The drive to nurse is very strong in kittens in the first seven weeks of age and at this time they are fairly active in nursing from their mother. In the latter stages of this stage of life the mom will begin to wean them in stages in order for them to learn to fend for themselves as time goes on they soon shift their preference for solid food and the urge to suckle fades but it is not at all unusual for a kitten to “comfort” suckle even though there is no milk and the kitten is well into its 6th month of age.
Comfort suckling is running to mom for a couple of short sucks and usually fades as the kitten ages. The most common thoughts on this is that it occurs in kittens which have either been weaned early or abruptly when their nursing instincts were still strong. There are a few breeds that have a stronger need to nurse and should be weaned at a much later age.
It is mutually agreed that this behavior should be nipped in the bud early on so that it does not become compulsive . Your kitten is not necessarily in trouble unless the dry sucking takes over it need to eat solid food, and it stops eating, or it progresses to the point of sucking on fabric or other non-nutritive items that cause digestive problems.
My suggestion would be to divert its attention to something else long before it can even begin this behavior. You will need to be very diligent on watching for early signals that it wants to suck. You will need to distract it from its train of thought by any of these options. Encouraging it to play with toys, source of distracting noise somewhere away from you and it. And finally an affirmative no from you.
Don’t expect instantaneous results over night. It will take some time and patience. If you do not see improvement after a month has passed then you will need to enlist the help from a licensed veterinarian. Best wishes for you and your pets.
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