Hey guys. I have a 5 month old kitten that was adopted from a shelter. They had her from a very young age and she was never with any other kittens. She had a sister but the sister was ill ( esophagus problem ) and they were kept apart.
She is a great cat and very feisty but I have one problem with her. Every time I lay down, she is there, trying to suckle on me, my blankets, my clothes. Everything. On and on and on. Last night she kept me awake for 5 hours.
I feel really bad because I know she is just trying to love me. But I have to do something. She has multiple beds. Several blankets she likes, I've given her some of my old shirts. I've tried picking her up and moving her. I've tried distracting her with toys. Nothing seems to stop her laser focus on trying to eat me.
And she isn't all alone. We have two other slightly older kittens that are siblings. They all get along great. The one has even been teaching my kitten a lot of "how to cat" stuff. You can see her kind of act differently, like the other cat. :3
There is also plenty of human companionship. There is 5 people in our household. I work from home, my parents are retired and the others work during the day. So there is almost always someone to love those kitties. They have a whole house to play in and cat doors to the bedrooms and a screened in porch. They don't want for much.
But my family gives me crap about being "mean" because I get upset that the cat is waking me up every night. "well, if you didn't WANT her..." "What are you going to do, take her back?"
SO ENOUGH WITH THE GRIPE.
Here is the question:
What is the best way for me to handle shutting my cat out of my bedroom at night without traumatizing her because she is very attached to me?
I want to close the cat flap at night to keep her out of my room. No problem there but I wonder how this will effect her. I don't want her to have behavior/ anxiety problems because she lost mom again, you know?
I've tried toughing it out, hoping she would outgrow it, but if anything she seems worse. I'm afraid if I just let her keep suckling on me she will never stop.
And I have a low tolerance for annoyances. I feel stressed out by her constant attention and when I am sleeping it's like having a kid poking me saying "mom mom mom, hey mom mom mom." Her slurping is like clicking a pen next to my head for hours, only wetter.
I'm feeling really irritable and starting to resent my kitten and that is the last thing in the world I want.
And I don't think she will suffer too much, it's like, I am home so much. What pet has their owner around 24/7?
My sister's cats aren't emotionally damaged because she goes to work every day. My cat can stand to be away from me for 7-8 house a day.
I just don't have any experience with this sort of thing. Thank you, cat lovers more patient than I.
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from Pets https://www.reddit.com/r/Pets/comments/dh6yuz/5_month_old_kitten_suckling_disturbing_sleep/
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