Why is my adult cat still trying to nurse?
Some cats never grow out of the nursing phase and continue the behavior into adulthood, leaving owners torn about whether to separate them. This persistent nursing creates anxiety for owners who feel guilty intervening, while forcing them to wait on veterinary guidance to break the cycle.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Allowing the behavior to continue if the mother cat does not mind and her skin or nipples are not damagedDid this help you?
- 2Waiting for the mother cat to handle weaning at her own paceDid this help you?
- 3Waiting for the kittens to naturally stop as they grow olderDid this help you?
- 4Intervene to stop the mother cat from allowing them to nurseDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“We kept two of her kittens and they still want to nurse even though she is no longer lactating and they are 4.5 months old. They want to use her as a pacifier and she’s tired of it, now.”source ↗
“Since a few others mentioned having kittens that never phased out of the nursing phase. She’s been doing this since we found her around 4/5 weeks old.”source ↗
“OJ (14 weeks) and his sister (not pictured) are still nursing. And shockingly, she has not kicked them off the nipple yet? Is she even producing milk?”source ↗
“in the middle of building a house right now and am broke so waiting back on the low cost veterinary place near my work to get an opening..after how could you separate these two? I'd be a monster if I did (OJ and Ava)”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2Should I separate a young mother cat playing too rough with her kittens?
- 75Why does my anxious cat scream and panic over closed doors?
- 4Why does my cat refuse to use a dirty litter box?
- 10Why is my cat attacking me out of nowhere?
- 4Kitten mounting and humping after coming home from vacation
- 12Why is my kitten suddenly yelling all the time and growling?