is an auto-soothing response similar to toddlers and children sucking their thumb.”
For Newt, that makes sense. We don’t know her history before she showed up on John’s door. She was about four months old and not in too bad of shape, other than worms, but there were tons of stray cats in southern Louisiana, so who knows?
My big concern, though, was if the behavior was problematic. Like, if it is an obsessive behavior, do you need to step in?
“It is generally harmless; however, if your cat gets into it to the point where they are eating the fabric or tearing holes in it, then it needs to be addressed with a veterinarian or behaviorist. And I don’t mean that the holes happen because he’s been periodically sucking on it for years, I mean if holes come up in 1-2 sessions of sucking,” Dr. Bowling said.
Well, that hasn’t happened for her yet, but Dr. Bowling suggested training a distractor cue, like with the clicker or a cellophane bag rattling, and reinforce with a treat when the behavior is stopped. Around here, Newt is typically stopped by the dogs – one will bark or come over to sniff and see what she’s doing, and she walks away. However, she responds really well to the clicker (and shaking treat bags), so I’m going to test that out.
Dr. Bowling also mentioned that most cats will develop a substrate preference, which is totally true for Newt. She only does the wool sucking and kneading on the blanket on my office chair (in the video above), a throw blanket in our bedroom, and one of the fuzzy dog beds. She suggested that, if you know the preference, leaving that blanket or item out only where your cat can be supervised. The blanket in the video used to be on our bed, actually, but it got annoying when Newt would start doing that in the middle of the night!
If you’re worried about your cat’s behavior, you should always check in with your vet. “A trip to the vet is warranted if they are increasing the time and aggression of the behavior or if they start chewing holes in the blankets,” she said. “This is not an easy behavior to eradicate, so if you feel it is a problem it needs to be dealt with sooner rather than later.”
As for Newt, now that I know so much more about this particular quirk (thanks, Dr. Bowling!!) I’m going to let it go, though I’ll periodically check the blanket for holes, just in case.
Cat folks, does your cat do any of this wool sucking and kneading? I know the kneading thing can happen exclusive of the sucking part, and I’ve heard that lots of cats knead their owners (not something Newt does). Have you experienced this with your cat? Have you had to step in? Or let it runs its course?
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I’ve known several cats who do this. Mine do not, but Simba goes try to nurse on my ear lobe almost every night. He just sucks on it for a minute and then kneads on me a little before laying down to go to sleep. Now Willy is an obsessive kneader. He never sucks on anything but he kneads constantly. Both of my boys came from the shelter and were very young so it makes sense with the theory you present here.
Katie, a stray kitten who was found when she was very young, used to knead our dog Comet’s stomach all the time. She would drool too when she did that. We had two other dogs but she only did that with Comet.
Our kitty Headlight kneads and sucks. She was found when she was teeny tiny, so I can relate to the “Thumb sucking”. She also has a very odd behavior of laying down on her side and sliding off the couch repeatedly. She does do this when I baby talk to her 🙂
My newest kitten, Conan, does that- only snuggled up to my neck and especially if I’m under the flannel sheets. He was incessant when we first got him at ~2 months old, but has sense gotten better (now 7 months). Interestingly, Mama cat weaned him herself, but only at about a month old. And I think he was the runt, so he didn’t have easy access to milk as a youngster. I was able to get him to stop sucking and just knead/snuggle by blowing on his head or tap him on his nose with my finger.
Both of my kitties are kneaders — we call is making biscuits. My boy cat will lay on his back on my arms and knead the air, or lay on my chest/stomach and knead me. My girl cat prefers to knead a blanket and will frequently drool if she’s get really into it. Nothing I’ve ever worried about, although sometimes the blanket can get a little pilled or my skin gets scratched if it’s bare and their nails aren’t trimmed!
Jae does it a lot and does try and do that to our hair. Kind of annoying.
I think this is kind of cute, but I can see where it might get annoying when you’re trying to sleep! I have never had a cat, but a lot of the shelter cats I’ve worked with would do the kneading on my arm or chest when I held them. I think it’s comforting to them, more than anything. Newt seems like such a sweet kitty!
We’ve had cats that do the kneading thing, but I don’t think we’ve ever had one that did the suckling. I wouldn’t worry about either one, unless like the vet said, I thought they were eating the blanket. It really can be sweet!