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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